Shailene Woodley shares ‘wild’ story of being nearly booted out of Patagonia due to her turtleneck

Shailene Woodley during a talk show visit Monday revealed that she almost got booted out of Patagonia for wearing a turtleneck.

The 29-year-old actress, who also confirmed her engagement to football player Aaron Rodgers, 37, during her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon recalled a trip to the ‘magical’ country last December.

Coronavirus-related flight changes and the sheer isolation of the southern Argentinian destination meant she had to take four planes to get there, the first leaving from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Shailene lately has been spending more time in the Wisconsin city, as Aaron is a quarterback for the Green Bay Packers.

Once she arrived in Patagonia, Shailene said she was driven for several hours then took a boat up a giant river among residents who had no other means to connect with one another.

She described Patagonia as an uncommonly beautiful place that made those visiting it feel like they were ‘at the end of the world.’

The Emmy nominee almost didn’t make it into the country though, thanks to an overabundance of caution by local officials.

‘The whole thing was wild,’ Shailene recalled. ‘I landed and they check your temperature, they’re like, ”Oh, you have a fever, you have to get back on a plane to America,” and I was like, ”No, no, no, I was just wearing a turtleneck on the plane!” So I cooled off, they checked it again, they were like, ”You’re fine”.’

Shailene was inspired to go to Patagonia because of a company called Karun, which empowers local people to become entrepreneurs and turns recyclable items into eyewear.

She appeared on The Tonight Show to promote her new film The Mauritanian, which co-stars Jodie Foster, 58.

Now in theaters, it focuses on Mohamedou Ould Salahi, a native of Mauritania who was imprisoned without a trial at Guantanamo Bay for 14 years, suspected of being part of al Qaeda.

He was never given a trial, but remained upbeat and forward-thinking throughout.

Shailene was touched by Salahi’s will to survive ‘in a really beautiful and profound way,’ and said that Jodie felt they could all learn from his strength.

She called Jodie ‘the coolest ever’ and a ‘pro’ from whom she learned so much, saying that she admired how Jodie loved what she did, and did it for the right reasons.

‘She uplifts every environment that she’s in because she remains curious and she asks questions that I think a lot of people’s minds wouldn’t even dare to be curious about,’ Shailene said.

Jimmy, 45, asked her about one rumor plenty of people have been curious about lately involving her engagement to Aaron.

‘I keep reading that you are engaged to football great Aaron Rodgers,’ he said. ‘Is that true? Are congratulations in order?’

‘I’ve been reading that too, which is kind of funny,’ Shailene returned. ‘Yes, we are engaged. We are engaged. But for us it’s not news, so for us it’s kind of funny everybody is freaking out over it. We’re like, ”’Yeah, we’ve been engaged for a while”.’

Shailene described Aaron as a ‘wonderful incredible human being’ and added that she never thought she’d be engaged to ‘somebody who threw balls for a living… but he’s really just so good at it. And I’m impressed.’

‘When I first met him, I think my dog pulled me aside and was like, ‘If you don’t date this dude, I will disown you as my mother,’ she added. ‘Because the three feet that I run with you when you throw a ball is nothing compared to the marathon I’m able to run with him.’

Shailene revealed that she has never been to a football game as sports were ‘not really on her radar’ growing up.

Even during the ‘wacky, wacky time’ during which she met Aaron, ‘all the stadiums were closed that he was playing in.’

‘When we met, I knew he was a football guy but I didn’t know what kind of a football guy he was,’ she admitted. ‘And I’m still constantly constantly learning, I’m still like, ‘Oh, wow!’ Friends are like, ‘You gotta watch his YouTube Greatest!’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t get it. He’s good, he’s great… I don’t understand. I don’t know him as a football guy. I know him as the nerd who wants to host Jeopardy! That’s the dude I know. He just happens to also be very good at sports.’