Shailene Woodley has defended her decision to share Melania Trump‘s statement following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
In an interview with Bustle, the Three Women star was asked if she felt she was “misunderstood” after receiving backlash for sharing Melania’s open letter on her Instagram Story. Woodley explained that upon reading the former first lady’s words, she thought, “This is so beautiful.”
“I was in circles of people that I deeply respect—friends, colleagues, progressive, very intelligent thinkers, shakers and movers—and many of them were saying, ‘He missed! Fucking assassin missed! Maybe it was a setup. Maybe it was a conspiracy,’” the actress recalled. “I was going, ‘Have we forgotten that two human lives were taken?’ Two people died. That is sad. That is devastating. I could not understand how people were speaking about something with such passion for death.”
Woodley then pointed out that she “only posted the first page” of Melania’s letter, as the second page was “more political.”
“The first page was very much like, ‘Look, underneath the political mask is a man, a grandpa, who comes home to his children, his grandchildren and plays music. The man underneath that mask is my husband,’” she said.
As for why she shared the letter in the first place, Woodley noted that she “thought it was a beautiful message of human compassion.” She admitted that she forgot about posting it because she has “a life” and doesn’t “live for what social media says.” However, she found out that it wasn’t a well-received gesture when she received a text from a friend asking if she was OK.
“I Googled my name, because I’m like, ‘Oh fuck, what did I say?,’” the Big Little Lies alum remembered. “And of course, there were all these news articles about Melania Trump, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, that is now this? Hundreds of articles because I posted about a woman saying she’s grateful her husband is alive? Really?’”
While Woodley, who was previously an outspoken supporter of Bernie Sanders, didn’t share where her political inclinations now lie, she said her beliefs “are pretty well-known by the things [she has] done publicly in the quote-unquote activist world.”
She added, “But until the noise is feeding what I want to feed — which is a world that feels safe and soft and truly inclusive — that [is something to work out] with my people behind closed doors.”
On July 14, a day after the attempted assassination of the former president, Melania shared a statement on social media, opening up about the fear of her husband dying. “A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion—his laughter, ingenuity, love of music and inspiration,” she wrote. “The core facets of my husband’s life—his human side—were buried below the political machine. Donald, the generous and caring man who I have been with through the best of times and the worst of times.”
Melania urged to “not forget that differing opinions, policy and political games are inferior to love. Our personal, structural, and life commitment — until death — is at a serious risk. Political concepts are simple when compared to us, human beings.”
On the second page, which Woodley said was more centered around politics, Melania thanked those who had spoken our in support and implied that voting for Trump would help achieve having a “world where respect is paramount, family is first and love transcends.”
