Shailene Woodley earned an Oscar nomination for her role in 2011's The Descendants, and she's headlining four feature films in the next two years. In spite of her success, the 21-year-old actress tells the August 2013 issue of Marie Claire that she never wanted to become famous.
"I don't use [the word 'celebrity'] to describe myself. In high school, a lot of my friends didn't know I was an actor because I didn't talk about it," says the star, who worked at American Apparel in between seasons on ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager. "They would come to school and be like, 'Wait, were you on My Name is Earl last night?' It was something I kept under wraps because I did it for myself and not for anybody else."
Woodley even has a few career backup plans in place. "If I didn't have acting, I would be just as happy," she tells the magazine. "I would probably be an herbalist, or maybe I would open a fruit stand on a Hawaiian island."
Before she seriously considers those options, however, Woodley plans to continue diversifying her film roles. Though her scenes were cut from The Amazing Spider-Man 2, she will next appear in The Spectacular Now, Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars.
As her star continues to rise, Woodley says she hopes to remain true to herself. "I struggle in real life trying to balance my natural connection to the earth and the somewhat materialistic side of the industry I am in," she tells Marie Claire. "Anything over a certain amount of money freaks me out."
The August issue of Marie Claire hits newstands on Tuesday, July 16.