John, uh, when you're writing something like this, do you write, "I wanna do this, I wanna do that," and that's how they get in there? Or how does that work?

Were you writing with me? You nailed it.

You, you know exactly what it was.

Um, yeah, that's exactly what happened.

I think that the truth is we had had such a great time on the show, um, and I wasn't sure how to get back into that world.

I loved playing the character, but we had to figure out the right way, and turns out Jack Ryan was placed in the exact same situation, which is he had jumped out of the CIA, but he wasn't done yet, so he had to figure out a way to go back in.

So that was easy.

When you have this kind of mix of things, how does that affect what you're doing? Do you have to mix it up a little bit so that it is different? How does that work?

Uh, did you connect with Jack Ryan in that sense, where he's often underestimated until he's able to prove himself?

That's a really good question, actually.

I, I, I absolutely think that's...

It's not only what I connected to, but, uh, even as a kid, he was my favorite character.

I loved the superheroes and, um, Batman and all those things, but I knew I could never be those people.

Um, but I thought that Jack Ryan, I would love to at least give a shot if it was ever, if it ever came my way because of exactly what you said.

He's, he's real, you know what I mean? He's always being underestimated, and I think underestimated by no one more than himself.

How do you think that waiter John would have reacted to seeing someone like Jack Ryan running the restaurant?

A, was it, it was not gonna be a one, a one-ogy?

No, I don't think, I don't think anybody thought it was gonna be more than one.

And then when it made this huge splash and everybody was so amazing about the movie, I actually just said, "I, I'll only do it if I can think of a story." And then what happened was, yes, in my head I thought, the, the first one, as we've talked about, is all about parenthood.

It's what can you do...

What would you really do for your kids to protect them? And then the second movie is when your kids go out in the world, that, that fear that you have to let them go out and do their own thing.

And the third one would be, if they do go out into the world, what does hope really look like? So this third one's about what does hope really look like.

[upbeat music]

... of Quiet Place are getting in a dark room with these people who are showing me all these different shots, and they're like, "The creature comes here, and then we're gonna do this, and this is in the background." And so I, my birthday w- on, I think it was number two, it was my birthday, and we were going through all these shots, and we were about two weeks from delivering, and I was a little stressed, and we were going through each shot.

And that is Lonny, and this is Roy.

David Denman, who could easily beat me and my character up immediately.

Um, so the whole Pam Jim thing sort of has a little bit of falsity into it because-

Other-

I actually did a, um, a joke that went horribly, horribly wrong, which Steve Carell pointed out when we were doing, um, press on Access Hollywood.

I was like, "We did it all with British accents," and I was using a British accent during the interview.

I'm sorry.

This is, to me, one of the wittiest jokes of all, is, is him, um, talking about the anonymous gift to the hospital.

We were, we've just been messing with him, uh, because-

Also, we didn't know how far to go with the relationship so early, too, in terms of-

Mm.

Wow, now it sounds like a porno.

We all went silent for this moment.

[laughs]

so we don't have to read them all.

Mm.

[upbeat music]

Yeah

... how it feels when you're doing a prank and, and the person's crying and going crazy, and you're sure, "Oh my God, this is gonna be a legend," you know? "This is going so well," during the scene, 'cause I can totally identify with feeling that [laughs] and being totally mistaken.

You've been X'd, punk! [laughs]

But it's, that's, like, the truth of the character, I guess.

...

in the country, barely spoke English, came to me and said, "Mr.

Scott, would you be the godfather of my child?"

in that amazing sweater

sweaterBut I remember our, uh, and when I came to audition, I, I auditioned in New York, and then I, uh, came out to LA to audition with a bunch of different people here in LA for the test.

And Phyllis was reading your part.

She was reading Dwight's part.

[laughs]

And, um, she was reading all these different parts, and it was just very obvious that she would be perfect for the show.

And, and I remember showing up the first day of work on the pilot and being like, "Yes, that's incredible." It was awesome.

And she's so psyched.

This home tour really kicks off all of the Jan and Michael dynamics in this episode, and when we asked John Krasinski about his memories of this episode, he talked about this scene of Jim and Pam arriving and then starting the tour.

That episode was without a doubt one of my favorite to ever shoot, because there was this incredible energy on set, this idea that we were finally getting to pull the curtain back on the world of Michael Scott.

And I think that for me, I was already almost laughing in every scene because of how Steve was playing his character.

There was this unbelievable beaming of pride and joy to have these two people finally in his home after what I imagined to be a lifetime of hoping and wishing that it could be possible one day, and here they were.

And not only were they in his home, he was able to give them a tour.

And then the battling dichotomy of Michael's excitement and Jan's sort of weighty judgment [laughs] of his house and his excitement was all loaded into every scene.

I'm gonna turn it over to him.

When we got to the moment with the television, I think there was a energy in the room that was overwhelming.

[laughs]

But, um, I remember getting in this big room, and it was the waiting room of a, where we actually shot our pilot.

I'm sure you guys have covered that, but, like, where we shot our pilot is what they measured down to the quarter inch or centimeter to make our set, this building that existed.

We took an existing building.

And I remember sitting basically where, like, Ryan's desk...

No, like, where Mindy's desk was, like, Toby and Mindy's desk was.

I was sitting against that wall, and I saw all these other people coming in.

[laughs]

So how, how did you get the role? Did you audition?

I did audition, and I remember the process was, uh, very wild for me because I was a huge fan of the English version.

Um, I, I, uh, I watched it all the time, and when they asked me to audition for this, they actually sent the sides for Dwight.

Um, and there was something very weird.

Again, I hadn't done anything, but there was something in me that just said, "If I go in, I want to go with my best foot forward.

I don't feel like I'm Dwight.

I feel like I'm more Jim." And so, my manager at the time called and said, "You know, he doesn't want to go in for Dwight.

Um, um, you know, it's, what is it like to have a, a long-term fictional romance with somebody that lasts that long?