Conversations with John Krasinski

ah sorry they left me out my good afternoon my name Ordnung we're still in the morning time so early you guys I'm so impressed to see this turnout this early in the morning such an indication of how much everybody loves today's guests though we have here today actor writer director producer boss Tony and John Krasinski someone who has been a favorite of so many people since breaking through in his Emmy nominated SAG Award winning role as Jim Halpert on the office and I genuinely don't know if anybody as having a better year than this guy a quiet place was the rare commercial hit as beloved by audiences as it is by critics and he is now headlining the Amazon series Jeff yeah Jack Ryan I almost said John Ryan that's the sequel please welcome John Krasinski [Applause] hi hi I'll be John Ronnie exactly like the spin-off haha star in my own spin-off what yeah could you do that yeah I already told him there's more people here than the word for Hugh Jackman so he's winning not supposed to be competitive but Oh how's that feel Hugh this is an audience of sag actors that's why I was like to start by asking how did you get your sag card oh good question um I love my sag card story because I got my sag card doing a commercial I was in college and drove back to Boston on the weekends to do whatever commercials I could I was an extra and then I was be I was asked to be a featured extra and be checking out a woman at the counter and that woman ended up being margo martindale here yeah so my first job was with my later movie mom and when we did the haulers together we talked about it and I had seen her a couple times we talked about how my first moment acting was with her yeah did you tell her someday I'm gonna direct you she tells his story I can't even repeat it without laughing because I can't believe it's true but it she did say to me that day she said I'm not a betting woman but if I had any money I'd bet it all on you I think you're gonna be a big star and she told that story when we did the haulers and I was like oh my god yeah so so um I over ten-percent and she's doing fine you know a lot of commercials early on didn't I did I mean I did I thought it was a lot I think it was like five or six yes like this is it and yeah I did a lot of weird commercials I remember I did one commercial for Kodak where please don't go searching for it let's just leave it where it is but there was it was two roommates who were playing pranks on each other and one shaved one of his friends in the reverse mohawk and the other one shaved the other guy's eyebrow and my dad is a dr. he retired but at the time he visit doctor and I said hey I got I'm up for this role I don't know if I'm I brow guy or hair guy he called me the morning of the the news I hadn't heard yet and he was like so here's the deal talked to a couple doctors the eyebrows can and cannot come back may or may not happen so just play your reverse mohawk guy and I was like just put a damper on the day so they really congratulations and I was like just get to the part of my eyebrow guy they were like no you're reversible oh thank god and then as I was doing it to the real guy was like it's totally gonna grow back yeah oh you really did she oh yeah oh my god that poor man yeah we did one take yeah all you need is one yeah and he was never heard from again career was ruined by that one eyebrow oh well no I actually remember because we were introduced at the kinsey premiere years ago yeah by my friend who does a lot of commercials so I think it had worked with you that's right yeah and I said what is now I realize the dumbest thing ever because I was friends with jenna fischer through theater and she said this is John he's just been cast in the new office pilot and I was like Oh have you worked with this girl Jenna Fischer and yes she's my team and you know you played it so cool you were like oh yeah yeah I know her and then I see the show and I'm like oh man it's a year later I felt the shame yeah yeah so I want to go back actually and start at the beginning you were born and raised in Boston going all the way they're going way back Warner raisin father yeah when did you first know you wanted to be an actor were you the kid who did school plays or no I you know funnily enough the the first big acting thing I had was in high school I basically played basketball and I ran cross-country to get in shape for basketball and so I really didn't have any access to you know I had seen plays and done all this stuff but I was really kind of out of any artistic universe and then BJ Novak who went to high school with me came up to me and he said we're doing this thing we're reviving this thing called the senior show and I had heard about it in floor where the seniors write this giant parody on the school and the teachers loved it and BJ was like we're gonna room five it it went down because some kid was too controversial and we're gonna do it five years later and I want you to be the lead of it one of the leads of it and I remember asking him what are you crazy and he was like no no trust me you can do this and so that was my first kind of yeah yeah and then I went to college and somewhere in the back of my mind thought maybe I can play basketball in college and I came in as a mid year at Brown University and so they had this mid-year program and obviously because the basketball season was already midstream but I went up to meet the coach and I actually opened the door and everybody was practicing and as the door opened and by the time it said I was like you guys look like you've been up too long yeah looks like you guys are working out don't want anything to do with that and then as I was walking back from that moment at the gym I remember there was a flyer on a tree which was a big deal at Brown I remember being like can't nail things to tree especially Apple everybody needs to know yeah so I pulled this flyer down for a sketch comedy group and I went in auditioned and completely changed my life and I remember I went to audition because I wanted to be in that community and that's kind of the reason why I keep doing what I'm doing because the only reason I'm here is because of all the friends and and incredible support system I've had from the beginning I'm still try to get over the fact you went to high school would be Jay Novak I know yeah so random yeah we'll just pause yeah yeah no it's it was really weird and when I saw him at the audition for the office it was one of those things cuz he was all theatre all the time in high school and he was really good and so when I saw him in the audition room I got called back you know the like flown to LA to do the test which is terrifying and I walked in the room and he was like hey man I was like up well there it goes there goes the party going up for it he's like Ryan and I was like oh not mine perfect we're gonna be fine that's gonna be just fine yeah had you kept in touch over the years or was that science fiction him a couple times and you know when you're when you're from the same hometown yeah I think like more you hear about him Clarence and different things and you know BJ is doing radio yeah thanks didn't need to know that yeah and is it true at Brown did you major in playwriting well what happened was you there's a the only way you can major in writing at Brown at the time I don't know if it's change was you had to go into the Honors Program and the only way to do that was to get your degree early so I declared myself as an English major and you have to go through the entire English major before you can even apply to be a writer Wow which is kind of I realize later like I was a junior like waiting I'm only deciding on my life now yeah and so I applied the program and I got in and I was one of a couple kids that got into the playwriting program and it was it was phenomenal so were you actually writing and performing plays yes I mean you know the the crazy thing about Brown for me was I had sort of there were two education write the school's one of the best education you can get for short but the education I benefited most from was I was a kid who probably had never really seen many movies that weren't in the Cineplex and I hadn't heard music that wasn't on the radio and so my biggest education was my first week when I met these kids when I got into the sketch comedy group and finally got into this theatre group I said can you know to like seven of my closest friends can you give me an album in a movie every week that I should see and for four years these kids gave me a new album in a new movie that I should see and I mean it it was the most transformative time in my life artistically and no drugs necessary I was just like my my brain exploded every single night now I'll never forget that no drugs necessary but still optional laughs sure yeah yeah no I just kept watching movies at night and listening to music and I remember that I actually remember the first album was Nick Drake and I remember just sitting on the floor of my room being like oh got it so there's a whole new world yeah there yeah what were some of the movies that inflation during that time what was amazing because it was a bunch of different things there was like some French New Wave stuff but also my friends weren't we're very kind not to just like explode my brain from the beginning like you see in Fellini you know too much but I remember Noah Baumbach kicking and screaming was one of the first movies I saw that they gave me this movie safe many myself oh that's a mwah it's one of my favorite movies well if you haven't seen it it is legit like Big Lebowski level good it is so brilliant it was Mark Ruffalo Sam Rockwell Steve Zahn Paul Giamatti I think it was all like their first movie gonna be sane and yeah john hamburg had directed it and it was about the Jewish gangsters and Providence and so being at Brown I was like it was perfect I'm a Jewish case mhm everyone who was like in sketch groups in high school and college they always had like those funny names what was your guys's name out-of-bounds smarts kind of out there actually can't make fun of that thank you so did you also study acting when you were there was it mainly through that I took a couple classes but to be honest it was such a competitive place to be for acting I mean again the kids who are going and in the theatre program at Brown at least when I was there was they were also phenomenal and so inspiring so I've watched a lot of theatre I painted a lot of sets a little lot of sets I did whatever I could it truly was one of those things where we also had the most amazing student theatre one of the first things actually won the first thing I was ever asked to do anything other than like armed guard number four was chris hayes who's on MSNBC is was a director and friend at brown and he was one of the first people who ever like bj saw that i could do something more and so he came up to me and he said I'm gonna do this staged reading of this book and you have to be in it and I thought this was great and he said it's called brief interviews with hideous men and I went by this guy David Foster Wallace and that was one of the things that I think if you go back and say when did you decide that acting would be something you'd want to do for the rest of your life that was the moment because I realized up until then I was just trying to entertain people I was trying to make people laugh and what brief interview showed me is it moved people I had never seen an audience get so upset thrilled all these different things it's very hard material it's really dark stuff and yet people were engaged and either you saw the message that was these words or you felt sort of repulsed by this message and I'm not saying it's like an Andy Kaufman level you know any reactions a good reaction but it was one of those things were the next day I think our theater held like a hundred kids and 250 people showed up and I remember thinking that was pretty wild and the next day a teacher walked by me and said that was the best thing that student theatres ever done I thought wow it's great and then after the next class a teacher came up and said that's not at all what Browns about you shouldn't be doing things like that Wow we're sort of onto something also how dare you yeah what are you putting nails and trees get out so that's when you sort of made the decision to pursue this as a career I knew I wanted to give it a shot so what happened was because I was a mid year at Brown all my friends graduated in the spring but I had one more semester to make up and you know truly out of kind of sheer laziness I didn't want to be on the campus without my friends and I felt like I wanted to do something new I was always trying to do things a little I started school young only because of my age not because I was like some genius because my mom saw all my friends going to school and she was like and you're going to doesn't matter how old you are just get into kindergarten but it was one of those things where I had heard about this school called the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Center in Connecticut and I applied because again out of laziness I thought well that's one of the only places I've heard the transfers credits back that they actually accept Brown will accept that so I thought great I'll just do that and I was always planning on being a teacher and in those fourteen or sixteen weeks that was it I mean I yeah I met I remember it but it wasn't just because I fell in love with acting it's because I fell in love with the idea of having to work hard for it and that's the whole program they said you will wake up every morning we were waking up every morning at like 5:30 or 6:00 and we were going to bed every night at like 2:00 a.m. because you were directing producing painting sets you were doing everything and they wanted you to know that this is a community that you are lucky to be in and so if you are you if you have the distinct honor being in that group you need to work hard for it and I remember thinking this is it like this is that kind of fire that I've never felt before and it was there that I actually declared that I wanted to be an actor my mom picked me up after the final project and we hadn't left the parking lot and I said I'm gonna move to New York and I'm gonna be an actor and I think she hesitated for like point six of a second which was you know I have to give her so much credit for and she said great go do it and I thought wow that's amazing cuz it's you know you did just spend a lot of money on a night take education and I'm gonna go be a professional waiter yeah and and she said just do me one favor if you--if two and a half three years we used to fish as kids and so she said if two and a half three years you don't have a bite if you don't have a nibble you got to make me one promise which is that you'll pull yourself out because the only thing I can't stand by and be a part of is you as your mom I can't be asked to tell my son to give up on his dreams don't put me in that position and I said fair enough Wow and then two and a half years later I called her and I had a great time in New York I really it was just the most mind-blowing time with friends and doing all this independent stuff it was great and then I called and I just said you're right I didn't have a bite and it's not for me and I thought I had it and maybe I don't that's okay and she's at all with September just you know wait til the end of the year just we'll talk about it at Christmas and I went all right fine and three weeks later I booked the office you're kidding Wow yeah you know actually Jenna has a similar story where she was gonna go through one that's easily totaled but I remember she was gonna give up and do animal rescue I'm she she would so like it's almost sounds like the office like I don't know if everyone else was like at the point where they were ready to give up well you know it's funny you say that though because we all talked about it where you know Steve had done like FedEx commercials and the Daily Show before he did our show and I remember he had just gotten anchorman and so anchorman was yet to be released after our pilot and before first season I think he I think it did come out but there was it was this feeling of we really felt like we were a repertory company it felt like we were doing different plays every week for an audience and if you were lucky enough to be there we got to perform for you we never thought it would go anywhere I mean we actually were I've told the story many times but we were not only threatened to be cancelled we were legit canceled every single Friday so the first it's not it's not Joe with like the first I think our pickup is tied for the lowest in history I think Craig Daniels hoes that we were picked up for four and I think Greg was you know bold enough to say I you know I won't do for I'll do six and so we had the first season was six which was amazing and every single Friday this amazing guy I remember of Jeff he was really handsome cool guy from NBC being like this is my favorite show unfortunately the network doesn't see that you will not be doing this show and then you'd get like a call on the weekend or kind of the comeback Monday we'll give it another try and I remember at the end of it I went up to Jeff and I said could you do me one favor and he said yeah I said I'm sure at NBC you can like print a DVD and he said yeah and I said can you print a DVD but these six episodes because I just need to show my mom that this was real so she doesn't think I was out here in LA nothing and he printed it and hand wrote the office episodes one through six and I still have it it's amazing uh yeah and I think it's pretty well known that you actually thought this was a terrible idea to import the office from there I thought the show was an amazing idea I in my audition for it in New York I was sitting next to six other gyms that's the worst really really good for the part and they all went in and I was the seventh one and then the casting director in New York came up to me he said all right so we're just gonna break for lunch and I thought oh can we just do one more before everybody leaves and just people coming out of offices for days you just didn't know that there were that many people in this office and everybody went got a salad or a sandwich down at 30 rock and I was sitting alone in this office for a long time just sweating and then everybody rushes back in with all their you know whatever like sweet greens or whatever it was at the time and this guy sits right there and he's eating and he just said you know are you nervous and I said ah no you know you get these things or you don't but what I'm really nervous about is I mean Americans just have such a you know a habit of ruining great UK shows and they're just this is one of my favorite shows they're gonna ruin it because the UK one is perfect and he goes hi I'm Greg Danielle something executive producer Wow and I legit threw up in my mouth okay and then he was like I'll see you in there and I was like and I went out in the hall and I called my manager at the time and I was like so this is done he was like oh how bad can it be and I told him he was like that's bad and then I went into the room and everybody was laughing very much like this at me not with me and it was one of those weird things where like when you you know anybody knows that the comedies comedy no matter where yeah I mean from and so I just did it and to this day Greg says it's one of the reasons why I got the part because you know you you were honest and honesty is the best policy and there was something about you that I liked that you weren't just doing whatever it took to impress me and I thought yeah totally that was all yeah so now every time I go into a room I'm like this script sucks but I'll do it I was gonna say to your audition advices and exactly just insult everyone that looks at you it will eventually pay off you sort of mentioned like I think people have a very different they remember the show very differently because it's so iconic now but this was before 40 year old virgin and it was as u s-- exactly yep cancel almost can't when was the moment you started to realize it was a thing oh I remember the day vividly so I used to go to toast which was right near my house yeah I loved so now you can't get in every time I Drive by I'm like there's 840 people trying to get iced coffee so I used to go in there every morning and you know just I ordered an iced coffee and sat with my friend Danny and we were talking about a bunch of different stuff and one day I walked in I was laughing with Danny and they had just aired sexual-harassment Mindy's episode she had written yeah and I walked in and I remember everybody in the place just went and I went oh my god what what's happening today am I not wearing pants like what ha ha and then a bunch of people came up and said we saw that episode sexual harassment was really cool and was bold and was different it was funny and I thought oh boy that's a whole different thing and then the other moment I remember that it was a totally different stratospheric thing was we were lucky enough to come out at the same time as iTunes and so I was walking through New York and a guy came up to me had no idea what an iPod was and he was like hey man you're on my iPod and my brain exploded because he was holding some device that I thought was a bomb or something and then my face is on like an inch by inch screen and I thought this is this is very bizarre and we realized that if you if we could get people to pay a dollar ninety-nine for a show that they could watch for free that's when NBC was like boy all right fine we'll pick it up we'll do it yeah and that's when everything jeans least Jeff was happy yeah exactly yeah Jeff is like great no but it's funny because we always talked about it that you know whenever you see award speeches or whatever people always say you know we owe everything to our fans we legitimately owe everything to our fans I can honestly say that this our show is as much yours as it is ours you created what we have you gave us the opportunity because you legitimately voiced your opinion to say we love this show and so it was kind of big of like voting your favorite people on the air we feel like we just won a lottery ticket do you have a favorite memory of your time on the show oh my god it's one of the you know as funny as I remember I was at some award show and somebody came up to me and was like what season is it and I said we're in the fifth season and whoever it was said oh this is the one and I went oh what's the one he goes where you all start hating each other I said oh really he said yeah like everybody will start to do other things I mean you know dissipate and go other places and you know we had all started working on other stuff but I'm pretty sure everybody on the show will legitimate ly say it was the best time of our lives I mean from from day one today the end it was it was a perfect existence and so I mean if you watch any bloopers on line I mean my favorite moments were certainly laughing yeah and getting to laugh with these people and getting to be a part of something where you knew that if you weren't on the show you would be the most die-hard fan at home watching it and I thought that was just so unreal to me and that's why I broke every time and people are like wow you're the most unprofessional actor ever knows it yeah yeah you try working with Steve Carell he's ridiculous and he's just so brilliant and smart and just a fireball of comedy and energy and it's actually it's funny I was actually talking about it yesterday or two days ago on on set I someone asked me about the office and how it all ended and oh I was talking to Michael Kelly the house of cards just ended and Michael Kelly's on our show and in season 2 which was amazing and Wendell Pierce's everything and he's on our show and we were talking about the end of the wire and the end of house of cards um because Mike was just doing Michael was doing a press and I said he said how did the office end I said I'll never forget that Greg did the Greg directed the last episode thank God it sort of felt perfect and he directed the episode that everybody he kind of left this insert shot of all of us leaving and going to Poor Richard's bar and he said oh yeah I have to do this shot at the end and so we were all there laughing and if anybody knows it's like when you're in a group scene and you know that it's gonna be used for two seconds you kind of really whatever and we're walking out we're joking with each other and you round the corner which is now like wood you know it's like doesn't look like the set at all more laughing and then when we came back in he was in the middle of a set and we were joking and and he turned and he said well that that's the end of the office and we were all together and the fact that he didn't say like this is John's last scene now Jenna and like rain being left till like 8:00 p.m. to shoot his last shot that would have been awful and he knew that if we were all together and I'll never forget people doubled over because we were we went from laughing with each other thinking we had another three hours to shoot and then he said that's the end of the office and we all went oh my god like it was just the most unbelievably intense and emotional experience you might have answered this earlier when you said Steve but who made you break up the most oh I did yeah and rain and I had this weird thing where I think he'd say the same thing too that was just like a look that he would give me and I would laugh all the time I think it's in the bloopers like he'll say something that he doesn't even look like he's breaking or anything but there was just you know there really is such a thing as a twinkle in and I and like the difference between saying like dammit Jim and then being like dammit Jim and I'm like okay that was that was too much too much too much heat but no I mean I remember there were so many moments certainly I think the hardest I laughed damn near died was a dinner party when when that when he does that thing with the TV and he says and then when guests come over you can just I mean I'm like right now thinking about is like that was the funniest thing I've ever witnessed in my life know is it was crazy and then the other thing was that's very true as much as I laughed I cried the most with him too because I think that we were both from Boston we shared this thing listen we all cried all the time but when Steve left that was actually the last scene the day of Steve's last day and I didn't realize that till later you people are like look at a call sheet man sounds like you didn't know about this family thing it's like not that big a deal last on the call sheets what you're shooting so I go in to do this scene and it just hit me it was like you were in the room and you were with Steve and Steve has been had been really quiet and all day obviously and very sweet but very quiet and I think we knew that this was it and so we rolled and I think I think I remember the director telling me it was 17 takes before we got one word out because they called action and it was like no then it was so I mean and if you've seen the show when I cry I cry hard like I laugh cry and cry cry I just I cry whatever whenever I get the opportunity so yeah it was a there were a lot of retouches I think that scene took like four and a half hours didn't you audition with rain is that true are you repaired - well we once we went to the test yeah I auditioned with everybody I mean so we did I remember rain it was one of those things where you know it sounds like a cliche or just revisionist history but it's true when you look at the moments I remember the second I audition with rain Greg came out and said we're gonna do this improv and you have a diet coke in the refrigerator and you're asking him not to drink it and I said okay we started doing this improv and as soon as we started doing it I legitimately was not only frustrated as Jim in the scene but I was super frustrated John Krasinski for Rainn Wilson screwing up the scene for me because I was like hey so I just wanna oh no I had to leave - I had to leave to go the bathroom he had to man my phone that was the second improv and I said I'm just gonna go to the bathroom if you could just and he went mmm like that and I was like I was like I get I get it man I just I'm gonna go to the bathroom it's like seven seconds maybe thirty just and he was like I'm like shutting all these doors and by the end of it I legitimately was like I'm gonna punch you in the face you but you and then they're like uh time like I'm not finished and then I'll never forget meeting Jenna she walked in the room and it sounds like some romance but it's true she walked in the room they were the New York crew was first the New York actors were first in the elegan and all the New York actors had left but me and I went on set finally and said I think someone forgot to tell me to go home and they're like nope wait one sec but when I met Jenna she was coming in and I saw her and I just I said that's it that's the girl who's gonna get it and so the whole day I just said if I could read with her I have a shot if I don't there's no chance and so I read with all these amazing actresses who were great then I never read with Jenna and that's when I went in and said you know I think someone forgot to tell me to go home and you heard these people be like behind the wall being like wow and then they said Jenna can you come in and read with Jon and as soon as she sat down I was like I I might have a chance at this and she you know we did the little scene and as we were walking out I said you're gonna get this part and she said that's so crazy I thought you were gonna get the part and then when we both were told that we had the the part the first question we asked was I said did did Jenna Fischer get the part because I thought if she does it then I then we might be able to do something special and if somebody else got it I I'm pretty sure we'll be canceled wants to know what was your relationship with the audition process were you a nervous auditioner and what did you find that worked for you you know yeah I was terrified it was one of those things where I saw auditioning as this sort of wild animal that I could never get a relationship with I couldn't figure out my in I couldn't figure out how to drop in I couldn't figure out how to be anchored all these things that I had heard my friends talking about and I was like I can't do it I just get there and want a random occasion I feel like I think that went pretty well usually it was just sort of like oh god there's a lot of energy going different places and I don't know what's going on but hopefully this worked out for all of us and it never did and then I I swear I was such a huge fan of stuff like this and so I watched inside the actor studio all the time I actually taped it on VHS cuz I was out at work and I was watching ed Harris's yeah and somebody asking the same question what do you feel about auditioning and he said I love auditioning but you're talking to someone I'm paraphrasing but you're talking to someone who's very you know as has a lot of experience and is successful and so you know that's a whole different animal but when I was auditioning to begin with the thing that tripped me up all the time was I realized that I wanted something from the audition I realized that if if I get this part I can impress this girl if I get this part I can pay for this apartment and I just stopped and said I'm gonna do a three-minute play because the only thing you don't get to do as a working actor is act because you're doing so many other things and my brain exploded and it really struck me so just go in and do a three-minute play and if they like you they like you and if they don't they're gonna give it to someone else anyway because the this is what you do the next day I went in and I booked my first job ever really yeah because of that yeah did you have any of those disastrous auditions or were you pretty lucky that's um I actually was really lucky though I I asked sue I went around New York City and I went to a bunch of casting people and instead of saying hey I'm an actor if you ever need me I said do you need a reader and meg Simon at Warner Brothers in New York called back and said yeah I'll take you as a reader and that was incredible to sit there and be the reader for all these other actors meg as soon as people would leave and not in a negative way she would just say you know these are the things we were looking for and these are the things that weren't really attained and these are the things that unfortunately for that person they're just too tall because he doesn't know that the lead actress is small and like it was just amazing how much insight she gave and how much care she gave to me and I'll never forget it wow we had a question from Christopher see don't speak yeah want to know although many consider the office your big break what do you think of as your big milestone or transitional moment of your career well that's really mean for sure career-wise there's no question I mean you know the the office was a lottery ticket and and so I have a hard time when people say you know my daughter and my son wants to get into acting any advice and I say like don't listen to me I mean I literally won a lottery ticket so there's no advice there because it was such a shot out of a cannon moment nobody really knew it would happen and I think the only advice there is be prepared for anything you know you never know which one's gonna hit or which one's not but the big thing for me was what do you fall in love with and so I do look back on that brief interviews thing at college because after I left school it had stayed with me so much that it was the first thing I directed and the first thing I wrote and it was because I was so impacted that I felt like I needed to let other people have that experience however small the group of people that would see it was and so when I I remember I went to the the agent of David Foster Wallace and I said I'd like to buy the rights to this to do as a movie and she said how much money do you have and I called my manager and I said how much was that pilot check into the cent I just gave my entire pilot check to her and said this is all I've got but I'll I'll get it back for you I promise and so it was one of those things where I think brief interviews to me was the breakthrough of falling in love with the idea of doing it and then the office was obviously the the idea of the business break so you bought the rights to brief interviews like early on in the office oh yeah I was still waiting tables so after I did the pilot I went back to New York and waited tables cuz I was I was like you never know this for sure won't go and and I had that money and I was so excited about it but I just thought I had this weird thing where so I named my production company that I have now Sunday night and the reason why I named it Sunday night was because all my friends in New York when we all decided to move to New York we were writers or directors and actors and like I said the only thing you don't get to do is the thing you love so we were all assistants and waiters and I worked like seven jobs and so we would all meet on Sunday night and that was our time to talk about movies and plays and books and albums and it was the most amazing stuff and at those tables we would you know bang a table and say you know if we ever got the chance this is what we do with that chance and it's kind of the reason I'm doing what I'm doing I think people ask me now you know with all the stuff you're doing are you running away from Jim and I said absolutely not it's the exact opposite the idea of Jim was such an opportunity I genuinely didn't feel I deserved it and so I had to go out and if these guys had gotten the chance that I had they'd be doing they'd be putting their money where their mouth is and so I got to do that so I you know went out and directed the hollers I did my first play I did 13 hours and then I did the quiet place and it was just this thing of I made a promise to some younger spiritual self of mine that if I ever get the shot do everything you can with it and don't just sit back and and feel like you deserve it so that's that's what I'm doing I'm doing and during your time on the office you started doing movies um you did do a movie that I don't know I don't even remember coming out but it has gone on to become like a huge favorite of everyone smiley face oh my god yes yes people love that movie or maybe not no one reacted yeah no one exactly but whenever I bring it up I feel like I love them yeah I mean on apheresis a genius always has been and the director was incredible and the the story of it I was never a big pot smoker so I loved this idea of pretending to be in this crazy pot-smoking Odyssey and it was and I got to play her very weird friend that secretly was in love with her and the super bizarre and weird it's such a great movie um and I think it's actually free on YouTube so you have no excuse go check it out yeah you'll get residuals from YouTube uh uh but you were also doing like studio movies you worked what you got to work with Robin Williams own license to Wed I didn't even imagine what that's like it was totally surreal so I don't think I've ever told this story I had the weirdest dream in cuffs so you I was the biggest Robin Williams fan because he was somebody who was extremely funny but also when you come from Boston I think we all have like Google hunting tattooed to our backs like the entire poster is on my back and so that movie was extremely transformative in in Sprott inspiring and I had this weird dream in college I can't believe I'm saying this is definitely being recorded but I have this weird dream that met Robin Williams and we were weirdly walking through the woods near my house where I grew up and he was just really nice and we were talking about stuff and not even acting or whatever and then he was like oh yeah so I'm just gonna head home and I was like all right whatever and I thought wow that's really cool I got to meet Robin Williams in my dreams and then I did the movie with him and I told him that story and he was like yeah I was there and he was the most amazing sweetest kindest nicest all the things that you could want and he also taught me something that I'll never forget and actually try to practice every day he also said we were at craft service which by the way makes me laugh so we're at cuz there was one day and someone had dropped something and it sounded like a gunshot and he was like putting cream cheese on a bagel or something and somebody dropped something and this is how good he was he was so fast that we were talking about like a news article on the paper and somebody went BAM he went into the craft service table and it was like that is I don't even think I heard it by the time you react it was so amazing but it was also at that kind of service table when we were talking he said listen I hid I think he had seen some of the officer saying and he said you know I think you're great and I think one day you'll be number one on the call sheet and the only thing I would tell you is always respect what that means don't ever take that as a vanity thing always remember it's actually a responsibility and a responsibility you have to every single person on set so he said for instance if it's hot and the a/c breaks you don't get to say the AC is broken in the air hot because as soon as you say you're hot everybody's hot and then it was just this thing round I just thought how incredible that he had reached a pinnacle in his life and in his career where he had every right to just sit back and do whatever he wanted and instead he was just pushing to make sure there was more and more and more that he could give to other people we have a question from Michael what's know if you can talk about the transition from TV to film but specifically evolving from a nice guy to action star oh yeah you could be a nice guy actually saying yes no is one of those things again I try to do things that feel really organic to me you know um a quiet place is certainly one of those things where never thought I'd do a horror movie never watched horror movies as a kid and yeah never was terrified I mean it was just such a scary cat and then the idea of it which I could talk about later but with the office and the whole thing it was it was this thing I wanted to do things that challenge me and I wanted things to organically come around and to be really honest with you I remember someone saying to me oh man when that show ends just wait the phone's gonna ring off the hook and the real truth is is it didn't it was like this weird thing where I think people wanted to sort of put you in you know a glass case and be like you were Jim from the office and that was an amazing run and I remember that really frustrated me not because of Jim but because as artists I think we always want to try new things and challenge ourselves and and fail I actually the that school I told you about TI their their slogan is risk fail and fail again and I think that that's brilliant you know that's what I wanted to do so I got frustrated by that and so it wasn't about trying to become an action star this script 13 hours came to me and I come from a huge military family and I had always wanted to do something in the military I have 11 knots and uncles and cousins that have served or are currently serving still and so I wanted to not honor them or anything like that because how can you honor that commitment but I wanted to be a part of something that told a story of the heroism that I know they go through every day and so I really really really wanted that part and I really dedicated myself to it and it was one of those things where they had had two stars that they already knew that they were gonna cast so I was told but Denise the casting director who's unbelievable asked that I come in specifically and she said yes they're all saying that these two people have been cast but I think you'd be great for it and she again I just did that Ed Harris thing I was like great I got three minutes to do this and if nothing else I got to play a military guy for three minutes and they were great scenes and it was the phone call at the end of the movie if you've seen it and it was something else which was really great to do in an audition room was really scary and when I got the part I think everybody you know when the movie came out everybody was like oh I see you're trying to transition an action guy and I said no that was actually one of the most personal roles I've played in a long time because I got to sort of embody my cousins and my aunts and my uncles that I get to see all the time and you know are my actual day-to-day hero so that's that's sort of how it happened organically and then yeah I think when you take your shirt off in a movie and people go oh I remember every audition being like I totally can get worked out I and they're like and then as soon as you do it they're like he can get worked out okay let's try some other parts and do it it's just a gym membership I could we can all do it no you can't and did 13 hours sort of lead directly to Jack Ryan because it's a co-producer exactly yeah it was the same producers and it was paramount and they had seen a screening of 13 hours while they were developing the show I knew nothing about the show I just signed on in my first play again it was one of those thing I wanted to keep trying new things and the play was unbelievable I got to work with the most amazing actors I worked with Hank Azaria and Claire Danes and also the director was Tom McHale who had directed a very small play called Hamilton and it was just perfect so I was in this sort of zone with that and while I was rehearsing that play they called and said you know there's this they're gonna redo Jack Ryan and I I love the character but I didn't know what I would bring to it and then they said it's gonna be long-form television I thought well that's the answer if you can actually investigate a character if you can actually live with this character on screen and see you know what he's like alone and what makes me scared and all these things because it's hard to do a heroic story in two hours because you got to kind of just get to a fistfight with the bad guy and then sort of get something and you know and in this you actually get to live with them and and that was my big hook I'm trying to think but um Harrison Ford Alec Baldwin was fine Ben Affleck they've all played Jack Ryan what I'm missing all right can we cut the tape this is insane yes uh-huh and you know some of these people did you I don't know I don't wanna say ask for advice but sort of I didn't ask granny advice no I know Ben I know Chris but I know Alec really well and Alec and I have had so much fun from it's complicated too I wrote these really goofy Boston Red Sox versus Yankees commercials that he did with me and I wrote it with this amazing guy Charlie Randy and and Alec decide to do it I couldn't believe he signed on but they were the most fun I've had in a long long time and so I wrote to him and I just said hey so gonna be playing Jack Ryan and he wrote back something hilarious and sort of basically yelled at me and was like I'm still better than you in this world I was like I haven't shot it yet but yes I'm sure you're right I know he was just so nice yeah good luck with it and and I hope it goes great for you and was so incredibly kind yeah I mean it is such its own animal I love that we get to spend more time with this character mmm the balance of action but then also character development is really great yeah absolute it's one of those characters that I always was drawn to as a kid because I mean at the end of the day I don't know maybe I was just like a super realist kid but I knew I could never be Batman or Superman or any of those people but there was something about Jack Ryan that yes just a guy who uses his brain and his instincts and he can get stuff done and one person can change the world and I remember always being really inspired by that that idea that if you stand up for what you believe and there is a battleground of what's right and wrong and sometimes it's really hard and the lines are blurry that you have to fight for what's right forgive me for not knowing is there a season 2 already greenlit they are shooting it right now you're kidding yes Wow yep and I I think we have we have like two or three more weeks of shooting and then we're done is that an exhausting wrong I mean and also just doing a series I know it's you know yeah it's limited it is it's you know it's it's one of those things that you know anytime you're the the your character's name is the show and you're doing a lot more work but it's you know it's one of those things or it's a totally different experience and you know coming from all the stuff that I've been writing and directing and producing it's you know I have nothing to do with this show as far as creative you know push of it this is all seen through the eyes of these show runners and so it's kind of nice to just check in as the actor for that one so it's good I won't talk about some of the directors you've worked with because you were in George Clooney's leather heads I thought was still during the office oh yeah as I believe you work with Sam Mendes Wow I know Bill Condon that's cash - a couple times bill did yeah in Kinsey and then I had a tiny role in Dreamgirls I'd do anything bill called for but bill was one of those people that he cast me in Kinzie and totally one of those nightmare moments where I was doing the lines with Liam Neeson as you do in the makeup trailer and Liam Neeson was so nice and we were doing these lines and I played this character who basically couldn't I still believe that babies came out of like women's navels and things like that like it was the idea where America was in their understanding of sex and we were doing the lines and it was great we were laughing and we talked about the Simpsons and even back then I was like trying to get stuff made not for me but for him he was like I love the Simpsons so much I said I'm sure he could get on The Simpsons and he was like you think I could and I said yeah and then I was like he's like in what capacity and I said as ground keeper was Willie's brother yes like definitely come back as like a cool and so I think later he was on The Simpsons having nothing to do with our conversation but anyway it was like such a fun environment in the trailer and then I got on set and they go to my coverage and it was just like no I got nothing I don't even know what these words are I don't know what I'm talking about and I don't and it was really terrifying cuz one of my first jobs don't forget Liam Neeson leans over the desk the scene is he's behind the desk and he leans over he goes what are you doing and I was like yeah I know I'm so sorry and he was like what are you doing I was so perfect in the trailer just do that and I was like yeah I wish I could but it kind of was exactly what I needed to hear and what he was inviting me to do is go back to sort of that just talk about the Simpsons and it really did unlock it and and had a lot of fun I still have the piece of paper because Bill Condon rewrote the scene which I thought was definitely because I was terrible and he rewrote the scene with a pencil on the back of the sides and I still I still have that yeah and you have to work with Nancy Meyers more than yeah that's really cool that's really fun yeah I mean Nancy's Nancy's amazing I mean it's complicated for me I don't even know how much I worked with Nancy it was more like I did a part in these amazing movies you know the first one I did with her it was really a small part but it was fun and then it's complicated I I mean when you step on set with Meryl Streep period and then Alec Baldwin also you just like alright this is it I should be retiring now that I went and it was just so much fun the first time I met Meryl I was opening the door I was her son-in-law and I was opening the door to bring her into our apartment and I don't know why I did this but I said she would listen to me auntie's direction and we were about to rehearse and I said just so you know when I open this door I'm gonna be shirtless and narrow without hesitation goes then I think you need to do some push-ups and I was like I was it was just so good like hack that she took the piss out of me that fast that's amazing and we had a great relationship it was really fun it was great and then Alec was insane when we did this bathroom scene that's in the movie none of that was happening it was sort of they were smoking and I walk in and she walks in it was like an amazing physical comedy bit and him if you watch the movie you can see again captain professional starts to break but Alec Baldwin Nancy was like you know how you improved a couple lines she always let me improv which I don't know why and she and I was in probably and she said that's great John it's really funny and then Alec you could tell was like well I'm gonna improv because I'm also funny so watch this and he grabbed the back of my head and he was like um he's like here I'm just gonna I'm just gonna do this just do it and he turns the joint around and it I didn't know what a shotgun was and he goes I'm gonna shotgun you and I was like what and so in the movie you see me going and that is John Krasinski being manhandled by Alec Baldwin that is not a card for choice he is very strong very strong and it's the reason why when we did that Boston Red Sox New York Yankees thing I wrote and I wrote a line in them that says you have the hands of a plumber I couldn't get away so basically he actually blew smoke in my mouth I was not accepting about and when you worked with George Clooney it was I think the year before you shot brief interviews with hideous men so I mean were you sort of that's in many ways the path people want to emulate he's an actor who yeah directing and directing himself Nolan yeah that was that was a crazy experience because again I just worked with Robin and I I think if I hadn't worked with Robin I would have lost my mind on letterheads truly though because I was so new to the whole thing was kind of losing my mind about how this office had just sort of taken on and it's a lot like you know there's no two ways about it I don't know a lot of people who were just like yeah your shows a huge hit like be totally cooled it's it's a quart sort of an adjustment you know and I was bizarrely probably less so but I was kind of a really shy person at the time and so when I got on leather heads and there's Renee and there's Georgia I sort of freaking out and George was so amazing from the get-go and he has remained one of my dearest friends and mentors because of that because he let me in on the process he let me in on he was I was a confidant and he was a confidant we used to talk about the script and things that he was gonna change I think in the first week he started bringing me to dinner almost every night and was saying this is what we're gonna shoot and this is how we're gonna do it and it was just a crash course and in all that is is him and he's the most obviously talented guy but as a person he's so incredibly warm and so inclusive and so you know we were not we've gone on to stay friends and he's the guy who I'll shoot an email to before you go director when you are writing a script or something you just you just reach out to him because he's that guy who has just a ton of people who love him and he wants to give that love back and when you decided to make well I guess you decided early on to make brief interviews with hideous men this is I mean David Foster Wallace is kind of impossible to adapt it was saying well it's one yeah I mean I wouldn't do Infinite Jest ever that took me like six years and eighty four bottles of Advil to get through but I made it um he's the most I think he has to go down is one of the most important writers we've ever had I think there are there are thoughts and certainly turn a phrase and words that he puts in your head that will never come out thank God because he just he was a transformative person luckily brief interviews is if anybody hasn't read David Foster Ross I always say the brief interviews is a crash it's a great into it because they are just interviews with guys you'll get to know his language there are other essays in the book that are really funny and well-written and painful and dark and all these things but it was it was kind of a nice introduction to him and because it was laid out almost like scenes I thought well that's what I'll do I'll just do the connective tissue and connect them all and my whole plan there was pretty simple I had never directed so I just thought I'll just throw this in the wind and see what happens and get a really good DP who happens to be the president of her Academy right now Scott Bailey and and get my favorite actors I remember I went through a list of everybody who had blown me away in New York so when I was waiting tables I would always run and see plays and go to TKTS and get tickets and so I I just got you know Bobby Cannavale II I got Ben Shenkman I got all these people that I'd seen on stage rip my heart and face off and and I just thought I'll ask them if they want to do this thing and they were all just small models and so you could come in for a day do a monologue and leave them so a lot of people did it which was great did you find the experience rewarding because this was your feet when thanh to do it again yeah i had a blast and i and i was but it again it was one of those things where i I try to stay open to all these moments and when I finished I remember John Bailey and I were talking and I said wow that was amazing he said it really was that could have gone horribly wrong and I said what do you mean and he was the first person who just put my perspective back to day one and said let's just walk through this experience and see where you got really lucky and where the next time you don't you should plan to not be lucky you should plan to be right and planned to be prepared and it was amazing because there were so many moments where you know we'd lose the location when you're 26 years old and have never directed before you're like if we lose that location we just go over here and he was like that's not usually how it works but it sort of worked out it was a it was a pretty cool existence and and it was huge for me as a director to have him look back and show me all the things that I can prepare more for and I just started building from there did you actually have auditions for that movie or did you just say you just sort of cast people that you admired know we had some auditions for sure for some of the smaller roles you know we had like Michael servers come in and he did a part and Chris Messina did a part and all these different things we had some auditions for for the roles but no for the most part it was kind of just who I had been blown away by mm-hmm what's it like for you to be on the other side of the audition table well nothing but pure empathy I mean you know exactly what is happening and so I have never I never look for a knockout performance I always look for someone who gets it so to me you can mess up nearly every line you can you can make big bold choices but I know or I should say I think I know what I feel is that you're onto something and that you're in our you're in our sandbox and you can play with us and you're in this target which has to be small but if you can just stay within these four borders of our sandbox we can do something really fun and that's that's the best part about being an actor you know one of the best parts about being an actor that directs is you know not to look for all these other stupid things you just go for like is that you do you have the heart of this character and let's do it and then in 2012 you co-wrote and starred in promised land yes directed by Gus Van Sant with Matt Damon you show him your back tattoos that's a yes oh here we go another story of like just sounds like I'm a fanboy like everywhere I go kind of what I am but ya know it was amazing Matt was doing he was doing Adjustment Bureau with my wife and I had never met him before and I think I've told the story before but the first day I met Matt Damon which I had sort of prepared my head I wasn't walking went through the woods with him or anything but I had definitely felt that you know you know I'd love to talk to him about writing in Boston and all the things we seemed similar and I remember Emily saying we're shooting at 30 rock today at the top you should come because we just started dating we were I think we just started dating yeah I think was just before we got engaged or something and so we she said come to 30 rock the views amazing I said great she goes come after 4 p.m. and I was like that's weird do you never like giving me a time to show up but I thought fine whatever maybe they're doing stunt work or something so I show up at 4 and I'm being led up all these stairs to get up there in elevators and stairs and every couple of seconds you know they're like we rolling rolling we stop and then we get to the top and they sort of blow through like whatever the pigeon door or something and they're like rolling rolling and somebody grabbed me and threw me into the producers tent which is the ball blacked out and my face went right up against the screen right in time to see Matt being like with my wife and one of the producers goes is that why you came today and I went what and he was like Charlie get it man protect your girl and I was like what and then I went outside and my first meeting with Matt Damon is my wife comes up to me with like pink all around her mouth and I was like that's great and then he comes up and he goes hey man I was just totally tonguing your girl and I went cool man thanks and he goes oh my god why did I just say that he was like I was trying to make a joke I'm the worst and he walked off and that was my first meeting my first video in that yeah and from there a partnership was born yeah we like fought in the street for like an hour and then no it was it was it was very quick Matt and I you know I was actually right I thought we'd have similar sensibilities but I didn't realize that he becomes such a unbelievable friend and you know again I I just I'm one of those people who wants to learn every single day every single second and there's so much I can be doing better in personal life and career and so he's one of those guys he was just so much fun to talk to and then one day we were at dinner and was I remember it was a loud restaurant and he just said do you write I said it yeah I mean I I do but yeah and I was so unconfident with it and he said well do you have anything right now and I said yeah I've got this idea it's about these two brothers one of the brothers gets sick and knows he's gonna die so he asked his brother to take care of his son and it was Manchester by the sea and so I had this idea and Matt was gonna direct it and we were gonna do it together and then when we were talking I told him about this other idea of promise land and that sort of started to take a faster track and so he said because I hadn't started writing Manchester by the sea I just had the story and we gave it to Kenny Lonnegan and I think it was like two or three years later Kenny delivered a script we weren't even sure he was gonna deliver script and then it came in and it is the movie that you know and it's and it's all Kenny people always say you know like are you so bummed that you didn't get to do that and I was like no way man you're missing the whole point of what we're doing if I was bummed this is this is a guy who had a specific voice on a story that was meant so much to me but I never would have gone down that road with it it would have been a totally different movie so thank goodness he did it the way you did and then Casey Affleck played the part that Matt was gonna play and I'm pretty sure Matt would say the same thing otherwise he's a jerk no but like you get Casey Affleck to do that role in that movie becomes what it is yeah and with the haulers when he was at 2014 2015 I think I am terrible eating any all I know it was like right after the office ended I again it was that thing of like how didn't know what I was gonna do next and then you know the whole phone call thing wasn't really what it turned out to be and I was auditioning and doing these things but it just wasn't really and I get it there's like a moment where everybody just says like we should that you know I don't want to cast Jim from the office to be Jim from the office and that's when I was like I think I can do other things and so I started writing and so I didn't write the hollers but I started writing some other stuff and we were talking about promise land all these things and then Jim Strauss had asked me to be the actor in this movie the hollers like years earlier and he was going to direct it and he wanted margo martindale to do it and I just said absolutely it was this 'men from an incredibly loving close-knit family miss family is a disaster and yet at the end of the at the end of the script I just said that's my family there was something so Universal about it even though their specific situation was different it was my family and the idea for me of family and what love is and what reliance and what the the beautiful idea of falling in love with your mom and and all that stuff was was important to me so Jim actually went off to directs in the house and I said I'll direct it and we just made the movie down in Jackson Mississippi I mean you had amazing actors in brief interviews but I mean your directing Margo Martindale Richard Jenkins and you're playing opposite them yeah I mean this is very different from your first experience yeah it was it hard now I was a jackass oh yeah it was amazing we went down there and you know again it's one of those things where when you're on the other side you remember very clearly that people are coming down to Jackson Mississippi for no money and they're leaving their families and so you need to make this a summer camp experience you need to make this something that we'll always remember and so that's why I said to them I said listen I'm just I just want to make it special for you and we had a table read and I remember Richard Jenkins coming up to me it was because we had never met but we had almost bumped into each other a whole bunch times and he's one of my favorite actors period and I remember he came up to me and I said thank you so much for being in this and you know it's gonna be this this and I was about to pitch him and he said here's the deal I've done a lot of these okay I've done a lot of these movies and I've traveled and done the whole thing just don't make it just don't make this one that sucks and I go I can promise you that won't happen and he was like great and then on day three of shooting or something I'll never forget we called rap on the day and he came up to me and he just looked at me and he went alright okay cool I love it and he walked away and I could tell that he was feeling the vibe of the movie and that we were into something and it turned out to be he rapped like he was supposed to only be there for you know two weeks and was actually ended up being there for five weeks or something and I thought I was ruining his life and turns out he was having the greatest time ever so I loved that experience that's a really good Richard G thanks by the way we're gonna watch the tape I think you'd be like exactly Oh which brings us to a quiet place mm-hmm um how did this project find its way to you because I've heard different stories I'm really curious it's already lore well yeah only been a year for God's sake I heard this weird story and we can cut this out if I'm like that like Emily reddit's you guys kind of read it at the same time but separately no so what happened was I was about to start Jack Ryan the first season we were doing prep for it and Platinum Dunes was the producers on it and drew form and Brad fuller who were the producers on this movie while we were talking about Jack Ryan they said hey we have this genre script would you ever play the lead in this movie when I said no I I don't watch honor I can't do shun Rafiq's me up and they said it's a pretty good premise and I said what's the premise and they said it's about a family that can't talk and you have to figure out why and I remember being like dude that's the best one-liner ever and so I read it and we had just had our second daughter she was three weeks old and I was actually holding a three week old while reading a story about a family who had to keep their kids quiet and do whatever it they could to protect them and I went to some other place have never had this experience in my career I visualized the movie from top to bottom within minutes of finishing scripts and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the script I thought if I could rewrite this using the experience that I'm going through right now which is you know the idea they had written was perfect the idea was perfect and there were some great elements but but I knew I needed to rewrite the whole thing in order to make it what I wanted it to be which was a love letter to my kids I know that sounds crazy when you look at the poster but I thought I can it's true and I just thought this is everything I want to say about being a dad which is you know as much beauty and and existential change that you go through with children there's always that thing that's there's always that fear that you won't be there when you need to be there and I just thought I I got to write this for these two little girls and so I wrote the script only about that I just and I had no idea what I was doing because I had never seen genre movies of course I went through like a crash course so for a year I watch only horror movies yeah oh no it's right I'm sure people at like the NSA are like there's a very dark dude it's just like every night is like the scariest weirdest movie my iTunes list is terrifying but I I didn't know what to do with Jean Renault it's funny because it does bring it back to the office which is I remember Greg Daniel said to me one day on set he said your job is not to say these lines funny your job is just to say these lines and if people think it's funny that's up to them and if people think your relationship with Pam is emotional and that's up to them to but you're just a regular person I thought that's its advice that seems so simple but it is completely changed my outlook on a lot of the creative stuff I'm doing because I looked I wouldn't have done a quiet place if it wasn't for Greg and the reason why is because if I went into that movie saying I was gonna make a movie that would scare the out of you it would have sucked I wouldn't know what I was doing cuz it's not what I am and so I said I'm gonna write this family drama and if I do my job right and you love this family then it will be ten times scarier because you care about them it won't be scary because I have stuff pop out at you it'll be scary because you don't want anything to happen to them and that's how I wrote it I wrote a family drama that was Trojan horsed as a genre film and do you since you spent that whole crash course year watching genre films do you sort of like them now I love them a really first thing he realized when you know I hadn't watched horror movies you know I I grew up you know by the time like I was watching horror movies it was probably 91 or something and the first one was like Nightmare on Elm Street and I was like no no obviously I'm a dreams guy so I don't need him visiting my dreams I want to walk in the woods with Robin Williams not Freddy and so I just bailed on it and what you realize is since then I just realized how ignorant I was because genre films right now I think are some of the most unbelievable filmmaking you can get from the writing to the the way it's shot and then the directing so you know you just take a look at the last five years for me it was like yeah get out is astounding and the witch is terrifying and astounding and then you look at a movie like let the right one in the original Let The Right One In is one of the best love stories I've ever seen it's just so much quality and and beautiful delicate storytelling so that's what I fell in love with I mean I think the scariest movie of all time is the Exorcist oh yeah and a lot of that is because you care exactly Skerritt for sure yeah and it's also terrifying it is utterly terrifying and her head spins around all that that's also just terrifying yeah had you seen that before did you go back and watch it for this I had seen like like snippets of it yeah and yeah I did watch it for this and and and you know I watched everything but for me it wasn't about the scary movies like that to me I wanted a quiet place to feel more like a throwback I wanted to feel like one of those movies that I remember as a kid there was a certain brand of movie that as soon as it started you're like I'm gonna love this whether it was like Goonies or you know obviously off Spielberg stuff you just knew you just knew there was something in there it's why I shot on film I thought there was something nostalgic about that first moment where you see a film image rather than a digital image and I know they're very similar but there's something about it and so for me the the whole idea was I wanted this to feel like a throwback so I I just kept watching jaws an alien and Rosemary's Baby and all of Hitchcock's stuff and so that's sort of what this movie was born out of and then from a visual standpoint everybody kept asking me to you know so you're watching silent films and I said well this movie isn't a silent film actually it's just a movie where you can't speak and so I yes I watched all that silent film stuff but more modern take on things was what was really interesting to me to see you know in the modern day with lenses and and stuff what people were doing and so it was there will be blood Paul's movies I think it's one of the best movies I'll ever see in my life and those first whatever 12 minutes where no one speaks he does it so brilliantly and then No Country for Old Men you know when you see Josh that entire run I mean just the idea of landscapes and these characters who don't say anything but you know exactly what's going on so those were the those were the touchstones visually for us now that you say jaws it seems I'm like of course yeah that was bizarrely Emily a nice favorite movie when we started dating really which again sounds like we're like what kind of story is that like what movies you guys watch the fall in love we're like gods we watched jaws like eight times in the first three weeks of dating kidding I don't even know what that's about yeah yeah don't know what's about but it was it was definitely the touchstone for this movie I there's there's so much of you know what Spielberg did so incredibly well that I wanted to to take a run at in this I want to talk about casting the film because you know there's the old adage about like never work with animals or children right you have this amazing young cast and animals technically yeah um Millicent Simmons who I had just seen in wonderstruck when I found out she was cast in this who actually is death was it important to you to cast a hearing-impaired actress it was non-negotiable so the first thing I said to Paramount was and I was still you know with all due respect I hadn't directed a studio movie I was certainly not it wasn't going great for me as a director on this movie until I sort of pitched my ideas and my script and once they saw that I had a vision it was fine but I understand the system and I understand that I'm not the first person that you're like yeah go direct the studio horror movie that you've never done before that's perfect but the first thing I said was I have to have a deaf actress in the role it's non-negotiable for me not only because yes the performance will be so much more authentic but because I needed a guide I needed a guide to lead me through this world you know what is it like to be the only deaf person in your family which is what our situation was what is it like do you feel frustrated do you feel empowered do you feel all these things so I went on this hunt for a deaf actress and and the casting director that we had Laura Rosenthal the really the reason why I called her she had just cast wonderstruck so I said I imagine you saw a whole lot of deaf actresses and she said I did but the only person you need to see is Millie and I said great but at the same time I was also like I wanted to be my first person I think I told me about it you know I should do my due diligence so I watched a lot of stuff and then I met her and that there are people that you'll work with in your career that you'll say that was one of the most important experiences working with her was one of the most important experiences of my life because Emily and I said it the same day driving home from set one day we said she's not from here she's she's a legit angel she's from somewhere else and there's something about her that is so knowledgeable so spiritual so powerful and she just gets it and so she's one of those people that you say you're just you were lucky enough to spend any time with her that's that's really who she is and then on top of her being a beautiful human being she's a lights out actress I mean I'm licensed now I just felt so silly some days she was so nice like we were going through you know so in the movie are our two characters have this very troubled relationship we used to be best friends and then there's a lot of guilt and blame of who did what and so it's this idea of two people who really actually are the same person she kind of is me as far as our likes and instincts and I wanted to sort of talk her through it so it was no rehearsal there was more of a lot more like psychoanalysis like we were talking about big things like family and stuff and this scene where she walks across the bridge she does this like tough warrior princess walk which I love then I was telling her like you know and so you had this on your mind and this on your mind this on your mind and she's looking at me with the sweetest smile like mm-hmm and I was like so you know so whatever you want and it was sort of like I could see in the back of her head she was like you're adorable and then the first take she was just like right out of the gates just crushed this scene and I was like so I'm obsolete I'm just gonna stand back here I'm just gonna roll the camera and you whatever you want to do she was she's a complete and total pro and and Noah is you know he's unbelievable and the thing is you said it is I've always been told you know don't work with kids they they never know their lines and they have these hours and you can't shoot with them and they're gonna affect your schedule and I had the exact opposite experience I worked with the most professional actors I've worked with I learned from them they probably saved me time it was it was incredible and they were just such good troopers and such good teammates and understood the bigger picture of what we were doing and how little time we had a little money we had and how much they could help if they gave it their all and they gave it their all every single day it's such a great ensemble I mean every role actually my friend is Leon Russell no way yes oh god he was amazing he's the guy who is the man and the old man in the world yes - yeah he's also if you guys are Lebowski fans he's the cop yeah stay out of my beach community which I heard it out on him a lot about that but no Leon was so great and he had just played or it was about to play he had just played King Lear yes so we were looking I was looking for a guy who looked like he had been living in the woods for a long time and it's just really hard to tell it again it's hard to tell an actor like you're so right for the part can you grow your hair to like 12 inches and grow up beards in two days otherwise you don't have the part and um he had just done Lear and he did this audition and the audition was just sort of going through someone narrating a very painful experience and how he dealt oh wow yeah I was wondering how you auditioned for a movie like this yeah well with Millie it was I tried to find scenes again that were silent but tons of acting so I had her do the Kramer vs Kramer scene where the little boy with the iSchool and things like that where it was it was they were parent scenes with kids where there was no talking I guess I saw this movie a little before it premiered at South by Southwest I'm not bragging I was right yeah but I didn't know Leon was in it and it was one of those things where you're watching a movie you're like oh there's my friend oh my god yeah exactly no and I was like please Leon one of the things that you'll see in the movie is he doesn't have teeth and it's one of those things where you can't cast an actor for this either and he showed up on the first day and we were shooting that scene and he said Oh before we roll just quick thing like I could take my teeth out does that something you want and I went and he just went does this look good and I was like yes that's gonna be perfect for what we need he was like okay great just like I do either and I was like oh cool I can also juggle but it's different I actually didn't know those weren't his teeth and now you're blowing my mind and casting Emily I don't know if you cast her or you know how that even works or if maybe you were resistant to the idea I was terrified of the idea and and she cast herself basically and what happened was yeah so what happened was I got in the I got in the script I'd read it and I said I'm gonna rewrite it and I'm gonna star in it and I started pitching her this whole again I don't know why it just in 30 minutes I knew the exact thing I wanted to do with the movie and she said no you're not gonna do that I said I'm not and she said no you're gonna direct it and I said why she said I've never seen you lit up like this you have to take it all the way you have to protect this movie and on all sides and bring it all the way and I thought wow that's amazing so she's the reason why I directed the movie and then she was doing like I said she just had a baby and she was doing a tiny indie movie called Mary Poppins you know it's a tough to not have a big budget and so she was busy with all that stuff and so while I was writing I only wrote for her I wrote the part only for her but it got to this weird place and I wasn't expecting it and again I tried to make everything organic as more as organic as it can be and so I didn't want her to say no because that would be an awkward dinner conversation but I think I was more scared that she would say yes I'll do it for you because she's that type of person and she knew it was a big moment my career she knew I was taking a big swing and just I think the thing the reason why I didn't ask her was at the end of the day I've sat next to her for the last you know 10 years while I've been there when she makes every single decision that she makes and there is no one who's classier with better taste and more dedication to the project she does and so the one thing I couldn't have is that the one time she did a move just to do a movie was for her husband so I didn't ask her and then I was flying to Paramount to pitch them you know all my ideas but going into production and she said can I read that script and I said sure and she had just recently the week before recommended a friend so I was sort of moving down the path with this friend of hers and on the plane she read it while I was watching like ant-man or something which was great and she turned like gray she looked like she was gonna be sick and so I was actually reaching for a barf bag in the seat and turned to her and she said no one else can play this role and I said what are you talking about and it was like we were in a romantic comedy and she was proposing to me and she said would you ever let me do this role I have to play this part and I remember screaming on the airplane I was like yeah but it's the reason why the movie is what it is because she came to it on her own and and knew how to do the role why she wanted to do the role and everything changed in that moment and when we landed I just said we have to treat this movie like our marriage we have to be as honest as possible so let's go page one is there anything in the script that bumped you is there anything you think that can be better and then I stood in the living room for nights on nights on nights and just went through every single shot and marked her through it visually so you know people said what it's like directing your wife and I said it was a dream because I got to do it in our living room and I got to do it with our kids around by the time we stepped on set we were just working you know I wasn't directing her anymore and you just get to harness all that is her and you just you just hope you had the camera on she's she's as good as it gets amazing yeah I've actually seen Mary Poppins returns and I says okay now you're really and I was saying I shouldn't say this but to hugh jackman yesterday um because he was asking me about no I could stop bringing him up I was like this is I know this is gonna be sacrilege but I almost think she out Julie Andrews Julie Andrews Wow that's all my yeah yeah that's so beautiful to turn around and see her in this which is could not be further yeah and how every scene is so believable and so gripping all of us yeah well I told her I said I think this is the best performance I've ever seen and the reason why is because how do you capture something so intense Oh painful without words all that stuff but also something like childbirth is so personal I saw her do it 27 if she could do it but it's funny you bring up Mary Poppins because this story I love most about Emily was I was looking for an editing Bay the week before we were shooting and I went into this editing Bay and who happened to be shooting down the hall was a editing down the hall was Rob Marshall we're doing yeah Mary Poppins and so I went in and I said hello if you haven't if you don't know he's literally the nicest person you'll ever meet and he said when you guys shoot and I said next week and he said oh man you're gonna see and I said I know I love her so much and he's like no you'll see I said I know I'm her number one fan he said nope not until you're in the room when she does what she does we'll you know why you love her as an actress so much and I thought wow what an amazing thing to say and sure enough day three we're shooting that bathtub scene and like I said we had already directed it we had gone through it and you know I'll I'll sing it from the rooftops because she won't but that is one take oh my god yeah that's one take that she just went to another place and if you if you have access to our dailies at the end of the take I literally the air change in the room the entire crew couldn't speak and then you hear me say but that's lunch we should go to lunch because there's nothing and I was blown away I was tearing up I had never been in the room and she does what she does yeah and there was something that I've never come in contact with before that level of talent in that level of harnessing it is insane and then you can also hear go by the way what is for lunch that's what's so amazing she does this insane thing I mentioned like is it is it fajitas today or yeah I'll tell you when she makes her appearance in Mary Poppins like twenty of you seen it oh yeah oh my god right oh my god okay I only review the movie I won't give anything away 25 minutes into the movie for the first time we were in a room like this it was set up just for Emily and I and I stood up and walked to the back of the room and Emily was like oh my god you've never done this like maybe he hates it and I was searching around this table and she was like is everything okay do you want me to stop it and I was like I just I'm looking for a napkin giving me a box of Kleenex and within 25 minutes I was like I was done and so I was in the back using like pretzel napkins and like wax paper it's it's such a beautiful movie and it's it's so the movie that every single person with a heart beat needs right now because it's a it's a joy bomb for the world for sure it's I actually was gonna say I had the same reaction when she makes her appearance 20 minutes it I was enjoying it up to the but she makes it and I was like that's when I started to lose yeah to start crying yeah it's amazing I'm sorry I could go on about your wife for years 90% of this group was like we should have brought her on earlier better wait in the corner talk to Emily speaking of the dailies I heard that sometimes you had to play the monster oh boy yeah yeah yeah so this exists somewhere oh it exists and I think it's in a vault no so what happened was again it's one of those experiences where the whole thing was was the most personal experience I've ever had with anything including the office I've never given every molecule of myself because it was it was father director actor writer but it was it was father husband the stuff that I was trying to work with and so I just had this vision of what I wanted to do and so ILM I had never done visual effects and that is a that's like a whole different level of art form and filmmaking and we had this guy named Scott Farrar who worked on our movie who if you don't know who he is he's one of the original amazing people from ILM who this is the type of guy that at lunch when you're telling stories about like the office he's like oh yeah you know when we were shooting Star Wars I was the guy on the camera when the Imperial ship comes over and you know so I'm the first shot and I was like oh my god then then when we were designing the creature he's like yeah when we did the kitchen scene in Jurassic Park and I was like oh my god and the reason you realize why they're so good at what they do is they're so detail-oriented and so he said to me he said you know I got a question for you that's this guy walk and I was like well and he's like do you know how they walk and I said yes but I to do it and he's like oh you you could like act it out and I said yeah so I got on the floor and did it and he recorded it alone and so then when we were shooting that last scene just before Emily shoots the creature it was this thing with he we had a bunch of guys and I he could tell that I was not quite seeing it the way it that way and he just said put on suit man go do it and I said am i how to do that he was like hell yeah he's like let's just get this thing the way you want it and so I put on the suit my problem with that is when we did the test of the movie we didn't have visual effects in so you can see the audience was like super in a movie we were so proud of it and then all of a sudden it's just like a shot of my van coming in like my van sneaker and then they pan up to me and I'm like and all of a sudden people are like we do not like this movie we did and now we hear yeah I don't know if you're allowed to talk about but there's been talk of maybe a sequel or continue there is talk yeah so paramount dated already dated a sequel yeah which I get it like I get the studio wants to make a sequel of a movie that does well but I didn't want anything to do with it it was sort of like I said the most personal experience and so I said go find another filmmaker and another writer and good luck with it and then they were meeting all these people and the producer drew who's the greatest guy I think you just had drew and Brad right here doing the conversation yeah yeah she's like what what wasn't me Oh wasn't New York I was here with you young guy but he just said you know do you have anything do you have anything to go on I said well to me the exciting thing is to not relive you know like jaws or alien the cool thing we have is we have a world it's not a repeating a sort of a villain you get to repeat this world and live in it more and so this was one angle of it so you know I had the small idea and he said can you keep thinking about it for a few weeks and I said yeah he's like just for me like you know let's talk about it and I said sure and then three weeks later I had this sort of larger filled out idea and he was like will you write the script and so now I'm writing the script is he awesome you know and you'll end up directing and I'm sure well yeah I'm like this is being filmed so yeah I finally have a question from Claudine quadrant oh cool once Raji don't speak and you learn nothing in honor of your movie we're not letting anyone else speak yes oh that's a bogus way to go about it you guys deserve money wants to know what's a character type you've never played before you'd like to play oh man that's a great question I don't know if this is a character type but you know one of those one of those characters where the performance is the set-piece kind of thing like that like a you know whether it's an autobiographical thing but I remember watching Emily do girl on a train I thought that sort of level of immersion of a it's really less about the part that I want to play and more about the worlds that I want to explore so for her to get to play a character where she had to dive deep into addiction and recovery and all those things I thought that would be really cool to dive into a whole world that I don't know would be it would be pretty wonderful and you know speaking of addiction and all that stuff I stars born I recently saw and I thought for my money Bradley's the best performance I've seen in a long long time and that sort of level of detail and obviously getting to live in a world with a character that's that's what I'd like to do mmm and what is up next you're working on season two of Jack Ryan season two Oh Jack Ryan right now and then we finish around the holidays and then I'm gonna be writing this script and we'll see what happens yes I would apologize I kept you longer than I was supposed to why and I still have questions what's amazing I can't tell you guys thank you so much for coming out I really mean a lot [Applause]

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 428,910

Rating: 4.8687649 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Jenelle Riley, John Krasinski, A Quiet Place, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Hollars, 13 Hours, Lip Sync Battle, The Office, Promised Land, Monsters University, The Wind Rise, Big Miracle, Something Borrowed, It's Complicated, Away We Go, Monsters vs. Aliens, Shrek the Third, Leatherheads, License to Wed, For Your Consideration, Kinsey, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Variety, Q&A, Career, Interview

Id: RAEJ8hMBeO4

Length: 88min 20sec (5300 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 04 2018