John Krasinski Takes the Field

Popular actor John Krasinski looks especially hot today in a gray suit, white stripe shirt and sporting longish, more-blonde-than-brown hair. As we sit down in Beverly Hills with the star of "The Office" and License to Wed to talk about his glam role as a 1920's football superstar in the George Clooney comic romance Leatherheads and his own directorial debut, we note that he's even more genial and candid than usual. John seems poised to hit big as a leading man in films but he is still very reluctant to be a diva about it. Is he ready for everything that kind of fame entails? Read on for new info on "The Office" and the actor's upcoming projects....

TeenHollywood: What are the challenges of finding a character that is un-Jim Halpert-like?

John: I was given an amazing opportunity when I was on the show to play a character that is sometimes funny and sometimes, dramatic and I think that's the best gift you can get as an actor. That allowed George to see me as a potential person who could play a romantic character. So I always say that "The Office" was the first place and I definitely owe everything to that. But, playing this character was a blast; dressing up in actual costumes rather than a shirt and tie every day, having a haircut for the first time was a big change for me and really helped my acting I think [he laughs].

TeenHollywood: So how is it being back with "The Office" gang after the Writers Strike?

John: You just say, 'how is everybody and how was your Summer?' It's great to be back where everybody's got a real, new appreciation for what we're doing. It's very easy to get to that place like 'Ah, it's just a job' and it's not a job at all, it's a fantasy and it's not a real nine to five. So, is it good to be back? Yeah.

TeenHollywood: Steve [Carell] was saying that this dinner party episode coming up was one of the funniest ones.

John: Other than the one he wrote. He loves that one.

TeenHollywood: What is your take on the episode?

John: I totally agree with him. It is one of the funniest episodes we've ever done and we realized it more and more in the shooting of it. There's a little drinking, a little bit of yelling and there's a whole lot of awkward stares from Pam and I while Jan and Michael are fighting so it was fun to do.

TeenHollywood: When does it air?

John: I believe April 10th, Thursdays on NBC. It's weird how that programming comes out of nowhere.

TeenHollywood: Back to Leatherheads. I understand that you got to the set a little later because you were filming "The Office" and you were kind of the new guy so I wondered if George pulled any initiation pranks on you?

John: Luckily, George was very busy being a director and an actor. This sounds crazy but it's true, I called my manager one day and I thought 'oh my God, this is it. This is George Clooney's biggest prank ever', getting some kid from TV to believe he's actually on a set with big movie stars, big crew and he's friends with Renee [Zellweger] so he got her in on it. After therapy, I realized that wasn't true. I was terrified that this whole thing might be some weird prank. That's how scared of him I was. Luckily, he was too busy to pull much of anything.

TeenHollywood: So everyone was really nice to you when you got there in South Carolina?

John: Yeah. Extremely nice. I expected some hazing. I thought that would be part of the team atmosphere. There were a lot of sports fans, a lot of ribs. We had a blast down there. Everybody was extremely kind and really open to having a movie crew come and basically infiltrate everything about their small town. South Carolina and North Carolina, it was just fun to see a different way of life. I've got to say that the girls are very pretty down there.

TeenHollywood: Was there any appreciable difference between Clooney the actor and Clooney the director?

John: Clooney the actor is way nicer. No, in both arenas, the similarities are that he's incredibly focused and just so good at what he does. He's very well composed, he's very confident. It was funny watching Clooney the actor being directed by Clooney the director. When he had to do a football scene where he got hit really hard and then he runs back to the monitor to look at it, he's praying that it looks good so he doesn't have to do it again. But he did. He had to go back into the throng of it just like all of us.

TeenHollywood: The film's name comes from those dorky leather helmets the players wore back then. How much protection do those leather helmets actually give you?

John: Zero. They really don't give you any protection. The game was very different so, back then, it was more like wrestling so you didn't actually hit each other. You sort of ran with each other, next to each other and slowly grabbed the other guy down in more of a wrestling move so you didn't need protection.

TeenHollywood: You have a fistfight scene with George. Did you guys land any punches at all? Were there a lot of takes of that?

John: We only shot for like three hours. It was a blast. We did not land any punches but landing on railroad tracks, very painful! No joke. We'd hit railroad spikes and things like that so that was the hardest thing, getting up the courage to really fall backwards. When George got hit, like in that first punch where he says, 'just hit me in the..' and I hit him before he says 'face', he fell really hard and he had a bruise, a pretty bad bruise, not that I saw it. That would be weird.

TeenHollywood: Are you a natural athlete?

John: I think I believe I'm a natural athlete. It's easy to believe that you're a phenomenal athlete when you're like 'yeah, I'm an actor. That's why I'm not in the pros'.

TeenHollywood: Have you played football before?

John: I have. I played once in Junior High School which some would argue is the most competitive of all the areas of football but this is true, I couldn't get past the face mask. I couldn't catch a ball with a face mask in front of me so, in this movie, problem solved.

TeenHollywood: Given the screwball feeling of the film, did George have you watch any or study the banter in older films?

John: Yeah. When my dad talks about movies that he's seen like "Butch Cassidy" or something like that, he'll get nostalgic about the moment that he saw that movie. Back then, you got to transport to a different place and now it's very manipulative, whether in a good way or a bad way, but back then it was a real sweet movie and you felt a sense of joy. It's like this overpowering Americana thing behind you which I think this movie has; the music and the way it looks, gets you happy no matter what. Maybe that's just me.

TeenHollywood: George is sort of the quintessential movie star of the moment. What did you learn from him, not so much working but just how he conducts his public life?

John: I mean you really hit it on the head. To me, the word 'movie star' equals George for that reason alone. I think [being a real movie star] doesn't come from how big the box office was for your last movie or how quick you are to tell a joke or how handsome you are, it's about how much people respect you. He's incredibly open. He's incredibly genuine. He's incredibly charming and just respects so much where he is and how lucky he is to be there. To have that appreciation for where he is after he's done so much is mindblowing. So, as someone who is just starting out, I definitely can take all those lessons.

TeenHollywood: You and Renee's lady reporter character have an attraction in the film. How was building a relationship with her? Did you have any rehearsal time or just jump in?

John: We basically just jumped in. Renee was just fantastic in every way. One of the first days I was down there we did one of the train scenes and I was terrified, I mean terrified. It started to get very overwhelming when you started to realize who you were working with and what kind of movie this was. I think she immediately saw that and knew how to calm me down which was just by getting me to talk because I wasn't really breathing all that well. So, she became a friend right away and was so respectful of where I was and what it took to get there. I think she had gone through the same thing and so had George. They always remember their first day and I think that's what makes them such great stars.

TeenHollywood: You are in an upcoming project directed by Sam Menzes that is untitled?

John: Yeah. There's a little darker undercurrent to it. It's a story of people who don't feel like they belong anywhere. When they get pregnant, they decide to go all around the country and visit friends and wherever feels like home, they're going to stay for the rest of their lives which I think is nice. I think we all would like to belong somewhere.

TeenHollywood: What's happening with the movie that you adapted and directed; Brief Interviews with Hideous Men?

John: It's still in the editing process unfortunately because of the movie and this pesky TV show. So, we're still trying to figure out what's happening with that but, I assume, we'll be hitting the film festival circuit soon. But, it's nothing like this. My entire movie relies on monologue interviews so it's almost more of a theater piece which makes my job really easy. I get to be an audience member behind the monitors, just laughing and basically, getting a free show every day. So to actually do all the things that George was doing [directing Leatherheads], I learned a ton. I think it's still having an influence on the way I'm cutting the movie.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.