John Krasinski may have starred in one of the most famous sitcoms of all time, but his daughters are more impressed with his wife Emily Blunt’s roles.
He talks to PEOPLE about his upcoming film IF, Office The alum, 44, noted that he wrote the film – which delves into the world of imaginary friends – because he was inspired by his daughters’ experiences in the game.
Krasinski says he included Hazel, 10, and Violet, 7, the girls he shares with Blunt, 41, in his filming process, but they were already “biased” towards Blunt’s more magical pursuits.
“When they found out I was going to do it, it was really exciting because it was the first time I’d involved them in something,” Krasinski tells PEOPLE. “I was pretty sure before this they thought I was an accountant because their mother was Mary Poppins and so on Jungle cruise.”
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Emily Blunt in ‘Mary Poppins Returns’. Jay Maidment/Walt Disney/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock John Krasinski tells how his kids’ fictional friends inspired a family film IF (Exclusive)
“So she started off very biased with our girls. And so I pitched the idea to them on this one. I told them when I was going out to write in the morning and in the afternoon, and then I just sketched out all the IFs as I wrote,” the dad-of-two continues .
“And I would bring home sketches,” he says. “I would show them. And of course, I’m a terrible artist. So when I started communicating with the real artists and talking about what it would really look like, they got really excited, and their two imaginary friends are in the movie, which is great. ”
Elsewhere in the interview, Krasinski expands on how he included his daughters’ imaginary friends in the film.
“Ally the pink alligator, that’s Violet’s imaginary friend,” Krasinski says of the character voiced by Maya Rudolph. “A pink alligator lives under Violet’s bed. I said, ‘Is that scary to you?’ And she said, ‘No, that’s why she’s there, to eat all the villains when they come in.’ And I said, ‘Oh, that makes sense.’ ”
“Hazel is a very empathetic soul and one night we were making s’mores and her marshmallows went up like they usually do and she was so devastated that she hurt some kind of creature,” Krasinski continues. “And I said, ‘Oh, no, no, that’s just his thing. He lights a fire and then it goes out, then it lights up and then it goes out.’ And she liked the idea, so it became her imaginary friend.”
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Emily Blunt and John Krasinski.
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While Krasinski and Blunt walked the red carpet at the film’s premiere IF earlier this week, the two talked to Extra about whether their daughters have seen the movie yet. The couple noted that the film received “two thumbs up” from their children.
Although his girls are ultimately fans, Krasinski said there was added pressure “because I made it for them, completely and totally about their magical world, so this is one that I can’t screw up.”
When the family did watch the film together, the proud dad said it was “amazing” and “awesome”.
“I don’t even know about ‘cool dad’, that was an emotional dad, for sure. It was so nice.” he added.
“For our kids to have their mom in the movie was so massive. It was a family thing,” Krasinski continued.
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Source: HIS Education