Shailene Woodley
Actress Shailene Woodley arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala Benefit celebrating the opening of "Charles James: Beyond Fashion" in Upper Manhattan, New York May 5, 2014. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri Reuters

Shailene Woodley has made “The Fault in Our Stars” author John Green cry. The novelist revealed that he was so awed of the 22-year-old actress during her audition for the lead role of his film that he ended up in tears.

In an interview with AAP, Green recalled how Woodley showed him her enthusiasm for nabbing the role of Hazel in the film adaptation of his bestselling novel.

He received an email from the actress before the casting for the film was made.

According to Woodley herself, the letter “basically say, ‘Thank you, and I’m so grateful you were able to write this gift to share with the world,’” she told AAP. “I wanted to make sure this movie was made because my life was transformed by reading the book and the script. I could only imagine how many lives it would transform if it was to be a film.”

But while Green was grateful for the praises, he couldn’t actually do anything for Woodley.

“I responded like, ‘That’s very flattering but I’m not a casting director,’” he said, adding that “It was a very brief response.”

“I didn’t really understand who she was,” the novelist admitted of Woodley, who won awards for her breakthrough performance in “The Descendants” in 2011.

But that quickly changed when he watched Woodley’s audition tape for Hazel. The young star performed a pivotal scene in the book where Hazel said, “Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”

“Oh, it just gutted me,” Green revealed. “I was blown away. I was in tears and just so grateful that she had even auditioned for it.”

He added, “I knew it then she was going to be the perfect Hazel.”

In a separate interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Green said that he acknowledged the fear of the book’s fans that Woodley wouldn’t be able to pull off the look of a cancer patient, but he knew that the actress was the right choice.

“When I saw Shay walk out of Hazel’s house with the cannula [breathing tube] trailing her oxygen tank, I immediately felt, ‘She’s got this.’”

“The Fault in Our Stars” tells the story of Hazel, a 16-year-old thyroid cancer patient who meets and falls in love with an amputee. It reunites Woodley with her “Divergent” co-star Ansel Elgort.

It is scheduled for release on June 5 in Australia.