The iconic book, “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green was resurrected beautifully by Josh Boone, Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort as well as the rest of the crew and cast.
The modern star crossed love story takes form in teens plagued by modern diseases. Fans lined up hours in advance in front of the theater in hopes of an advance screening ticket. It was well worth the wait as the movie had the audience laughing and bawling throughout. The categorized young adult film touches the mature topic of death, and consequences of it. However, the director romanticizes it in a way to show that the road leading up to the inevitable can be a joyful one. The movie lives up to the book’s high literary standard and the superb talent from all of the cast brings beautiful emotion and visualization of Green’s words. Fans were squealing, cheering and sobbing throughout the entire movie, validating the movie as an equal to the book.
The cast came out for a quick question and answer session with their fans and shared their favorite scenes and experiences on set. They also shared their process of research for their individual roles in the movie as well as the resurrection of their own characters and how they explored their role. Rumors of Green’s cameo in the movie are true, as it will appear in the extended version on Blue Ray. The movie will hit the theaters on June 6th.
Who cried the most on set?
John: Definitely me, I cried a lot, I cried almost every day. I cried because it was so overwhelming to me that all of these really talented people were bringing much passion and talent to my work and giving it a new life. I felt like Josh and the people who made the movie really honored my book. It’s a pretty rare feeling for an author to have when a book is being adapted into a movie so I was overwhelmed the whole time. Plus there are some sad parts, and even the funny parts make you cry.
How do you think the movie remakes the cancer movie genre?
John: We wanted to tell a story about people living with a serious illness but show that people who are sick are not fundamentally other from the healthy. They’re not less human than anyone else, they have all the love and joy and anger and passion as any other life, and show people that disability is only a part of their life, it’s not the only identifying thing about them. To show the full humor and pathos of being alive, even if you’re very sick, I don’t know if that is reinventing the genre but that’s what I like about the story.
Josh: I like how you have the characters not defy the disease and disrespect it in any way and make fun of the disease and have that kind of irreverence that you guys have kind of voice.
What scene where you most excited to see on the big screen?
Shailene: The scene that I really love was the love scene, because to me it was very different, than most love scenes in “young adult” films, it’s done with integrity. I think most of the time our society looks at teenagers and discredits their love and says “Oh it’s cute, it’s puppy love,” like they don’t know what real love is, and then you look at adults and you’re like are you actually happy? Is this real love? If that’s real love then that’s not what I want. Younger people are in love, and the older we get the more in our heads we get and we don’t think about others as much. When we’re young the love is so pure. Also teenagers are incredibly passionate and in their intimate scene, they’re passionate with one another, a little bit awkward and a little bit uncomfortable. Not too awkward and not too uncomfortable, I just think that it was handled with such care and Josh and our lighting and cinematographer Ben Richardson, I just thought it was really special and unique.
Josh: I loved that scene as well as the ending scene.
Ansel: I love all the Amsterdam stuff so much, so much of the movie was building up to that, and it’s the first place when Augustus tells Hazel that he is really in love with her. I really love the way that scene came out. It’s so magical the whole Amsterdam experience, we really needed Amsterdam, it was the pay off.
It seems that every generation has that kind of love story, do you agree?
Laura: Something that Sam and I have been talking about today is how John gives us an opportunity to collectively share as movie goers and readers, this experience of what it is to love. Each of us comes in with our own experience of love and how to love because there is inevitably an end game. We navigate through that with great bravery. I’m so moved by their love story and it does redefine as the great love story to me in literature and in movies, but also there is a parallel love story which you don’t see. It’s the love of your child and the love of your parents. Equally, these parents worry about giving everything to their child but the child is so worried about their parent. The parents being okay. Love is being redefined and the friendship between two young men like this is unparalleled so its just a love fest.
John: There’s another thing that came off really well in the movie, I think Josh did a great job bringing it out and I think Sam and Laura did a great job bringing it out, which is the love between these two parents, the tremendous obstacle in their love because they have this sick kid. They hold on to each other, they find a way through it. That was very moving watching this, as a parent. That’s what really got to me.
What was the scene that you read Shailene that convinced Josh to give you this role?
Josh: She did the eulogy scene, I thought she was a great actress, but you knew she wasn’t 16 and I saw a lot of people and after she did that scene, I thought maybe I didn’t have to make this so hard on myself, we saw so many people, and she was absolutely hands-down, I knew within two minutes.
Nat: We wanted to be faithful to the book, and the book was kind of already like the movie in some ways, but then we also wanted to make a great movie that stands alone. I’m just so proud to be on this panel with such a talented group of people.
If you could have lunch with a character who would it be?
Shailene: Hazel because I think I resonate when I was Hazel or Augustus’ age more with Gus, I always felt like there was always something to do in the world, what am I going to do today? I’m going to change the world, what’s my mission going to be? My this or my that, and I think that’s a very common theme when you’re trying to figure out who you are and what you’re trying to do with your life to be remembered. I was so moved by Hazel and her ability to recognize at such a young age that it’s not about that. She’s the least narcissistic person I have ever met in my life, which is why she doesn’t actually exist.
Talk about shooting in Amsterdam?
Shailene: There’s something romantic about the rain, you’re cuddled up together and its foggy, it sort of wakes up you up and there’s a romantic nature to it.
Ansel: When there’s less people outside, the city feels more yours. As Hazel and Augustus, we were in a boat in a canal looking around, just taking in the city. That was a really amazing moment for me, with my arm around Shailene, one of my very good friends, it was one of the last days of shooting, and it was just an amazing moment. This is where this journey has taken me, and now I’m in Amsterdam, going down in a canal with Shailene, and I can’t wait to go back.
What was it like being in this hard place as an actor and as a director, what was it like watching them?
Laura: I would have to say that my favorite part of walking down the journey of a movie being an emotional character, would be that we have this catharsis or ride each day, and most of our work, we would walk away from the camera, towards the monitor, and there would be John Green with open arms embracing us. Such love and fierce champion in all of us brought us in and out of this experience.
Ansel: I probably cried the most in my life during that time, because I would be crying my eyes out during the day and then at night I would be sitting in my apartment at night with Nat, crying from laughter, he would make the most absurd jokes. We were at dinner one night, and I had to go underneath the table to compose myself because I think the restraint was a little disturbed.
Ansel has now played your brother and your boyfriend, was that transition weird at all and why?
Shailene: That’s not weird at all because I’ve always wondered what it’s like kissing my brother. That’s sort of the beauty of being an actor, you get to explore the relationships, and the colors of yourself, and how you exert that when you’re around different people. There’s something beautiful about working with someone and working with them again and again. The more you work with somebody on a personal level, the more free you feel artistically. So I think that if Ansel hadn’t known each other from “Divergent,” our relationship in this movie would not be what it is, because we didn’t have to go through the rehearsal phase of knowing one another and being comfortable with one another. Also when you love someone a lot, we tend to push them away or communication isn’t as strong, and we were very honest with each other during the movies and throughout this process, and there would be times where we would disagree, and if we didn’t know each other, we might not say we disagreed, because there is that politeness. We were very open with one another when something wasn’t going the way that we’ve envisioned and whatnot. It completely worked with these characters, and I’m one of those people who is like everything is meant to be. Thank god we were brother and sister, and we get to spend the next four years together which is pretty freakin’ rad.
John, which scene came out the most, the way you visualized with you wrote it?
There are so many that felt like … the first time I saw Hazel’s house, I thought it was so weird because I was like wow that’s Hazel’s house. The production designer did amazing, her imagination and my imagination must be linked somehow, she did an amazing job with all that stuff. I guess the one scene is the scene at the gas station, with Shai and Ansel is everything I hoped for, in some ways it was what I was trying to do emotionally and it felt that way as I walked in. Also the scene towards the end, with Hazel and her parents. She really had to confront her parents about the seriousness of the situation she’s in and wants to get really real with them and honest about it. She’s almost angry that they refuse to see what she sees as reality. I just thought it was so beautifully done, and even watching it last night, I just felt very grateful to them for doing it so well.
Director, what about Ansel made you cast him and Shailene what was your favorite personality trait of his?
Josh: I just thought he had a view of a utopia and see himself in a movie that he came to audition for. I think he was so unaware of how wonderful he was and it’s purity more than anything else. Gus is such a difficult character to find in an actor, there are so many elements. The diligence, the sensitivity, the aloofness, but its also a little bit goofiness, and to have one guy embody all that I didn’t know if we’d ever find him. He came in to read with her and he was open minded, and we didn’t except him to do that.
Shailene: Yeah because of the “Divergent” thing, I was like “Oh wait, we’re reading together?” The fact that two studios would even allow that to happen was just very rare. My favorite is when Ansel looks at the world everyday with a new set of eyes. Like “Wow, there’s a world out there and what am I going to taste or experience or laugh with or find out about or learn or teach?” He’s the most creative person I’ve ever met. This dude is not only a producer, but he’s an amazing pianist, he paints miniatures, and wins contests painting miniatures, which is insane. He’s a ballet dancer, he’s literally the most creative person. I’m just constantly inspired by him.
What were some difficulties you encountered while shooting the movie, with all the success that the book has had?
Josh: I know what you mean, the fan base is huge and you’re worried that they’re going to throw tomatoes at you because you ruined it. But it was John. John being happy was what made me confident that the movie would make fans happy. I think there are a lot of challenges when you make any movie, they each have their own challenges. I think it was just a wonderful experience, and had a great time.
How was the experience with all the fans and the pressure to deliver?
Ansel: Last night, we came and we surprised the first ever fan screening of “The Fault in Our Stars” and then we did a Q&A there and they all started freaking out and screaming, they were so happy. They wouldn’t have done that if the movie was bad. They’re there lining up because they’re huge fans of “The Fault in Our Stars” book, and they’re probably a large percentage of NerdFighters there, and they’re intelligent so if the movie was bad, they would throw tomatoes at us and they would not be screaming. It was such a relief and such a reward to see them and face us and be so happy. I could feel their relief too, something that they were so protective over, has become a movie that I think is very good.
How has this movie changed this sense of compassion, and how has your bucket list changed after shooting this movie?
John: I’m flat out of items on my bucket list. I guess it’s now all personal stuff, like seeing my kids get married, or not, if they don’t want to get married. I want to see them with fulfilling lives. Professionally I’m good.
Sam: What I love about this story is that teenagers have this much compassion for their parents as we do for them. What we’re worried about Hazel and how she’s going to do, she’s just as worried about us, and I have two little boys, and they don’t think about the level of concern. I love that Hazel is kind of holding things in as we are holding things in, trying to make lives as good for each other as can be.
Josh: I have a three year old and its very similar, you can look at their face and just cry on cue. They say that empathy is the most important trick you can teach a child in life. John writes with such great empathy in his books and when you see the film hopefully you’ll look at people with disabilities or people differently.
John: I threw up recently, and I have a four year old son. He ran away during the throw up, and ran back into the room with his blanket and I was like, oh that really helps me to understand that this small creature is also capable of caring for others. So often, we dismiss teenagers of being self indulgent and so self involved that they don’t care about others, but the truth is a lot more complicated. The truth about adolescence is that obviously you are inside this vast reality that is inside you and just becoming aware of it to be a separate being, but you are also aware of the vast reality that is outside of you and that’s my favorite thing about the movie.
“The Fault In Our Stars” is now playing.
