In the upcoming film “The Fault in our Stars,” Laura Dern and Sam Trammell have the unenviable task of playing parents of a girl with a terminal illness. Both actors are parents in real life, and when I saw the movie, I couldn”t help but look at the fiction that was taking place on screen and wonder if it bled over into their, respective, real lives.
When I asked, Trammell answered by saying that while you don't dwell on such things, “You can't distance yourself from it too much because that's part of what the whole story is about.” Dern gave an equally good answer where she explained, in part, that, “It's inescapable to grieve.”
The screening I attended of “The Fault in our Stars” was, in part, a fan event and despite everyone in the theater knowing almost exactly how things were going to play out-they were fans of the film after all-there were tears aplenty. While the movie will, presumably, reach a wider audience than the novel, there is still going to be an enthusiastic, already knowledgeable, good-sized, fan base out there for it. Dern and Trammell were both aware of that heading into filming, and so, for my last question, I asked if that made them approach their job differently.
Dern's answer discussed the “ferocity” of director Josh Boone and novelist John Green. She also related the approach to being akin to living life. Watch the above video and hear her full answer.
Also starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, “The Fault in our Stars” opens June 6th.