Shailene Woodley defends sharing Melania Trump's statement, calls it a 'message of human compassion'
The "Big Little Lies" star reposted the former first lady's statement on the assassination attempt against her husband, former President Donald Trump, back in July.
Shailene Woodley is responding to the backlash she received for sharing Melania Trump's statement following the assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump.
Speaking with Bustle in a new interview published Monday ahead of the premiere of her series adaptation of Lisa Taddeo's novel Three Women, Woodley said she reposted the statement because she interpreted it as a "beautiful message of human compassion."
Related: Three Women stars were hesitant to adapt Lisa Taddeo's bestseller: 'I felt skeptical'
"I read it and I was like, 'This is so beautiful,'" she said. "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! F---ing assassin missed! Maybe it was a setup. Maybe it was a conspiracy.'"
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"I was going, 'Have we forgotten that two human lives were taken?'" Woodley continued. "Two people died. That is sad. That is devastating. I could not understand how people were speaking about something with such passion for death."
Clarifying that she only shared the first page of the two-parter since the final page "was more political," Woodley added, "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.'"
"I posted that letter because I thought it was a beautiful message of human compassion, and then I forgot about it because I have a life and I don’t live for what social media says," she said. "Then a week later, I got a text from a friend that said, 'Are you OK?' I Googled my name, because I’m like, 'Oh f---, what did I say?' 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?"
The backlash "made me shake my head," Woodley added. "If [who I am] is not coming through in the way that I’m intending, I’m not going to participate on social media. I participate in my own ways now that maybe are less public because I want to add to the right noise. I don’t want to add to unnecessary noise."
Donald Trump's campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13 turned deadly after multiple shots were fired toward the stage, striking the Republican presidential nominee in his right ear and killing two attendees. His wife, Melania, called the gunman a "monster" in a social media statement and emphasized the need for "love, compassion, and kindness."
Woodley — who is generally not very outspoken about political candidates but instead more vocal about her environmental activism — has not publicly endorsed a presidential candidate as Democratic nominee Kamala Harris prepares to square off against Trump in November. The Big Little Lies star previously supported and campaigned for Bernie Sanders in 2016.
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