USA TODAY International Edition
Graduation day for Nat Wolff in ‘ Paper Towns’
Nat Wolff received one comment consistently from teachers throughout his school years: “Nat does not transition well.”
That could have spelled trouble for the now- 20- year- old actor, who returns to school in a major screen transition — from the scene- stealing supporting role of a blind cancer patient in author John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars to the lead
in Green’s Paper Towns ( in theaters Friday).
“Fortunately, this move has been a very good transition,” Wolff says. “I’m very pleased about that.” The actor/ musician, son of
thirtysomething actress Polly Draper and jazz musician Michael Wolff, had the chops for the role upgrade. Wolff made his movie debut at age 10 with his brother Alex, then 7, in 2005’ s The Naked Brothers Band: The
Movie, directed by Draper. But there was a learning curve. Wolff, who lives in New York City, had to earn his driver’s license for the movie, which involves a road trip. After two rushed lessons, he squeaked by on the driver’s test, an outcome he describes as “kind of a miracle.”
“The lady who gave me the test was really surly and rude,” Wolff says. “She was like ‘ OK, you just passed.’ But I had my license.”
The rest was fate, as author Green sees it. While shooting the adaptation of his young- adult novel Fault, Green sensed the “empathetic” Wolff would be per- fect as Paper Towns’ dweeby “Q” ( short for Quentin), who searches for his mysteriously missing and beautiful neighbor Margo ( Cara Delevingne).
“Almost every day I would lean forward to the producers and say, ‘ You guys should make a movie about Pa
per Towns, and Nat should play Q,’ ” Green says. “I cannot believe it actually happened.” Wolff’s performance is so close to the character Green created that the author calls it “almost supernatural.” The actor provided the social glue on the North Carolina set, sharing a condo with onscreen best friends Austin Abrams ( as Ben) and Justice Smith ( Radar).
When a bright street lamp was bugging Green in the complex, Wolff and his roomies took misguided but well- meaning action: They bought a BB gun to shoot out the light.
“We got filmed on video by someone who tried to get us kicked out of the apartment,” Wolff says. “We were just trying to do something nice for John. We went about it the wrong way. We should have just bought him blackout curtains.”
Wolff also bonded with his screen obsession, model- turned-actress Delevingne, after the ultimate awkward start.
“I think I was the only person in the entire world that didn’t know who Cara was by name,” Wolff says. “When I saw her, it was like, ‘ You’re on a billboard right outside my apartment in New York.’ I recognized her from my dog walks.” By the end of the shoot, the Pa
per Towns cast grew as close as actual classmates, all dreading graduation when they’d break up. That is one transition Wolff is still having trouble with.
“The whole world became kind of real. And then it’s over. It’s like I wanted Paper Towns to be my life,” Wolff says. “When I go into something, I go into it so fully. So I get super- bummed when it’s all over. It’s a tough transition.”