The Divergent series, starring Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, Kate Winslet, and Zoe Kravitz, has been a major Hollywood win since the moment it hit theaters. Similar to The Hunger Games , Divergent was brought to life thanks to a successful book series by Veronica Roth.
But there are still so many BTS secrets about the film that fans don’t know!
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1. Shailene Woodley nearly turned down the role of Tris.
When the opportunity to be a part of the Divergent series initially came about, Shailene actually turned it down. In an interview with Teen Vogue , she revealed that everyone was shocked that she rejected the offer.
But after a conversation with Jennifer Lawrence, she changed her mind and decided to join the cast after all.
2. There was talk of a television spinoff series, but Shailene Woodley was not interested.
“I didn’t sign up to be in a television show,” she told Screenrant .
“Out of respect to the studio and everyone involved, they may have changed their mind and may be doing something different, but I’m not necessarily interested in doing a television show.”
3. Shailene compared Tris and Four’s relationship to a girl losing her virginity.
“That was Tris’ first kiss and when I was a teenager growing up, I didn’t sleep with the first guy I kissed, the first time I kissed him. I think that it’s easy to assume that’ll happen because in most movies you see that,” she told Faze .
“Girls lose their virginity, their kissing virginity, their holding hands virginity, their cuddling virginity all in the same moment,” she went on.
“And I’m like, ‘I don’t remember it happening like that.'”
4. The cast knew that the movies were going to be different from the books way ahead of time.
“It’s funny because it’s based on the book but the movie that we’re making is a lot different from the book in a lot of ways. So there seems to be a bridge or gap between the two,” Shailene Woodley told Collider .
“It’s different in the sense that obviously the book is what? 400 pages? The script is 90 pages,” she added.
“And there are some things in the book that logic-wise wouldn’t make sense in a theatrical way so we had to switch the way we are presenting it, because logically I just didn’t line up.”
5. No CGI was used to make the cityscape look more dystopian-esque.
Very little CGI was used in the Divergent series. But believe it or not, all the wide shots of Chicago looking like a wasteland are entirely authentic.
All of the warehouses are real, in fact, many scenes were shot in them!
6. All of the costumes in the film were made in six weeks.
Each of the five factions containing 50 or more people, sported a unique style. It’s hard to imagine that it took only six weeks to design and bring all of those costumes to life.
But in an interview with On Screen Style , one of the film’s costume designers revealed that it was tough, but they managed to get everything done just in time.
7. Kate Winslet was five months pregnant.
If you happened to notice that Erudite Faction Leader, Jeanine Matthews, was only shot from the waist up, there was a very good reason !
Turns out Kate was actually five months pregnant. So, in an effort to hide her baby bump, the camera had to be extra mindful!
“We had to be very strategic in the way that we shot her. She always had some sort of file or case in her hand that was sort of protecting, you know, her bump,” the film’s director, Neil Burger, revealed to *Daily Mail*.
“Kate was pregnant when we were doing this and she wanted to take the fall but we wouldn’t let her. It was a hard fall. That was not Kate,” he added, explaining that they used a stunt double for that scene.
8. Theo James almost didn’t land the role of Four.
Before being cast as Four, the part was offered to Jeremy Irvine, who declined, and Lucas Till, Jack Reynor, Alex Pettyfer, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Ludwig, and Luke Bracey.
Fortunately, Theo was able to make himself stand out amongst everyone and get the part !
9. Shailene didn’t cut her hair for *Insurgent*.
While it might have been assumed that Shailene’s dramatic haircut was done intentionally to spice up her look for the second film , it was actually because around that time, she was filming The Fault In Our Stars .
10. Ansel Elgort admitted that he intentionally made his character’s mannerisms awkward.
Ansel, who played Tris’ brother Caleb, revealed that he purposely tried to make his character appear physically awkward to drive home the point that he isn’t meant to be heroic, like his sister.
“Shailene and Theo are superheroes. Caleb is not,” Ansel said in an interview with *MTV*.
“Caleb represents the intellectual side, the guy who isn’t physical. And I wanted to make sure that was on screen. I wanted to make sure that made sense. It was a very conscious decision .”
11. Ellie Goulding had a small role in *Divergent*.
During the scene where Tris is discovering her powers, a mystical sounding inner-voice can be heard narrating her thoughts.
While many assumed that that was Shailene’s voice with a few effects on it, it was actually the voice of pop star, Ellie Goulding.
