Q: But she learns to like herself, despite those flaws.Ī: Tris' emotional journey is crucial to Insurgent.

So letting her be flawed is such an important thing to me. So in an attempt to represent women and not disrespect them, which is a good thing, sometimes people go too far, and they're just, like, 'Look at this saintly and perfectly strong woman, blasting her way through this action movie.' But that's no good either, because no one can live up to that standard. Q: Tris, the story's heroine, is not always likable.Ī: I think one of the lesser-talked-about ways of dehumanizing someone is to make them perfect. When he's on screen, he sort of has this charisma. And so Daniel brought a kind of power to that role because he seems like such a capable person. But I didn't want him to be a useless leader he just knows his limitations. He kind of gets trampled by all of these really powerful women, which is awesome. I remember just sitting there, listening to him and thinking, 'I wish this man could record my voicemail, because he has a really soothing voice.' And he brought a kind of power to Jack, which is really fortunate, because he doesn't have the most active role in this movie. It was important to me to have a diverse cast, so one of the people I loved seeing most was Daniel Dae Kim as Jack Kang. Q: Were there any depictions in set design or casting that you felt like, 'This is exactly what I imagined.'

So it's always a little brighter, but it looks more like the world. And I don't have to fill in a shot with a million details, because I'm writing a novel. I think it's because I don't have as detailed an eye for the Divergent universe as a filmmaker has to. I don't know why everything I imagine is in shadows. Q: You've said that the Divergent world is brighter on screen than you'd imagined it in the books.Ī: The way I imagined this world is so grim, just from a visual perspective. Obviously it's not easy to watch your work changed, because you're, like, 'Wait, what did I do wrong?' But when you see that it works for the translation to a new medium, it's really easy to accept. But I feel like the characters are true to the characters in the book. I was prepared for a lot of plot streamlining. I didn't want to see a movie in which they're just explaining things to you the whole time. I think I was really prepared for that, because looking at Insurgent just structurally, it's a lot more complicated than the other books in the series.

Q: What was your take on Insurgent? It has some pretty big departures from the novel.Ī: That's true.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth