The screaming started early. Thirty minutes before Saturday’s BookCon panel for The Fault in Our Stars, John Green walked up to the stage to grab something, and although it was mostly an empty room, a few teenage girls had managed to sneak in. At their first glimpse of the author, they started cheering, and he gave a friendly wave. By the time the rest of audience was let in — nearly 2,000 fans had camped out in front of the Special Events Hall at Jacob Javits Center — the noise was overwhelming and threatened to drown out the speakers, which included the director, writers, and producers of the film, as well as actor Nat Wolff. (“I couldn’t hear what I was saying some of the time,†Green told Vulture after the panel.) When the screaming turned to pushing (overturning tables and chairs in the mad rush to get to the microphone for the Q&A portion), Green had to scream back, “Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!†And then, “Everybody back to your seats, just for security purposes. I’m paranoid about security. But I love you guys!â€Â
During a calmer moment, Green was able to share his favorite scenes in the film, one of which was not in the script, both realized by Wolff’s performance as Isaac (“and I’m not just saying that because he’s sitting next to meâ€). Both take place during a scene in which Gus, Hazel, and Isaac go to egg Monica’s house, a truncated clip of which was shown at the panel. “One is when Monica’s mother comes out, and he goes like this,†Green said, imitating Isaac’s move to dispose of an egg behind his back to hide the evidence. “So adorable and human and just completely true to that character.†The other moment is a joke that neatly takes Green’s themes of people living with their illnesses and disabilities but refusing to be defined by them. “Isaac’s a really funny person, but sometimes people make jokes about disability. They make it the butt of the joke, and Isaac is not the butt of a joke,†Green said. “Gus says, ‘It’s all dark to Isaac.’ And Nat is about to throw the egg, and he stops, and he turns around, and he says, ‘I’m blind, not deaf, and I don’t love it when you make fun of my disability.’ So not only am I not going to let you get away with that joke, but I am funnier than you, and I have a better joke. It is so Isaac.â€