When I was auditioning for Divergent, I was kind of in the dumps. I wasn't really happy with acting, and I didn't know if I wanted to do it anymore. I went on a bunch of auditions and nothing worked out. Then they said, "Hey, you got a callback for this thing, Divergent." Because I was in such a weird place in my life, I didn't look up what it was about, didn't look up the director, didn't look up that Shai Woodley was a part of it. I read the script, obviously, but I closed myself off from anything else.
I met Harrison Ford when I was at Comic Con. I didn't know what to say. He was standing behind these two bodyguards - I think he was going up next for Ender's Game - and I had just come off the panel. I saw him sitting over there and I couldn't believe it, so I just walked over to him. He looked right at me and said, "Are you Michael Madsen's son? You look a lot like your dad. You've got a great look, man. I think you're going to have a good future." I just couldn't believe he said that, and then he walked right onto the panel.
I knew nothing about hockey when I came to Chicago and then became the biggest fan - went to every playoff game.
Having my parents be divorced, you're forced to realize, "Sooner or later I'm going to be on my own and have to figure it out." I have so many brothers that are younger than me, so I have to have that mindset of, "Okay, what am I going to do now?" I have to show them what growing up is - it's not me living at dad's house until I'm 25.
When I was 16 was just thinking about the future and - it sounds so stupid - but what my goal was going to be in life. I guess I was thinking about girls too. No girls liked me. That was bothering me. I was thinking about my height - I had a growth spurt right before high school and then that's when sports coaches started coming up to me, but that's when I had this artistic turn.
I moved in with my grandma when I was 17 and she had this giant bookshelf and it was fascinating to me. She got me into reading. My grandma is part of the writing community. She's so cute - I went to get breakfast with her out in L.A. and she came in with a giant straw hat and orange jumpsuit. She was always a big inspiration in me in continuing in the arts, whether it was acting or I started to paint. I didn't want to be one of those people that was like, "Oh my dad's an actor, so I'm an actor." It just never works out.
I kind of hid acting from my dad because I knew what he thought about acting at the time. His advice was "Don't do it," basically.
