Four aged up from 18 to 24 in ‘Divergent’ Film
In a new interview with AccessHollywood, Shailene Woodley revealed that, “Theo James, who plays my love interest in the film, is 28. In the book his character is about 18, but in the movie we’re making him about 24, or 25. He’s kind of ageless in a way. Even though in the book Tris is 16, we never really allude to the fact that she’s that young….this film has a kind of maturity to it. People constantly compare us to Hunger Games and I think that’s awesome. It kicked ass and Jen Lawrence is amazing. I think it’s a big compliment.”
Obviously Theo James doesn’t look 18, so fans of the books may feel a bit better knowing that they have changed his age for the films, rather than trying to pass him off as an 18 year old. I wonder how they don’t mention Tris’ age in the movie when she and her fellow peers go through the choosing ceremony at the age of 16. Their ages probably won’t take or changing anything from the story but it is a factor considering the age of the audience, particularly the fans of the books. In any case I’m sure we can all agree that we can’t wait to see Divergent in theaters March 21, 2014!
Posted on July 24, 2013, in Film News and tagged access hollywood, allegiant, beatrice prior, comic con, divergent, film, four, insurgent, movies, shailene woodley, theo james, tobias eaton, tris prior, veronica roth. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
Young Adult Book Reviewer 
Reblogged this on YA Addict and commented:
Hmm i just don’t how i feel about this right now.
I hate when people screw up the ages in movies. Take the Percy Jackson movies for example- it sucks! I haven’t read this book yet, but if I had I’d probably be even more adamantly against this age change.
I really don’t care about the age gap- I just don’t understand why they could not have gotten a younger actor. It’s not like he’s a selling point or anything…. Anyway, how do they not mention ages??? Tris is 16 and it says it over and over. Tobias is 18. It’s just fact. Ages seems to be very important in these books, so I don’t understand why they would mess with those. Also, like it’s supposed to be four’a first time teaching, and he only had one year working in security, and Eric is his age- and so is zeke (uriah’s brother- and Uriah, who is very important in the next books, was not even cast for the first–what??? And is there is no zeke, what’s important about the zip lining scene?) anyway, this age difference does change a lot. Four is supposed to not feel old. He should be almost naive, but not. I just can’t see that with a 24 year old…