John Krasinski didn’t intend to put the gun-toting Red Stater image out there

8th AACTA International Awards - Arrivals

Whenever I don’t see John Krasinski for a while, I just assume that his wife Emily Blunt has been working a lot and John has been doing the stay-at-home-dad thing. That seems to be their set-up, and I’ve always respected the fact that John always knew, even at the start of their relationship, that Emily was the “star,” and that her acting career was probably always going to be the bigger priority over his career. On a career level, I always respected John for his patience too – he didn’t just say “yes” to a series of dumb movies or TV shows out of desperation to work after The Office. He stayed home, built a strong foundation for his marriage to Emily, and he was a supportive partner and hands-on dad and he quietly waited for the right stuff to come his way. Anyway, John is currently promoting A Quiet Place II, which he also directed (like the first one), and he gave a fascinating interview to Esquire. I hadn’t clocked this, but did you know there’s a “John Krasinski is a secret Republican” conversation happening? He addresses that and more. Some highlights:

On the criticism that ‘A Quiet Place’ is regressive and about ‘a silent white family with guns protecting their home from invaders’: Krasinski never intended it that way. While he maintains that he’s never going to argue with someone’s reading of his film, he didn’t write it with a political slant. “I never saw it that way or ever thought of it until it was presented to me in that way. It wasn’t about being, you know, silent and political time that had nothing to do with that. If anything it was about, you know, going into the dark and, and taking a chance when all hope looked lost, you take, you know, you fight for what’s most important to you. Again, my whole metaphor was solely about parenthood.”

How he decided to direct his first film, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men. He was talking about the project with his Office co-star Rainn Wilson, who suggested that Krasinski should just direct the film. “I thought, ‘Wow, I don’t know. I can’t direct.’ And he was like, ‘Why not? Just do it.’ So I did.”

He still loves & respects The Office: “The Office was absolutely everything to me. I mean it is my beginning and my end. I’m pretty sure at the end of my career I’ll still be known for Jim. That was my first experience with Hollywood. It was the first creative family I’ve ever had. In many ways, they will always be the most important people in that most important experience in my career. So yeah, if they did a reunion, I would absolutely love to do it.”

He auditioned for Captain America: “People have a sense that some of us are insanely competitive. I’ve known Chris forever. So as soon as they said Chris Evans got the part, I was like, yeah, look at that guy. Are you kidding me? He is Captain America. And I just saw Chris a couple of weeks ago and we were still laughing about it. I said, ‘I love that you retired in my role.’”

The narrative that he’s quietly a gun-toting Republican, or that he cozies up to that Red State imagery: “That narrative is certainly not the narrative I intended to put out there. When people look for something that they want to see, I can’t stop them from a subjective belief in something,” says Krasinski, who cohosted a fundraiser for Elizabeth Warren’s senatorial campaign in 2012. From his perspective, his decision to star in 13 Hours—about the attacks on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi—was not a political one. “I have 11 aunts and uncles and cousins who have been in the military or still are in the military. So it was a big thing on my list to get to do a military movie or show or something,” He says the film was about the individuals and the events of that night. Not politics. “As far as Jack Ryan and the CIA, I always say it’s about the people. I’ll always respect people who put their lives on the line for people like me, who they’ve never met.”

On his comment that he respects & honors the CIA: “If you start breaking down every single CIA event, do I respect and honor all those? Of course not. Of course not. Do you respect and honor every facet of every single president? Of course not.”

[From Esquire]

This reminds me of the conversation we had about Bradley Cooper and American Sniper several years ago – we know that Bradley Cooper and John Krasinski are, on a personal and political level, quite liberal and progressive men, and probably somewhat-to-quite woke in their private and professional lives. But yeah, the characters and stories they’re drawn to have that regressive, conservative, (aggrieved) white-man-against-the-world vibe. Is that Hollywood and the stories they tell about heroic white dudes? Or is Krasinski quietly that guy?

Oh, and there’s some conversation that if (when?) Marvel reboots the Fantastic Four franchise that John is one of the leading contenders for Mister Fantastic. He doesn’t deny it, and he compliments Marvel for how they handle their business, so that means he’s probably already got the part, imo.

76th Annual Golden Globe awards

Photos courtesy of WENN.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

22 Responses to “John Krasinski didn’t intend to put the gun-toting Red Stater image out there”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Scollins says:

    What a pair of talented beautiful people. I always look forward to seeing their work.

  2. TIFFANY says:

    Yeah, the same John who was trying to get out of The Office because he thought he was on equal footing with Steve Carell( who by the way honored his full commitment before leaving) Who thought The Office was beneath his talents. That John.

    Yeah, that break from movie stardom was not by choice. Dude is a smart social climber who has the good sense to thank his lucky stars for Blunt and Clooney.

    • Caitlin says:

      But John stayed on the office right to the bitter end. Even after Steve, Mindy and BJ all left. So he obviously didn’t want to leave that much.

      • Tiffany says:

        Because his movie career went absolutely nowhere.

        Leatherheads was suppose to be the big hit to solidify his status and turn his nose up at the little tv show.

        It is pretty telling that after all these years not one person from that show speaks of him. Like, at all.

      • LNG says:

        Jenna Fischer communicates with him on twitter all the time. Check out the playoff rivalry from last year…

    • lucy2 says:

      When did he try to leave? I can’t find any reporting on that, and wouldn’t his contract have been up after 7 years? He stuck it out to the end, a few years past that.

      As for the other stuff, I get the impression that before a Quiet Place, he was not very confident in his post-Office career, took what he could get, and tried to change up his image to an action guy (that Michael Bay Benghazi film, ugh). He also seems like a guy who will say whatever to market a product to the target audience. And he’s also a wealthy white guy, with all that comes with.

      Angela and Jenna have an Office podcast (which is GREAT!) and they both speak fondly of him, especially Jenna. I don’t think he’s as close as the rest of the cast is, but I don’t think there’s bad blood or anything.

      • Caroline says:

        I also love the Office Ladies podcast! I don’t think he and Jenna were particularly close offscreen (maybe out of respect for who they were married to/dating during the show) but there does seem to be a warmth there for sure.

        And I never saw anything either about him wanting to leave before the show was up, every interview he said during and after was with tons of gratitude for the role and how it changed his life. While I don’t think he “hangs out” w any of the cast any more, there seems to have been a genuine closeness among the cast from the beginning, most of whom never had big roles before the show.

        With respect to Krasinski specifically, aside from The Office I haven’t really seen much of what he’s done except for supporting roles in romcoms, and I tend to think he and Emily trot out their relationship a little too hard sometimes when they’re promoting their projects. But all that said I don’t think he’s particularly offensive even if I do agree it’s silly to try and make him an action star. He’s Halpert!

    • Erinn says:

      He’s embarrassing. They’re SO desperate to make him some sort of action star. And it just makes me think of the Mean Girls “Stop trying to make fetch happen” – Stop trying to make Krasinski happen.

      The quiet place was such a stupid stupid movie, too. Like wildly stupid. I can’t believe they’re going to make a sequel – but I guess when you’re writing and producing your own parts, at least you’ll be the lead?

      • WriterMarie says:

        @Erinn, Tell that to the studio who made it (Paramount). Pretty sure they won’t see it the same way, it grossed $340 million Worldwide of a $20 million budget. That’s every studio’s dream.

        It may have been a crap movie (for you), but I enjoyed it and I normally don’t enjoy horror films. Krasinski wrote the re-write on the film, originally a spec-script from Bryan Woods and Scott Beck. So, that’s how he got the writing credit.

        I guess I just don’t understand all the hate for him? I never watched the office and have really only known him from movies.

      • lucy2 says:

        I enjoyed it too. I started picking apart the logic and “why didn’t they just-” stuff, and then decided to leave it alone and enjoy it for what it was.
        It was a huge success for him, none of his other writing or directing projects did much, but this was very popular.

  3. Helen says:

    is this the third fantastic 4 remake? i thought the other two tanked, but go off marvel.

    bradley, john, chris pratt and even jessica chastain were involved in movies that were deeply reactionary. it would be something glaring when reading the scripts or performing the roles, especially when based on a true story. it might be a case of cognitive dissonance for some, genuine appeal of the material to others, just a job to another. but the public will tend to have an uncharitable interpretation if there seems to be a pattern. *shrugs*

    • Kebbie says:

      Those were made by Fox. This will be the first one made by Marvel. Fox basically sh** out the last one to keep the rights from defaulting back to Marvel. Then they ended up getting bought by Marvel anyways.

  4. Lucy says:

    I love John and Emily just as much as I love Freddie Prinze Jr and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

  5. Melissa says:

    Actually he is quite good in the Jack Ryan series in Amazon Prime. Quite good.

  6. Gabriela says:

    And is exactly his support for the cia and the military that makes him a rigth winger
    Sure, in the American context he’s a liberal but that means nothing to us in the global south. Liberals and conservatives has always joined together to conquer, invade and pillage the so called “third world” and leaving millions killed, tortured and maimed as consequence
    He’s a progressive that praises and admire the very institutions that hunts and destroy the left in colonized countries so he can go to hell He’s as much as a progressive as the French that wanted freedom from the monarchy’s tyranny while suppressing and destroying its colonies freedom fighters He’s like the “founding fathers” that went to war with Britain becuase they thought that taxes was violation of human rights while having slaves

    Ass: tired Brazilian

  7. Enormous Coat says:

    I think this BuzzFeed article captures it:
    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alisonwillmore/john-krasinski-jack-ryan-13-hours-benghazi-amazon

    Best quote from the article (& it still applies): It’s awfully advantageous to not see politics even when, say, starring in a story about one of the most divisive and politicized events in recent history.

    • Maggie says:

      Seriously. Don’t claim not to have an opinion, and its just a military role you’ve always wanted. Own your choice, one way or another. If Benghazi was a period piece, I could get his comments. But its raw still for so many. I don’t understand a lot of the anti-military comments here in general, but I respect each and everyone’s personal opinions and experiences.