After the Fault in Our Stars movie poster was released on Dec. 18, many diehard fans thought it had one sick tagline. The adaptation is based off the John Green novel of the same name, which follows cancer patients Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) and Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort) as they fall in love while battling their diseases.
The poster shows Woodley and and Elgort affectionately lying next to one another on the ground with the tagline, "One Sick Love Story." The book's author, John Green, responded to some of the fan backlash on his tumblr page on Dec. 18.
"I did not write the tag line," he said. "These things are not my decision. It's not my movie, or my poster. That said, I like the tag line."
Green, who also penned best seller Looking For Alaska, thinks the tagline is a great representation of the book's main character, Hazel Grace Lancaster.
"I found it dark and angry in the same way that Hazel is (at least at times) dark and angry in her humor," he continued. "I mostly wanted something that said, 'This is hopefully not going to be a gauzy, sentimental love story that romanticizes illness and further spreads the lie that the only reason sick people exist is so that healthy people can learn lessons.' I like the tag line because it says, literally, the sick can also have love stories."
The author was also encouraged by the studio's decision to put Woodley's face — complete with her breathing tube — on the poster.
"A major Hollywood studio released a movie poster in which the female romantic lead has visible evidence of her disability, which is damn near unprecedented, and I’m thrilled they put her face—and her cannula—on the poster," he said.
Tell Us: Do you agree with John Green? Is the poster's tagline appropriate?
