From the Oscar-winning film "The Descendants," or the beloved teen love story "The Fault in Our Stars," to her turn as Jane in the HBO drama "Big Little Lies," actor Shailene Woodley's work embodies depth and range.

However, in a new PBS docuseries, "Hope in the Water," the depth is that of the ocean, and the range is global.

In the series, Woodley helped reveal an undersea world in jeopardy while exploring innovative ways to protect it and the food it provides to our hungry world.

Woodley joined Lisa McRee on LA Times Today.

Woodley grew up in Southern California, where her parents, she said, instilled in her a love of the ocean.

"It was a place where I could go and be exactly who I wanted to be and try new things. And as an adult, it's the same. And it's free entertainment all day long," Woodley said.

While Woodley said she is an "eternally optimistic person," recent changes in the ocean ecosystems have troubled her. In her new series, she searches for invasive purple sea urchins.

"If I go surfing out in Malibu or if I'm out in Santa Barbara and I look down the entire sea, that floor is covered in [purple urchins]. And it's because of changes in ocean temperature and changes in different species being able to live there. And they don't have a predator. So these urchins basically get to thrive. They eat all the kelp and they steal the food from other organisms, organisms, and those species have to move elsewhere or they die. And so it's this it's this really corrupt thing that is happening under our ocean surface," Woodley explained. 

"Hope in the Water," tells viewers about the importance of alternative seafood sources to avoid depleting resources in the ocean and beyond. 

"When it comes to our diet, when it comes to things that we feel like we can control, we forget we are part of a massive ecosystem, that there has to be a give and take. And so with food, because of convenience, because of mass supermarket chains and mass corporations owning a lot of the food supply chain, we've become accustomed to, honestly, the laziness of eating the same thing over and over again because it's predictable, we know we're going to get, but we're not paying attention to not only the ramifications to the oceans but also the ramifications to our bodies," she explained. 

Woodley got to put her reporting skills to use in the show.

"I like learning, and I like finding out information that isn't obvious because to me, it is very obvious information. But unless you seek it out yourself, it's not really out there because you can't commodify good things," she said. 

"Hope in the Water" premieres on PBS on June 19.

Watch the full interview above.

Watch "LA Times Today" at 7 and 10 p.m. Monday through Friday on Spectrum News 1 and the Spectrum News app.