Actress Shailene Woodley says she has been suffering from ‘debilitating’ illness

Big Little Lies star Shailene Woodley has revealed she has been suffering from a “debilitating” illness.

The actress told The Hollywood Reporter that the illness, which she did not name, has meant she has had to turn down work.

However Woodley, 29, added she is “on the tail end” of her recovery.

She told the magazine: “It was pretty debilitating. I said no to a lot of projects, not because I wanted to but because I physically couldn’t participate in them.

“And I definitely suffered a lot more than I had to because I didn’t take care of myself.

“The self-inflicted pressure of not wanting to be helped or taken care of created more physical unrest throughout those years.”

Woodley added she is “on the tail end of it, which is very exciting”.

However she said it is “an interesting thing, going through something so physically dominating while also having so many people pay attention to the choices you make, the things you say, what you do, what you look like”.

“It spun me out for a while. You feel so incredibly isolated and alone.

“Unless someone can see that you have a broken arm or a broken leg, it’s really difficult for people to relate to the pain that you’re experiencing when it’s a silent, quiet and invisible pain.”

Woodley said her illness made her learn “the incredibly difficult life task of not caring what people think about you very quickly”.

“The more I paid attention to the noise that was surrounding me, the longer it was taking my body and my mind to heal because I wasn’t focused on myself, I was focused on an image of myself via the lens of everyone around us.”