Credit: @thedivergentseries
The Divergent Series didn’t do anything wrong, but it just didn’t hit the mark in the same manner that other teenage movie franchises did. The Divergent Series came on the heels of two of the biggest book-to-movie franchises of all time. You don’t need us to tell you that this means Harry Potter and Twilight. On its own, Divergent is fine, but there is nothing quite like Potter, Twilight, and then the Hunger Games franchise, and it just could not stand on its own. The movies were not the big hits that people thought. Some of the actors didn’t have good things to say about it, and it’s not reached the level of fame the franchise thought it would. However, there are still a lot of things you don’t know about the Divergent Series, so here they are.
1. Very Few Stunt Doubles Were Used
Perhaps one of the most shocking things to learn about this film is that these actors did not use very many stunt doubles. This is not to say that they didn’t use them at all – they did. They didn’t use many of them. For example, when Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley engaged in their on-screen fight, that was really them. She accidentally hurt him, too, when she made contact with his throat. It was a whole thing.
Credit: Divergent
2. Chicago Really Looks Like a Post-Apocalyptic Hell
One of the biggest shocks is the fact that the movie used very little CGI to make Chicago look like it went through hell and back. In most instances, there are very few CGI moments in the movie. There is nothing like that going on here. The destroyed buildings and the wasteland appearance of Chicago are just regular buildings that the crew found in the city to make it look like this. It’s sad when you think about it.
3. There Was A Major Time Crunch on Everything
Why? We have no idea why the Divergent Series didn’t have time to make things happen. Most movies take their time to make it all right. When they have to train their actors on things like combat skills, movie directors and makers usually spend three months having their actors learn. The wardrobe crew has ample time, and everyone is able to do things in a timely fashion with plenty of time to spare. In this movie, however, everyone was in a rush. We have no idea why, but the actors only had five weeks to learn how to do their combat rather than 12. Additionally, the wardrobe department had only six weeks to get all the costumes together rather than months and months, and it all just worked.
4. Kate Winslet’s Growing Baby Body Made the Movie Make A Lot of Changes
She was the leader of the Erudite Faction, but the movie had to get creative for her. She was very pregnant at the time the filming began, and she had to hide that. Her character was not pregnant, so she had to hide her stomach. She was around five months when filming began, and that’s a period when you grow quickly – and large. Shots with her in them needed to be reworked so that she could hide her burgeoning baby bump, and creative prompts were necessary.
5. Shailene Woodley Has Visible Scars from the Movies
We’re taking this back to earlier when we mentioned that they did their own stunts. She loved it, and she does not regret this. However, doing your own stunts comes with a significant risk. She risked getting injured. She did, too. She did not walk away with any significant injuries. Meaning she didn’t lose an eye or break any bones, but she still has scars. Some of the stunts were hard on her body, but she didn’t mind it. She considers them ‘badges of honor’ to commemorate the time she worked on these films with the people she became so close to.
Credit: Divergent
6. Shailene Woodley Wanted to be Katniss Everdeen
There could have been a chance she wasn’t part of this film. She was one of the many young women who auditioned to play the role of Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games franchise. This movie was filmed around the same time as the Divergent franchise began filming – only a few months apart. She auditioned for the role of Katniss, but she lost out to Jennifer Lawrence, who became a sensation overnight. It worked out for Woodley, though. She made a name for herself, and she still landed a franchise. It might not be the best one of the bunch, but she’s got one to her name, and she did her job well.
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