“I was just too scared”— When John Krasinski revealed how he confronted his fears in A Quiet Place

American actor and filmmaker John Krasinski attained immense popularity for portraying Jim Halpert in the American version of the sitcom The Office. Apart from acting in the series, he also served as a producer and occasional director on the iconic show.

Since then, Krasinski has worked on several big projects, both as an actor and a director, writer and producer. He has appeared in films like Shrek the Third (2007) and The Prophet (2014) and shows like BoJack Horseman and Jack Ryan.

John Krasinski is a man of many talents, and the A Quiet Place films are a testament to that fact. He starred in, produced, and wrote the screenplay for the first two films of the series while serving as a producer on the third one. This franchise, also starring his wife, Emily Blunt, in the first two films, made him a household name.

However, working on the films was not easy for the actor. In an interview given to The Guardian on April 8, 2024, John Krasinski remarked that he was not a big fan of horror films since he easily got scared.

“I never was a big horror guy, because I was just too scared,” he said.

However, the actor went on to work on the movie because the producers called him one day, asking if he would ever act in a horror movie. Krasinski replied that he would, provided the film had a ‘cool idea.’ The actor narrated the incident thus:

“And they said: ‘Well, the idea is that this family can’t make any noise and you have to figure out why.’ And I thought: ‘That’s as good a one-liner as you can get.’”

Thus, despite being a ‘scaredy cat’ by his own account, John Krasinski took up the project.

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John Krasinski had to confront another kind of fear while working on the film

Krasinski and Blunt were already parents when they started working on A Quiet Place. In the film, an alien species invades Earth. Since this species is hypersensitive to sounds, the only way to avoid being detected by them and survive is to not make the slightest noise.

Krasinski and Blunt play a married couple in the film who have to protect their children from the aliens by making sure that nobody makes any sound. The actor told The Guardian that this premise tapped into his and his wife’s own concerns about being protective towards their actual children.

“Granted, not creatures roaming around in the darkness, but keeping our kids safe and the inevitability of fearing the worst is something that we think about all the time,” the actor said.

For her part, Emily Blunt felt that this role would be the ‘scariest part’ she would ever play since she would always be ‘pretending [her] fears in movies.’ Both of them also had to learn some sign language for the film, since in a soundless environment, that was the only way to communicate with one another.

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Exploring John Krasinski's filmography

While the actor first gained worldwide attention for his role in The Office, he has worked in a variety of genres and formats since then. For instance, while he played the character of Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, he voiced Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman in DC League of Super-Pets, both in 2022.

He also brought to life the titular character in the Amazon Prime Video series Jack Ryan. In the The Guardian interview, John Krasinski described the role thus:

“Well, the whole thing for me is I’ve been a huge fan of Jack Ryan – I feel like he’s our James Bond.”

He has also produced films like The Hollars (2016) and IF (2024).

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