Shailene Woodley suspects she left a bruise on Sterling K. Brown’s arm during the birth scene in episode 4 of “Paradise.” She was gripping him through the delivery, willing her breath to leave her body, as though she was actually taking her last one. Woodley didn’t even see Brown’s face at that moment, only catching it later while watching the finished episode at home in a puddle of tears.
“I felt like if I were, in that moment, to die, it would be OK, because Sterling had my back,” she tells Variety. “It was a raw, honest exchange.”
That scene was the culmination of a guest arc Woodley built in less than 10 days with barely a completed script in hand. She had just come off five months on Broadway when her agent called with a message from creator Dan Fogelman, who wanted to discuss a role in Season 2.
Disney
By the time it ended, she was booking a flight to Los Angeles. Fogelman was upfront: Woodley’s character, Annie Clay, a former medical student turned Graceland tour guide, would fall for a fellow survivor, Link (Thomas Doherty), become pregnant and die during childbirth. “I was like, Dan! Oh, my God,” Woodley laughs.
