Note: This story contains spoilers from “Paradise” Season 2, Episode 4.
While the epic premiere of “Paradise” Season 2 introduced a new face to shine a light on the crisis that befell those without elite political connections with Shailene Woodley’s Annie, it’s not too much after she crosses paths with Xavier (Sterling K. Brown) that another tragedy strikes.
Just as Xavier recovers from his plane crash wounds and the pair hits the road to first find Teri before heading to the bunker in Colorado, it’s Annie’s health that’s on the line when she goes into labor, prompting Xavier to seek help from the local community. The support system rallies around Annie as she delivers her baby, but, when a medical emergency emerges, Annie knows when to say goodbye, charging Xavier to find her baby’s father before dying in his arms in a heartbreaking scene.
“I felt like I gave everything I had to give, and Sterling gave everything he had to give, and we just kind of let it rip,” Woodley told TheWrap, recalling the exhaustion that came after shooting the intense Episode 4 scenes. “We were animals with each other, and hopefully, we brought some truth to a circumstance that many people have been in and that many people can relate to.”
With Woodley not having given birth before, she noted the birth and death scene were “two things really felt very like it was make believe, in a way, but we’re trying to find as much truth in the make believe of it all.” “And it wasn’t without play, and it wasn’t without a sense of a fun as well,” she added.
The scene work was supported by Brown, with whom Woodley noted she shares a “natural chemistry” that paved the way for a friendship that the pair leaned on throughout the portrayal of Annie and Xavier’s friendship.
“Sterling and I, right out of the gate, we’re very open and honest with one another, and I think that created a dynamic where we just went deep and raw, and we didn’t really sugarcoat anything. We had very real conversations,” Woodley said. “Sometimes you get lucky and you have natural chemistry with someone.”
While Woodley noted she “of course” wanted Annie’s arc to be longer than the three episodes she appears in — “I loved working on this show. I loved the crew, I love Dan, I love the cast” — she understands her arc lasted “exactly the right amount of time.”
“Death comes when we least expect it and it’s never easy, and it’s always weird and it’s always hard and sad,” Woodley said. “If she had stuck around longer, I don’t think it would have mirrored life the way that life chooses to life all the time for all of us. So in that way, I think it was perfectly timed. The timeline was astute.”
Woodley added that she rarely walks away from a project missing the character she played, but admitted she misses Annie, noting that it was a “fulfilling arc” to see Annie learn to trust others, and in turn herself and her instincts.
“She buckled her bootstraps man, and she mounted that horse and chose to live differently — it didn’t mean that she wasn’t scared, and it didn’t mean that she wasn’t terrified every moment, but it meant that she was going to choose her life,” Woodley said. “She was done being a victim to her circumstance, and she found agency in her choice and in her direction.”
It’s Annie’s stillness, steadiness and observation that Woodley will take away from the role, saying “I think I became a little bit more still after playing Annie.”
As for what’s next for Woodley after her short-lived arc, another character on “Paradise” piqued her interest as a counterpoint to someone like Annie. “I really don’t like Jane — I detest that character … from Season 1, and it also inspired me to go, ‘I’d like to play a character that I detest — how do I find the humanity and empathy in someone like that?’”
“Paradise” Season 2 releases new episodes Mondays on Hulu.
