John
Krasinski‘s character on The Office, paper salesman Jim Halpert, is
one of pop culture’s most unlikely icons, a hero for nice (if mischievous and
self-assured) guys to model after and for girls of more quirky, sophisticated
tastes to daydream over. Krasinski’s film roles have been thoughtful variations
on Jim, including Burt Farlander of his new film, Away We Go. Directed by
Sam Mendes
and written by power literary couple
Dave
Eggers and
Vendela
Vida, Burt is an aimless, devoted husband who travels the nation looking for
a new home for his equally aimless wife (played by
Maya Rudolph).
On the cusp of Away We Go‘s Friday limited release, RT spoke with
Krasinski about his Five Favorite Films.
I
was one of those kids who had never seen an indie film before I got to college.
If it wasn’t a big, huge tentpole movie, or if it wasn’t on the radio, I hadn’t
experienced it. Then in college I started getting into independent movies, which
led me to classic movies, which led me to all this different stuff. The 1970s
movies, for me, were only discovered, unfortunately, as little as six or seven
years ago.So Kramer vs. Kramer. Some of the greatest writing I’ve ever seen, some
of the gutsiest performances. It’s just so quintessential of what the 1970s were
for me. There’s just this unfiltered, raw energy, and despite how beautiful that
movie is — and obviously, it’s a well done movie — the fact [is] that they’re
not making movies like that anymore. [Kramer vs. Kramer is about] a horrible
relationship. It’s a really tough situation for the father to be in, and yet
[for] everyone who went and saw the movie, there was this weird understanding or
commiseration with anger. I think people might have been angrier, or willing to
see angry movies.
Timothy
Hutton turns in one of the best male performances I’ve ever seen. And that
family dynamic was so subtle in what could have been a really angsty movie.
Everything from the way it was shot to the way it was acted. John Bailey was
actually the DP on my movie that I directed (Brief Interviews with Hideous
Men) and he was saying that when they shot the psychiatrist scenes he
started out with the camera right over their shoulders, and then he moved the
camera back slowly and changed the lighting, because he said that if you’d been
going to therapy for months, then the lighting would be different every time of
the same day. And I thought, “That’s insane that someone thought of that.” And
then he moved the camera back 100 feet so that they were compressed on each
other so it was a much more intimate scene. I was like, “Wait, wait, wait, this
is insane!”
I
think it’s probably one of the most inspirational movies for me because of
Paul
Newman‘s performance. I think that is, to me, some of the best, [most]
controlled acting in a movie. I think that he has this incredible likability.
Even though he’s a drunk, washed-up lawyer, you’re still rooting for him from
the very beginning.I’m that sort of weird guy who will watch a movie almost every day if I can.
It’s harder when you’re working on the show. I buy a lot of movies on used DVD
so I can have certain scenes. I was really looking for things to inspire me.
When I got out of college I was waiting tables professionally [and] couldn’t
afford to go the theater [every] night. I think those great movies can actually
make you feel a certain way. Not only emotionally, but if you’re in
this business, it’s one of those things where you see someone do something that
good and it buys you a year of energy. That’s what I was really looking for. It
sounds so cliché,[but I wanted] to bask in the glow some of these amazing
performances, like [those of]
Dustin Hoffman and
Marlon Brando. But it was also
fun. To get back to what I was saying before, that 1970s raw energy, it’s almost
frustrating now that people aren’t making more movies like that because people
won’t go see them.Even Away We Go is, in a way, a tribute to the 1970s movies, too, but
more of the Hal Ashby thing. Again, I don’t think people are making movies like
this, so for Sam to do it is incredibly cool. And the fact that my name’s on the
poster is totally surreal.
That
movie for me was my Marlon Brando experience before The Godfather,
before Streetcar. It’s weird to be living in a modern world where
acting has changed. Movies have changed so much, and yet you can still see what
defined [Brando] and his performance. If I told you that so-and-so was the first
person to do something 30 years ago, you’d be like, “Well, I don’t care, because
people do it now all the time.” There’s still nobody doing what he does in that
movie. And so that really changed everything for me. Also, there was something
really exciting and sad about the whole political aspect of that movie. The
whole blacklisting thing.
Only
because it’s everybody’s number one choice. I kinda feel, in this day and age —
not to be sounding bad in any way — we live in a culture where something’s
good, and some people will say it’s awesome, and they may not have even seen it
or they didn’t like it. But they want to agree with the cultural zeitgeist. I
feel like that movie has stood up to time [and] criticism, and yet everybody can
find the exact same reasons as to why it’s awesome. I mean, it’s so
well-written. It’s a slow movie that you’re still riveted by. It’s [got]
character development unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. And of course, the
performances are wild.Did you use any particular scenes from these movies for your performance in
Away We Go?No. When we were shooting in Connecticut, I stayed in New York a bunch of the
time, and I had all those DVDs there. I did watch Kramer vs. Kramer
again for no particular reason, because [Away We Go‘s] not about a dysfunctional
relationship. Again, just to get into that particular mindset. I don’t know,
it’s like when you see something in the theater that just blows you away, it
moves you in a different way for a couple of days. I remember when I saw
Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I wanted to go out and direct a movie
right there on the streets of Manhattan. Unfortunately, you can’t without
permits. Or so they tell me. [Laughs] But that’s the thing; if you see some
magic show on television, you’re like, “I’m gonna go buy a deck of cards!” Whoa,
just settle down there, guy. So that’s basically what I do with these movies. I
try to see that to just push me to think I wanna rush in and do the scene the
next day.
Catch John Krasinski’s
Away We Go in theaters this week. For more Five Favorite Films, visit our archive.
