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Ansel Elgort Is Not Worried About Committing Fake Incest With Shailene Woodley

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 29: Ansel Elgort attends the
Photo: Jim Spellman/Getty

If you have not been following the YA book-to-movie news, know that Ansel Elgort has been cast opposite Shailene Woodley in two high-profile YA adaptations — Divergent, Veronica Roth’s dystopian trilogy, and The Fault in Our Stars, John Green’s cancer romance. The problem: Egort plays Shailene’s brother in Divergent and her boyfriend in The Fault in Our Stars. Vulture has already expressed our discomfort with this movie incest, so when we spotted Elgort at last night’s After Earth premiere hosted by Mercedes-Benz, we asked how he was feeling about the arrangement. “I think that’s the magic of being an actor,” he responded. “You can do that and it’s not weird — people play different roles all the time, you know?” But people don’t usually go from brother to lover in quick succession, we pointed out. “No, not always,” Elgort admitted. “‪I feel like Shailene is the best actress I’ve ever met, who was good enough to read with, and I feel like I’m a pretty good actor, too, so I think it’s going to be no problem for us. It’ll be great.‬” So really, no squeamishness at all about this? “‪Acting is acting. We have chemistry as brother and sister, but we’re both good enough to have chemistry as lovers as well.‬” Acting is acting. Repeat that to yourself.

Ansel Elgort on YA Fake Incest: ‘It’ll Be Great’