It’s incredibly hard for actors on a long-running television series to find success in other roles — mainly because audiences want to keep seeing them as the character that the actor became famous for in the first place. As a result, it’s likely John Krasinski will have a difficult time being seen as anyone else as the affable Jim from The Office for the next few years… at least! Yahoo! News spoke with Krasinski about his upcoming work and whether his decision to move into behind-the-scenes roles means we’ve seen the last of him on camera.
Krasinski’s first post-Office releases were a small role in the revival of Arrested Development and voiceover work for the Disney/Pixar movie Monsters University. Krasinski points out that he enjoyed both, saying, “It was fun to do both those roles but they were small, fun roles … For me it was just supporting two things I love so much. I think Arrested Development is one of the best shows ever on television, so I was just honored to be a part of that in any way. And it is exactly the same with Monsters University. Not only am I a fan, but my nieces and nephews are bigger fans than I am, so it is the first time in my career that I reached hero status in their eyes.”
Since The Office became a popular hit, Krasinski has taken on all sorts of behind-the-camera roles, including producer (for The Office‘s last season), director (he’s directed episodes of The Office and the 2009 movie Brief Interviews with Hideous Men), and writer (he wrote the screenplay for Hideous Men and another movie, Promised Land). However, acting remains his first love, and he explains, “I really prefer acting over everything else. I think acting for me is the most fun. It is what I did from the beginning. All these other avenues have been fascinating roads to go down but, for sure, acting is the most fun. Quickly I am falling in love with writing and producing and all of it just because it is nice to be part of the process. The business is changing rapidly, so to be a part of the development of new ideas, new shows, new movies is really exciting, and to work with a whole bunch of different talent.”
However, he admits that he’s been bitten by the writing bug after working on the screenplay for Promised Land with Matt Damon. He confesses, “I got hooked. As soon as I did it with him I wanted to do it more and more. It is a lot of fun to sit down and write. It is challenging, but it is so exciting – to have the power to create characters and worlds, rather than to just read scripts that are sent to you.”
