“Welcome to Orlando!”
It’s December 3, 2014 — day 21 of filming Paper Towns — and John Green is greeting us with a sarcastic introduction at Central Cabarrus High School in chilly Concord, North Carolina. Located roughly 30 minutes outside of Charlotte, it’s a cloudy day on a busy school campus. Not only is a major Hollywood film shooting here, but real classes are in session. Holiday decorations aren’t present in the school, but some crew equipment is dressed with Christmas lights to keep everyone in the holiday spirit. The temperature is only hitting a high of 62 degrees fahrenheit today.
Luckily for the cast and crew, the story doesn’t take place entirely outdoors, and these weather roadblocks are only minor ones. The bigger task is this: Telling a great story about growing up.
On The Sets
Prior to visiting the high school we were ushered into nearby sound stages and production offices. Sets were constructed a couple weeks prior to our arrival. These sound stages were previously used for television series including Showtime’s Homeland before Paper Towns moved in (I came across this tidbit after asking why so many of the crew members were wearing Homeland shirts around set). Sets here today include Quentin and Margo’s bedrooms, a real minivan which Q and company use to take their road trip, the all-important top floor of the SunTrust building, the messy mini-mall, and Jason’s luxurious bathroom.
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While Margo’s bedroom is still under construction (its only finished feature at the time we visited were its painted purple walls), Quentin’s room is complete, and you’ll be in for a treat when you see it on the big screen.
On Q’s bookshelf are many YA easter eggs which fans may find themselves distracted by if only because the character’s book shelf is so well stocked: Harry Potter, Divergent, The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games, The 5th Wave are scattered across his bookshelf. The on-set publicist tells us they wanted to get a copy of An Imperial Affliction — the book by Peter Van Houten in Green’s The Fault in Our Stars — but unfortunately it didn’t pan out.
They did manage to sneak in a nice John Green easter egg elsewhere. As we walk onto the mini-mall set, the location of Margo’s hideout, at the front of a store we find a clothing rack with a shirt from Green’s personal wardrobe depicting a certain Florida state bird. On the wall to the right are the pinpoints which Q matches up with his map to track down Margo, as well as “troll hole” and “you will go to the paper towns and you will never come back” written on walls. Speaking of the female lead, her nail polish is here as a way for Quentin to know she was once present.
And despite its cramped space, they’re actually shooting inside the 2001 tan Honda Odyssey mini-van. One small book-to-film difference: Quentin’s parents give him the minivan they already own instead of buying him one.
One of the nicest sets we see is a bathroom belonging to neither the house of Quentin or Margo — it belongs to Jason, the character whose house Quentin and Lacey visit for a party. The event at Jason’s house took all night to shoot at a luxurious home near Lake Norman (roughly 20 miles north of Charlotte) and included over 100 extras. On-set publicist Michael Umble tells us that Nat began to play piano for everyone around 3 a.m.
The final set we visit is one recreating the top of the SunTrust building. This location, featuring floor to ceiling windows offering views of the entire city of Orlando, is more important in the movie than it is in the book. It’s the new home of the scenes that take place at SeaWorld after Quentin and Margo’s night of hijinks (the theme park was removed in light of the documentary Blackfish, amongst other controversies). Speaking of changes during this area of the story, there are now 9 activities that Margo tasks them with accomplishing instead of the 11 found in the book.
After leaving the sound stages we head over to the aforementioned high school. Though its real name is Central Cabbarus, it’s named Jefferson Park High School in the film. They couldn’t get clearance to use the name of the real school featured in the Paper Towns book, Winter Park High School.
I couldn’t help but notice that John was in a great mood, and probably for good reason: It’s the second time one of his beloved books is being turned into a film, the cast and crew have a great rapport on set, and like Fault, it’s looking like another hit because there’s a deep interest in getting the themes and feelings right.
On Page 2: The difficulties of filming at an active school, and John’s goals for the movie
John Green, Executive Producer
John is on set as often as he was during The Fault in Our Stars, but there’s one big difference: He’s now officially an “executive producer.”
One of my first questions to him is about this new title. “I’m executive producing the hell out of this movie,” he says to laughs from our small group. Though sarcastic, he shows the title’s purpose only a second later. “I’m going to go ask why we keep doing this,” he says of a small scene they’re filming with Nat again and again. “The previous one was great.”
During several interviews with Hypable throughout the day, John will notice something on one of the camera monitors as we’re speaking to him and pause mid-thought. “I have to go briefly executive produce something,” he tells us with a smile. After huddling with director Jake Schreier and producer Isaac Klausner for a moment, he returns to our group with a look of achievement. “Okay! I was in the middle of answering your question…”
After the third or fourth time I watch him take this quick “executive producing” break, I ask him what he’s doing each time he runs off.
“Nothing. Nothing,” he says in a moment of self-deprecation. “I’m listening. I’m just trying to figure out what shot’s going to work. My concern is like.. it’s a discussion with Jake, Isaac, and Nat if [the characters are] going to be sitting instead of walking. What should they be reading, what page they should be on, that kind of thing. I did that stuff on The Fault in Our Stars too, it doesn’t feel that different. Except [now] I’m here all the time.”
He thinks about it for another moment, then adds, “I make a joke when I say, ‘I’m gonna go executive produce something.'”
“It’s funny,” I tell him. It really is amusing.
“Good! I’m glad it’s funny. Because I’m clearly not a real producer. I don’t know a thing about actual movies.”
“He’s being a little modest,” says Isaac.
“I’m gonna go executive produce. I’m gonna go fuss with Radar’s hair,” John tells us a few minutes later.
In a separate interview later, John elaborates on his role in more detail and proves that Isaac is right about the modesty. “I do feel like I’m here partly to advocate for the book and partly to advocate for the fans of the book,” he says. “The main goal has to be to make a good movie. I’m much more interested in making a good movie than in making a ‘faithful adaptation,’ because movie adaptations are inherently unfaithful. I think the reason most readers of The Fault in Our Stars responded positively to the movie was not that we were so faithful to the plot but that we were so faithful to the themes and feelings of the book. And that’s what matters to me, and I think they’re doing a good job of that [on Paper Towns].”
One Day, One School, Two Worlds
Exclusive: Justice Smith (Radar), Nat Wolff (Q), Director Jake Schreier, and Austin Abrams (Ben) at Central Cabarrus High School
It’s mid-morning and the scenes being shot today are relatively insignificant. Executive Producer John Green fills us in on the day’s schedule: “We shot Ben, Q, and Radar having a conversation about where Margo might be, sort of at the beginning of their search for her after her disappearance,” he explains. “And then we shot a scene where Margo and Q and Ben are at school and they’re together deciding to skip school so they can go to this weird abandoned mini-mall where Margo seems to be leading them toward. And we also shot a scene with Q and his mom where she drops him off at school. And now we’re shooting a scene where Q is walking down a hall.
“It’s incredibly exciting. It’s… wow. Such hall walking. That Nat Wolff, he’s a brilliant actor, especially when it comes to walking down hallways,” he says.
After shooting scenes outside of the school with Q, his mother, Ben, and Radar, the production takes a break for lunch in the school gymnasium. John’s only there for a few minutes before a line starts to form around him. These people are the day’s extras who are looking to take selfies and get autographs from the author and YouTuber. John is more than happy to oblige and spends at least a third of his short break interacting with the fans. He spends the rest of his time eating with Jake and Isaac.
Remember: Classes are still happening at the high school even though a big Hollywood film is shooting just down the hall and taking up a large amount of the school’s space, including their gymnasium. Exterior scenes are shot in the morning so that the crew doesn’t take up much space indoors while classes are in session. After school ends for the day (around 2 p.m.), they move inside. At one point the on-set publicist tells me that despite co-existing with the students and faculty, they’re perfectly on schedule. “In my world, completely unprecedented,” he says of this co-existence. “To be shooting at a school with 1,400 students? Highly unusual.”
Later, John tells us what he thinks about this experience. “Weird. Super weird because there’s a lot of teenagers here. Many of whom like the book or are excited about the movie, which is fun. I will say, the school and everybody involved in the school have been incredibly generous and respectful. They have to give up large swarths of their already full school in order to let us do this, and I really appreciate that. It’s weird for me to be back in an American high school because I find these places sort of terrifying.”
During our first interview with John in the morning, we notice one girl sticking her phone through classroom window blinds and snapping pictures of the author’s back from only a few feet away. She pulls the phone out of the shades as soon as he turns in her direction, only to resume a couple of minutes later once she thinks the coast is clear.
North Carolinians who aren’t enrolled at the high school try to stop by the set too. John tells us there are more fans here than there were on the set of Fault in Pittsburgh, “which is great, they’re very supportive,” he says before noting that the majority of them arrive after their own schooling ends in the afternoon. “They’re very respectful, they’re quiet while [the crew is] rolling.”
Nat Wolff, Star
Nat joins us in one of the school’s offices during a brief break in filming the hallway scene John told us about earlier (“such hallway walking”). The star speaks to us in mellow tones for two reasons: It’s part of his personality, and he’s tired from being so busy.
“I’m a little bit exhausted because I’ve never done anything where I’m in every single scene,” he tells us, “but it’s an amazing group and I love working with John, and Jake is really doing an amazingly great job. And it’s a great group of kids that I like to hang out with which is why I’m doubly exhausted.”
For example, he and his co-stars went to the basketball games at the high school they’ve been filming at the previous night. “We saw the girls game which was unbelievable. The girls were really great. They lost by one point, it was down to the wire and they shot at the buzzer and it didn’t go in. It was an amazing last couple of minutes.”
“They blew it,” he deadpans.
Luckily for everyone, Nat tells us his favorite scenes all involve Cara. “I really loved all the scenes with Margo. [Cara’s] really a great actress. And I loved.. it’s funny, you know we do the movies out of order. So it started off kinda with more of the heavy scenes, and now it’s been fun. We’re just starting to do some of the fun goofy scenes with the friends.”
The cast members have become friends — true friends. “We really have become… I mean everyone says this on every movie, and a lot of times it’s fake. Most of time people are pretending. But we really have become best friends on this movie. We all live right next to each other and we spend every single second together. I feel like I’ve known them my entire life, so the scenes are so easy.”
Despite numerous similarities between the Fault and Paper Towns sets, Nat says it wasn’t too strange to come on set without Shailene and Ansel Elgort, as he had already prepared himself. “Strangely enough, I ended up spending more time with John than the two of them, because when we went to go do the press tour, John and I were paired up. So we were ready to make our own movie just starring… we’re going to make our own buddy movie.”
“We had this transition from when we were filming The Fault in Our Stars to when we were doing press for two really intense weeks,” adds John. “And those two really intense weeks were just me and Nat, all the time together, just the two of us. That was when we made the transition.
“We were like, we’re not in The Fault in Our Stars anymore. We’re in the Nat and John movie. And now we’re in the Nat and John movie also starring Radar and Ben,” he says with a big laugh, clearly amused by his own joke.
Though we only had five minutes with Nat, it was clear he and John had truly formed a tight friendship.
On Page 3: John on the scenes that lived up to his expectations, and how Cara Delevingne won him over
13 interesting things we learned from John Green
Over the course of the day, John was gracious enough to talk with us for 90 minutes. What follows are several highlights from our chats with him around set.
1) Jake knew all about Nerdfighters before John tried to educate him
A photo posted by John Green (@johngreenwritesbooks) on
John tried to give Jake tips about the world of the Nerdfighters, but he didn’t need them. “He knew going in about Nerdfighteria and stuff, so he was pretty prepped,” he says. “I did send him a long list of videos he could watch if he wanted to watch videos. He wrote back and was like, ‘I know what you do. I know about your work. I watch Crash Course. I know about this stuff, don’t worry.’ So he’s very prepped.”
2) The end is John’s favorite part of the movie
“The scene with the dead body was pretty great,” he says. “The scene that most reminded me of the book, or most felt like the book, was the scene between Margo and Q at the very end of the movie, at the very end of the book. It’s sort of condensed and set in a different place than it is in the book, so there’s stuff that’s different but emotionally it felt the same. It felt — it was a powerful day for me, it felt very good.”
3) He’ll never become a filmmaker
Being an executive producer is the closest John may ever get to being involved with a film. “I could never be a movie director. It’s incredibly difficult,” he says of Jake’s role.
What about screenwriting? “Oh God no,” John says in a hushed voice as rehearsing begins nearby. “I’m a terrible screenwriter. Terrible, I’m terrible.”
“I wrote a terrible script. I had a chance to write a script [for Paper Towns] and I wrote a terrible one — truly terrible. If they made that movie people would’ve hated me. Q ends up with Lacey in that.”
4) John has a cameo… for now
He shot a cameo for The Fault in Our Stars but it was cut by the director. Will he get one in Paper Towns?
“No Jake won’t let me,” he says. “No. I bug him about it every day.”
(But this isn’t true — we later learned he does have a cameo and as of May 22 it’s currently in the movie.)
Paper Towns movie update: I have recorded a cameo. It will almost certainly be cut from the final film, in accordance with tradition.
— John Green (@johngreen) December 9, 2014
@natandalex @TeenVogue My cameo is still in Paper Towns!!! (I miss you too; can't wait to spend two months traveling the world with you.)
— John Green (@johngreen) May 22, 2015
5) The cast was built around Nat
They decided to cast Nat as Q while filming The Fault in Our Stars (in which he played Isaac). With their lead selected so early, from there it was just a matter of building the cast around their star.
“We had lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of people read with Nat, he was very generous with his time on that front. And then Margo was the most important and kind of most difficult casting decision because she’s gotta be both the manic pixie and be able to undermine that. She’s got to be able to understand the experience of being a mirror to other’s expectations. That was something that Cara understood really deeply. Once we saw the chemistry readings it was obvious.”
On the Paper Towns set with @natandalex and our friend and frequent photobomber @caradelevingne.
A photo posted by John Green (@johngreenwritesbooks) on
6) Cara proved herself with one crucial scene
We asked John what scene Cara read with Nat, and we quickly learned that it was an important moment. “She reads the scene at the end where she talks about — [Q’s] badgering her, doesn’t understand, is really angry, he’s come all this way, he’s done his part, like, ‘what the f…’ and he says, ‘Who are you?’ And the way she says, ‘I don’t know, people have always put expectations on me, you end up stuck inside that life, the life of other people’s expectations of you.’ The way she said it was extremely powerful and convincing in that moment, and I think that’s one of the biggest moments for Margo in the movie. So that was the moment where I was like, ‘Oh yeah, she’s… she knows this person. She knows what it’s like to be this person.'”
7) John will never write a book with a potential movie adaptation in mind
John doesn’t feel pressure to write new books as if they’re going to be adapted for movies.
“No, no, no. Because I’m okay with them if they don’t make movies out of my books. There’s something magical about a movie, but there’s also something magical about a book that finds an audience that isn’t ever made into a movie. Catcher in the Rye is unique in our culture partly because we’ll never see Holden Caulfield — he’ll always belong to each of us in a way that Harry Potter can’t, because Harry Potter will always be Daniel Radcliffe in my imagination for the rest of my life.
“So there’s something wonderful about that and I embrace that and I kind of see the benefits either way. But when I’m writing now I don’t think about, ‘This would look great [in a movie].’ I try really hard to think of a book as a book. I don’t think there are any writers today who aren’t shaped by image saturated culture. There’s no way to escape the durability of the image, but I try really hard to think about language as language, and not think about language as a path into image.”
8) Nat is to thank for all the love on the set
There’s no mom-like figure on the set of Paper Towns like there was on Fault. “Laura [Dern] and Shai[lene Woodley] are both very nurturing and maternal,” John says. “So it’s a different vibe but it’s still very huggy and family oriented and love — I think that starts with Nat Wolff. I remember the first time I ever hung out with Nat Wolff, I said goodbye and gave him a hug and said it was so nice to meet him, and I was really excited to be working with him on The Fault in Our Stars, and I was so glad he was going to be Isaac, and he said, ‘Yeah thanks man,’ he got in the elevator and as the elevators doors are closing he said, ‘Love you!’ And I was like, ‘What?!’ And then the elevator doors closed and I was like, ‘Huh?!’ But now I know that that’s Nat, and he means it. We do love each other, it’s really special.”
A photo posted by John Green (@johngreenwritesbooks) on
9) There was crying on the ‘Paper Towns’ set too
John said many times throughout the creation of The Fault in Our Stars that he was crying all the time on the set. Is the same thing happening on Paper Towns?
“Oh yeah, I’ve cried,” he says. “I cried [during the] Q and Margo scene at the end of the movie. I cried on the first day. I cried watching… I was sick the day of the bathtub scene [at Jason’s], and I actually cried watching that in my apartment. It was very moving.”
“People may cry at the end, but it’s not a tearjerker,” he notes. “One of the things I’m excited about is it’s not a genre movie. It’s very hard to make a movie about teenagers that doesn’t fit into like, romantic drama or romantic comedy. Or buddy comedy. This is a broader story about growing up. I feel like we get to make this kind of movie.”
10) John has amazing advice for the Q’s and Margo’s of the world
“You just have to learn to think of other people complexly, and understand just as you’re at the center of your story, they’re at the center of theirs. That’s incredibly hard to do on a minute-by-minute basis to realize other people’s consciousnesses are as real and powerful to them as your consciousness is to you, but it’s the only way forward. It creates a lot of hurt for you and a lot of hurt for other people when you fail to imagine people complexly, whether you’re romanticizing them or dehumanizing them — if you’re not seeing them as a person, you’re doing both yourself and them a huge disservice. That’s what the movie’s about, hopefully.”
11) He needed a couple of lines from the book to be included in the movie
“There’s a few lines that I really wanted to be in the movie,” he says. “There’s a moment where Q really internalizes that Margo is not an object that he has to grasp — that’s a dynamic in romantic movies where the male has to usually find and track down and hold physically the object of his desire and then take it! And there’s a moment in the book where he says Margo was not a miracle, she was not a fine and precious thing — she was a girl. And understanding her as a person was really important to me.”
“[Screenwriters] Scott [Neustadter] and Mike [H. Weber] put a lot of lines from the book in the movie,” he adds.
12) Cara is anything but your average supermodel
Eating pizza with @caradelevingne, aka Margo Roth Spiegelman in Paper Towns.
A photo posted by John Green (@johngreenwritesbooks) on
“It’s funny, Cara.. I don’t know what a super model acts like, but she doesn’t act like I imagine a super model [would]. She’s very goofy and funny and fun to be around and very relaxed and not at all pretentious or anything like that. She is, like all super models, a person. She sort of has to humanize herself because people are used to imagining super models as objects upon which clothing is put. It’s very similar to Margo. I think she’s very good at that, she’s good at putting people at ease and humanizing herself because she has to be. When she’s here she’s just one of the kids.”
13) If it was up to John, the soundtrack would only feature The Mountain Goats
“I have no say in that,” says John when asked if he’s gunning for any songs to be included in the movie. “If I had a say in that it would be all Mountain Goat songs. The movie would be scored by The Mountain Goats and it would feature only music by The Mountain Goats.”
‘Paper Towns’ opens in theaters July 24, 2015
The next Paper Towns trailer will premiere June 2 during ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars. Until then, check out the most recent trailer below:
