'Three Women' star Shailene Woodley says she's allergic to dishonesty

NEW YORK, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Shailene Woodley says she wanted to star in the new drama series, Three Women , because it had the one main ingredient she considers essential -- authenticity.

"I'm attracted to truth," Woodley, 32, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

"I feel like I'm allergic to anything other than that and all of the stories in this one story are stories of truth and truth is messy, and truth is not always clear," she added.

"It's not always direct, but it does always exist, and oftentimes, we choose to ignore it and I just loved that there was nothing but the choice to acknowledge the chaos and the messiness and the joy and the celebration and the suffering that all comes from truth."

Based on Lisa Taddeo's best-selling novel, the 10-part drama stars Shailene Woodley as a writer who encounter three women played by Betty Gilpin, DeWanda Wise and Gabrielle Creevy, as they realize they deserve more out of life than what they are getting from their partners and careers.

It premieres Friday on STARZ.

"The most important thing for me to retain from the book was the way that women felt reading the book," said Taddeo, who wrote and executive produced the series.

"I wanted to try to mirror that as much for a viewing experience where a viewing experience has so much more present and is in your face. But, at the same time, also, there's less telling. You have to cut things out," the author added. "I wanted to make sure that the sort of experience of feeling super-close to each woman."

Moments when the women speak directly to the camera were intended to create intimacy between the characters and viewers of the show, according to Taddeo.

"That is to sort of go: 'You know these people. They are you. These women are you. You are these women,' which I think is what the book did, and what I think we all need to be doing in our daily lives," she said.

This is not the first literary adaptation Woodley has starred in.

She also was recently seen in The Fault in Our Stars , The Descendants, the Divergent series and Big Little Lies .

Asked if she intentionally looks for projects that have books as their source material, Woodley replied, "I guess it has sort of trended that way, in some ways, but, then, I never really think about that from my side.

"I always ask the question, 'Is this something that I feel like might provide a little bit of healing or help somebody else in the world feel less alone or create space for a story that hasn't been told in this way before?'" she said. "Sometimes, it does come from books."

The actress said she connected to her character in many ways.

"Gia is someone who I see as doing the best she can with the tools she has," Woodley explained.

"I was speaking with someone last night who was like: 'You know, I realized up until a certain point in my 30s that I've been navigating with a bent compass, and it's really hard,'" she added.

"You do the best you can, and you try the hardest you can and yet you sort of attract these situations that don't necessarily provide a lot of relief, and it's because the compass is bent. So, no matter how hard you're seeking that North Star, that North Star isn't actually in the right place. And I see that as a very real theme for Gia."

While she has some self-destructive tendencies, Woodley said of Gia, she is a fundamentally decent person who wants to understand the world.

"There's a filter over her eyes until she really starts acknowledging it, which happens throughout the arc of her story line," the actress added.

"She could only see the world through this one perspective and this one lens, which kind of puts her in a position of a feeling like a victim to her situation and not knowing how to change it, even though she desperately wants to. And I think she finds refuge in the solace and the safety of the communication she finds with all of these women, and it empowers her to start finding that refuge within herself."