As Jim Halpert in the US version of The Office, John Krasinski won over the doubters. But, asks John Patterson, can this plucky Brit-obsessed underdog cut it as a player in George Clooney's gang?
It's worth mentioning at the outset that you probably won't meet a nicer, more deeply everyday kind of fella than John Krasinski. He's still fresh and green enough to look around a Beverly Hills hotel lobby and say, all bright-eyed, "Wow, there are famous people in this room!", not realising that he is simultaneously the most famous and most beloved person for 20 blocks.
This is also what we love about Jim Halpert, the big-blue-eyed sales associate from Dunder-Miflin Scranton whose love for blank-faced receptionist Pam (Jenna Fischer) has lately riveted audiences in America in the same way that the Martin Freeman-Lucy Davis romance did on the original British The Office. And, honestly, John is a lot like Jim.
First, though, we're here to talk about Krasinski's latest movie, Leatherheads, directed and co-written by co-star George Clooney. Leatherheads is a very likable, albeit not quite succinct enough, retro screwball comedy about the early days of professional football (ie American football) in the 1920s, when all the action was on the college football circuit and the pro version of the game was hobbled by a lack of backers and a dearth of paying spectators. Imagine a movie that feels like it was made by the Coen brothers (and numerous Coen regulars appear, including the imperishable Stephen Root and the speccy Klan guy from O Brother, Where Art Thou?), which doffs its titfer in the general direction of any number of motormouth 1930s and 1940s comedies.
Krasinski is the college star and supposed first world war hero whose move into the ratty professional leagues, with Clooney's struggling Duluth Bulldogs, draws the national spotlight to the game. Meanwhile, a Chicago reporter, or reportrix, played by Renee Zellwegger in the best Hildy Johnson/Brenda Starr manner, knows that Krasinski's war heroics may have actually been war cowardice. What Krasinski remembers, though, is mud; the movie's final contest takes place on a rain-soaked field of combat, and mud proves to be an agent of influence in the final outcome.
"Believe it or not, George had to test these different kinds of muds. He wanted one that stuck better. You had this whole special effects team dedicated to mud. And the stuff is heavy; I could barely move around. We found plenty of time to complain about it. There were days when, no kidding, it was 30 degrees outside and we'd put on our muddy wool outfits, and then the next day it'd be 78 degrees but you'd be wearing the same muddy wool, all wet and disgusting."
Did all this suffering earn him induction into the Clooney gang?
"Uh, I dunno, I don't think so yet. I might be like the gang's personal assistant, but I'm on the way in. I'm a little worried about how they induct their members. I worry that if I was in an Ocean's movie they'd probably put a brand on me with a molten coathanger when I joined."
Did he get punked by Clooney, the notorious prankster famed for such stunts as altering a friend's answerphone message to make it sound like a gay hooker's instructions to potential clients?
"George loves his elaborate practical jokes but he already had three jobs - producing, writing and directing - plus the old acting thing, which is tough on a guy, so he was so busy I don't think he had time to punk anyone. But the first two or three days down there, I thought the entire movie was a prank. I thought this might be the most elaborate prank ever. He'd get the cover of Time magazine, and there'd be a little picture in the corner of me like a kid, crying my eyes out with a little leather helmet on, and the headline, 'We got a little TV kid to think he could do a big movie with Renee and George!' But the other thing he did was beat me at basketball, and that was devastating!"
But he's, like, 15 years older and half a foot shorter!
"Dude, he beat me seven to two! You start shooting and all of a sudden you give him a window and he's soooo fast. He asked me if I was any good. I said, 'Yeah, I'm pretty good.' Of course, George now tells people I said I'd kick his ass up and down the court! I remember telling my friends that he really lightened up when I challenged him to basketball. One of my friends said, 'Have you read Vanity Fair? He's ALWAYS talking about how he plays ball twice a day. He has his own court on the Warner Bros lot.' I knew I was doomed right then."
Three women stroll past, their pace halting as they whisper to each other, "That's HIM!"
Dude, they're checking you out!
"Aha... um, I gotta go!" he says, satirically half-raising himself from his seat. He sits back down: "No, trust me, it's Jim they're interested in, not me. Everyone knows me as Jim. I've been doing this a while now, so I know the difference."
Jim is the one guy in The Office (a masterpiece of US comedy that has established an identity entirely separate from the Gervais-Merchant British original) who earns our unqualified love. Did the popularity of the original scare him?
"My love for British things, and London especially, is so overwhelming. But one day I went out to lunch there with Ricky Gervais and I felt sure that people were going to just stone me. Over here the new show was well underway, but over there it had just hit and obviously no one was watching it enough to care about me. Ricky is a whole new echelon of celebrity. Everybody knows him! Everyone wants to buy him a pint!"
After a breathtakingly precise imitation of Stephen Merchant, Krasinski notes the incredible niceness of The Office's originators. "It would have been really easy to remove themselves from our version of the show, cut all ties, take the money and run, but they're so appreciative. You expect them to say, 'Of course we love the show,' whatever they think, but suddenly they'll start talking about our new plotlines and particular episodes in immense detail. That shows they do love us, I think."
He still sounds a little worshipful of certain British comedy titans. "Last night I was at the premiere of Run Fatboy Run. I finally met Simon Pegg, great guy, super-kind, super-gracious, and Eddie Izzard was there, and all of these guys just love the show. I'm like, 'You guys aren't supposed to say that. You're supposed to hate the show!' Believe me, your bullshit-meter's on full-tilt when actual Brits who you admire are praising you."
You don't have to be mad to work here: Krasinski on his co-workers:
Michael: "Steve [Carell, who plays boss Michael Scott] shot The 40 Year Old Virgin while we were doing the first season and I don't know if we would have survived without its success. He became a movie star and our show got picked up. I don't think that was a coincidence. He's got an incredible energy. He's deadly funny."
Creed: "You know he was in [60s rock band] The Grass Roots? So he'll be at lunch and he'll be talking about being onstage with Janis Joplin, and they're all on PCP, and Creed's playing a guitar that didn't exist and it wasn't plugged in, and notes would pour out of the guitar and crumble into dust - NOBODY has stories like that! The day the Doors were in the studio figuring out the beat to Riders On The Storm, Creed's there in the studio with them. And he's a huge star in China - he's like the white guy in every Chinese movie! The American general or the ship captain."
Phyllis: "She was running lines at the auditions and I told her, ' You need to be on this show - just don't go after my part!'"
Angela: "Right now she's tiny and pregnant, so now she's the same width as her height. I joke that she's my little sister. Compared to her character she's so nice. If she ever hurts someone's feelings she'll feel bad about it for ever. But in character she can say all these evil cold things and it's hysterical."
Ryan: "I was in high school in Massachusetts with BJ [Novak, who plays Ryan, also one of the show's writers]. His humour is odd. You can laugh at his jokes, even as you're the one getting laughed at."
