’Adrift’ team talks making a ‘female superhero’ on the open ocean

Shailene Woodley (right) and Sam Claflin in a scene from 'Adrift', which opens in cinemas nationwide on June 14.

In some ways, Shailene Woodley feels as though she “can’t relate” to conversations surrounding the need for more powerful female roles in Hollywood. For the Adrift star, portraying a 24-year-old woman who survived 41 days stranded at sea is just another example of the many resilient women she’s played throughout her career.

What sets her character Tami Oldham’s story apart, however, is that her tale really happened. At the Los Angeles premiere of Adrift, Woodley, her co-star Sam Claflin, and director Baltasar Kormakur discussed telling the true tale of a woman’s unflinching heroism on the open ocean in the most authentic way possible – by filming at sea.