Shailene Woodley Says Her 350-Calorie Diet For 'Adrift' Made Her 'F*cking Miserable'

ByJulia Manuel

Jun 29, 2018 11:55 PM EDT

Actors oftentimes need to do sacrifices for a certain role. For Shailene Woodley, she had to starve herself, only eating 350 calories per day, for her latest starrer Adrift.

The 26-year-old actress had to go to great lengths for her Tami Oldham role in her upcoming film. Adrift revolves around a couple who got slammed by a hurricane that made them face life-threatening situations in the Pacific. The man, played by Sam Claflin, got badly injured after the calamity, which had left the responsibility to survive to Woodley's character.

They remain afloat for days, which meant food became scarce. For the final scenes where it was established that Tami didn't eat for days, Woodley has to convincingly look the part. To do that, the actress had to lose a lot of weight, and the process was nothing beautiful nor easy for her.

"It was f*cking miserable," Woodley described the process of eating way-below the normal and advised calorie consumption of a person.

What does this 350-calorie intake consist? This means that she just ate two egg yolks, a can of salmon, and steamed broccoli every day. This went on for two weeks straight and plain as day, it was awful. Woodley's diet also took a toll on her sleeping pattern.

She admitted she can't doze off if she's hungry, so to go to sleep, she had a glass of wine. It's not the only thing she had to endure for Adrift. Claflin admitted in an interview that he and Woodley oftentimes get seasick, since most of the scenes were filmed in the waters.

Risky Choices

Woodley's revelation only speaks of the sacrifices thespians have to make to give justice to their roles. In this case, the true-to-life story of the yachtswoman who got stranded in waters without help after being battered by Hurricane Raymond entailed risky decisions from the actors, specifically from the Insurgent actress.

Consuming calories of less than the suggested amount is dangerous for one's health because where would she be getting the energy to do things with that count? That said, Woodley may have jeopardized her body in preparation for the role, though her recent outings would seem to say she's doing fine.

For Woodley, what made her accept the role was the wonderful story of survival and love. The script may have been the deal-sealer, even though she may have an idea from the start that she needed to lose weight drastically and quickly.

"I fell in love with the story because it is so rare that you get the opportunity to explore a survival story and love story at the same time," she said.