Written by Duana
I was getting a little nostalgic the other day. Found an early email from the boy. Among the sweet, early-in-the-relationship don’t-actually-mean-it things he said (‘cocktail onions for a snack? That sounds…interesting’) was “Oh, really? John Krasinski’s directing? Yeah, sure, I’d love to see that.”
I don’t actually think he was lying. I was a huge fan of the book Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, but even I admit it’s hard to take, unstructured as it is – and probably harder still to adapt to a movie. But I wouldn’t know, because we procrastinated and bargained and…didn’t see it. I have a giant crush on Krasinski, which threatened my credibility when I swore up and down it was probably going to be a great movie. The reviews were…not generous. Nor was Krasinski inspiring overwhelming confidence with movie choices like Something Borrowed.
So we never did. We still talk about it when we pass by it on Netflix, but somehow it’s never top priority. (Have you watched it? Email me!) We both still love Krasinski, though , it’s just that he makes it tough to find him sometimes. And now – wait for it - John Krasinski and Aaron Sorkin are working together on a miniseries about the Chateau Marmont. A history of Hollywood, from the inception of the hotel to today. Likely 8 hours, Sorkin will write, Krasinski will EP and likely appear in it. No word on him directing.
I mean, I want to love it.
Sorkin aside for a second, I don’t have to talk you into Krasinski, do I? If so, here’s some ammunition. Look at he and Jason Segel being dumbasses singing Karaoke. He’s a dork, right? You want him to be your boyfriend. You want him to be friends with your boyfriend. You want him to be, at bare minimum, the guy who you trade quips with at work. He’d fit right in at your family barbecues, he could disarm your guy friends – basically perfect. Right?
But can you overlook the fact that he’s always trying these ambitious over-arching projects that just aren’t exactly…there? Like this is the guy who, if he turned himself to intelligent buddy comedies, they’d be hits through the roof. Or if he wanted to be the superhero guy, I mean, I would assign him that. But he doesn’t want those things. He wants something bigger, nobler. And I love that he wants that. I’m proud of him. But I’m not sure he’s hit it yet.
The Marmont is the home of many a past and future Hollywood Douche, and everyone else along the way. I’m not going to be all like ‘oh I would never set foot’ because I would and I have. But I wonder a bit at the idea that he says he ‘uses it like his living room’ and is there all the time. Is it like how I watch 16 & Pregnant despite never having been a Teen Mom or lived in the Deep South? Like he just wants to research a world without being in it and of it? Maybe this is my big problem with him – I still want to believe he’s Hollywood-adjacent, not a real true adopter of the scene. Maybe that’s the big issue here.
But then again, with projects like these, maybe that’s what he wants to believe, too.
Everyone should have ambition. Everyone should want to rise above the place they currently inhabit and I’d be sorry if he just kept doing It’s Complicated and similar over and over again (although they’re the bankroll for projects like this). But I wish he seemed a little easier about it. As (yeah, I’ll say it) his wife does when she swans into each new project, each more prestigious than the last.
It’s gonna be on HBO. It’s good cred for the resume. Now I just want him to relax. We think you’re smart. We think you’re funny. You can do this… just be easy.
Attached - John Krasinski and Emily Blunt at the Annual Freeing Voice Changing Lives Benefit Gala in NYC earlier this month.
Photos from Johns PKI/Splashnewsonline.com
