Willow Shields

About Willow Shields

Willow Shields was born on June 1, 2000 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has a twin sister, actress Autumn Shields, and an older brother, actor River Shields. Willow got her first job in 2008, narrating the short film Las Vegas New Mexico 1875 (2008), the story of a dying gunfighter who returns home after 10 years to make peace with his wife and daughter. Her first television role was a guest appearance in the USA series In Plain Sight (2008), which was filmed in her hometown of Albuquerque, followed by an episode in the teen-oriented horror anthology series R.L. Stine's the Haunting Hour (2010) and a supporting role in the Hallmark Hall of Fame television movie Beyond the Blackboard (2011) opposite Emily VanCamp. On the strength of those appearances alone, Willow was cast as Primrose Everdeen, the younger sister of heroine Katniss Everdeen, in The Hunger Games (2012), and will appear in the same role in all the upcoming films adapted from the bestselling novels by Suzanne Collins.

Willow has several pets including dogs and chickens; she is home schooled and loves history and reading. She spends her free time making art, and especially loves making artist trading cards.

Sister of River Shields and Autumn Shields. Loves photography and owns many cameras. Is the youngest contestant ever on Dancing With The Stars. Is a fan of The 1975. She is of English, German and Swedish descent. Her favorite dances on Dancing with the Stars (2005) were her "Alice in Wonderland" dance and her "Hunger Games" dance. Some of her favorite movies include Donnie Darko (2001), Across the Universe (2007), The Breakfast Club (1985), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), Room (2015), and Little Miss Sunshine (2006). Good friends with The Hunger Games (2012) co-star Jennifer Lawrence.

Personal Quotes
For 'The Haunting Hour,' I thought it would be a lot of fun. It was great to play this cool kid role. My episode is called 'The Intruders' and my character is this mean, angry teenager because her younger brother was just born and he gets all of the attention. She's always playing tricks on her family, and there are some cool twists.

It's weird because I've grown up a lot after filming the first 'Hunger Games' movie. Growing up with a character is really interesting because you feel like you have this connection with the role.
'Poltergeist' terrifies me! When the little girl Carol Anne is talking to the TV, I get shivers every time.

My brother said 'I want to start acting,' and me and my sister just said, 'Oh we'll try it, we'll see.' It was just one of those things - we were just like, 'Oh, we'll see what happens.'

My brother was a huge fan of 'The Hunger Games' for a couple of years before I got the role, so he was really excited when he heard that I got the role.

I loved going to Vancouver. While working, I did my schoolwork in the attic of this house we were shooting in. It was kind of scary up there with creaking floors and all! That was probably the scariest part for me. I think attics are terrifying anyways, but to be shooting 'The Haunting Hour' of all things, and doing my work there, that was scary!

I'm interested in a lot. Like right now, I'm just really excited for 'Catching Fire' and 'Mockingjay' Part 1 and 2. But I love playing characters like Prim - I mean, Prim is like my dream character - but after 'The Hunger Games', it would be fun to look and see what else I could do well. But right now, Prim is like my dream role.

I didn't audition for the part! The role was offered to me, and I was so excited to be a part of 'The Haunting Hour.' It is such a cool show and it was so much fun shooting the 'Intruders.'
I definitely look up to Meryl Streep because she's been in so many amazing movies, and I just think that she's one of the greatest actresses out there. I also look up to Jennifer Lawrence, especially knowing her and knowing that she is so awesome and so nice.

I know with Gary Ross especially, he kind of gave me pointers here and there, but he kind of let me become firm in any way that I needed, and he just let me try things and to explore what I can do with my acting. So that was very helpful.

I really want to try to become a great actress when I get older and continue to do what I'm doing now.

I have mostly been terrified of listening to scary stories around a campfire. We camp a lot as a family, and at night my dad would try and tell us scary stories. This made eating s'mores difficult. The story would start with something like... 'and the old man who lived in these woods...' I would then run back into the camper terrified.

I thought it was really funny that half the people I autographed things for said, 'Autograph the back of my phone.' I was like, 'What? Really? Seriously?' They didn't have anything else.
Two of my favorite actresses are Meryl Streep and Angelina Jolie. So, I would love, love, love to work with them. But I also really love Anna Sophia Robb. There are a lot of great actresses I would love to work with.

Well, my life hasn't really changed... I've been homeschooled for a long time. So that helped a lot because of shooting and stuff. But, I have had friends who I've been friends with for years and years and they are my true friends, you know?

It's not a struggle, but sometimes when you're gone for a month or two, you start to miss your friends. I love acting so much that it fills that gap of being sad about not being able to see my friends.

I'm not really allowed to drink a lot of caffeine, because I'm 11.

I have three dogs, a cat, fish. I'm a huge animal lover. They're amazing.
I have a home-school group with a couple of my friends. We switch off going to each others' houses and going to the library to do art and stuff. It's almost like our own little school - a really little school.

I find it not hard to make friends, but it's definitely different when I go somewhere like summer camp and everyone already knows that I'm in 'Hunger Games'... My life is still pretty normal, and I still have some really great friends.

It's been crazy. My life has totally changed. One week I was in school, hanging out with my friends and the next, I'm going to the L.A. premiere of one of the year's biggest movies. It's been a crazy experience.

[on the qualities of her BFF squad] You have to read book; you have to like reading books because I love reading. You got to be a geek and a nerd, and you have to have really good taste in music, really good taste, like alternative, alt-J kind of, you know that kind of stuff. I dig that. You don't have to, but it's really nice if you do. Those are kind of the two big things, I guess.
[on Mark Ballas]He's teaching me so much. I mean, he's the most wonderful teacher. He's patient, he's excited. His creativity he brought every week, I cannot express enough how much I've loved that. 'Cause each week, I've got to go out and I played a character, and I was always excited about that. So for me, this whole experience has been incredible because of him specifically.

As of October 2024, Willow has amassed 886,000 followers on her Instagram platform.