About a month ago, I was lucky enough to see The Fault in Our Stars, and I was able to take part in a round table style interview with Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, John Green and Nat Wolff in Miami!
The Fault in Our Stars (TFIOS) is a hugely popular novel about two cancer-stricken teens who fall in love. The movie is sincere, cute, funny and, yes, sad. Ah, yes, it is tragic, but I found it to be non-sentimental. In my mind, that might have not been easy to pull off.
“The luckiest thing for us is that John Green made a book that wasn’t melodramatic or exaggerated. Our job was to pay homage to the book, and bring it to life in the most authentic way possible,” said Woodley.
Author John Green chimed in, “When I was writing the novel, I tried to find a way to be honest and not be afraid to be emotional. But it also means not being melodramatic. I thought everyone did a great job with their performances.”
“I think any movie that’s good and truthful will be funny and sad,” said Wolff. “Everybody’s life is funny.”
John Green is also known for his videos that he makes with his brother on YouTube. His followers are known as “nerdfighters.” In making these videos, Green’s books have had an influence on his young adult novels.
“It helps me every day,” said Green. “They remind me of what teenagers are interested in and how they express themselves. They remind me that teens, despite what we hear in mass media, are actually intellectually curious and thoughtful.”
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This also transpired to the making of the film. The author, cast and filmmakers had a healthy fear of the fans.
“We did not want them to be mad at us,” said Green.
The role of Augustus Waters was a big and important part that Elgort did not take lightly. People have asked him was he scared of taking on the part.
“Yeah,” Elgort said. “I didn’t want to mess it up because the book was fine how it was. I’m not going to come in here an ruin that for someone.
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“I really think it (the film) honors the book. If I didn’t think it honored the book, I love you guys, but I wouldn’t be here” (laughs).
“I wouldn’t either,” said Woodley.
Green, initially, had some reservations about letting his beloved novel turn into a movie. He said no, at first, because the kind of offers he would receive tried to make Hazel more “aspirational,” and they didn’t want “too much” cancer. The idea of the book is that it’s about sick people, and not about healthy people who learn lessons from sick people. A concept that Green admittedly cannot stand.
“I think that dehumanizes sick people to say that they exist so that healthy people can learn lessons,” Green said. “My fear was that it would be a melodramatic movie when I tried to write a book that was against that idea.”
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The movie did not end up being a manipulated cry fest, Green gave credit to the cast, filmmakers and the execs at Fox.
“The fact that the film has a sick romantic lead goes against everything you are told in the movie-making business because, again, the lead character is suppose to be ‘aspirational’,” said Green. “It was a brave move to allow the female lead to have tubes in her nose and the male lead be an amputee.”
“That doesn’t happen in movies,” said Woodley. “To have a female lead look the way that Hazel looks, I think it’s redefining the paradigm in which cinema looks at females. I feel so proud and so lucky to be a part of it.”
Before filming, the actors were able to visit real cancer patients in preparing for their journey in bringing the novel to life.
“The whole idea is that the illness doesn’t define these characters,” said Elgort. “And it was relieving to meet people in real life. They are kids who happen to be sick.”
For Woodley, it was rare that she even talked about cancer with the patients.
“We would talk about whatever we would talk outside of this situation. It was the first time I spend that much time around someone with cancer, and it completely validated they way you wrote Hazel and Gus.”
With a story with such vulnerable moments from the characters, there are more than a few tears which made me ask how hard it is to cry on cue.
Woodley joked saying they were fake tears.
Elgort chimed in saying that if it’s in the scene and written right, it’s easy.
“If you are being honest in the scene, it’s going to come,” said Wolff. “We became so close, so the emotional scenes become extra emotional because I love Ansel and I do love Shai.”
When asked which was the hardest scene to film, Woodley said that the egg scene was pretty hard.
“A moment like that is so important in a movie like this because it’s so real and it’s so light. For me, it’s harder to laugh than it is to cry in a scene.”
“The trophy scene was the hardest for me,” said Wolff.
“For me, it was the gas station scene,” said Elgort. “You have to submit fully, and that’s a tough moment to submit to. It wasn’t until the 3rd or 4th take I actually went there.”
The Fault in Our Stars opens THIS Friday!
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