Tomorrow marks the release of Paramount Pictures and writer/director John Krasinski’s IF. To celebrate we’re bringing you a special Q&A with the man himself where he opens up about creating what has been dubbed a “live-action Pixar movie”.
The film is about a girl who discovers that she can see everyone’s imaginary friends — and what she does with that superpower — as she embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten IFs with their kids.
In our five-star review of the film Matt says “IF is an absolute delight to experience. John Krasinski has crafted a pure, beautiful and endearing story that plays across all your emotions! With perfect casting in both the lead roles and the voices for the flurry of Imaginary Friends littered throughout. The movie flawlessly navigates through the hearts of all the viewers and makes you believe in Imaginary Friends again, even for a little bit.”
Before diving in to the Q&A why not watch the film’s final trailer one more time:
Tell us more about where the idea for this movie came from.
“I had the idea about 10 years ago. I knew I wanted to do something with imaginary friends, but wasn’t exactly sure what the take on that would be. And then, once I had kids, I started finding myself completely enamoured by this world that they can go to; how they are so specific in their ability to imagine things, whether it be a tea party or fighting dragons, or doing a dance party, or whatever. Whatever it is, it’s so real and so believable to them. And then, during the [Covid] pandemic, I started to watch their light kind of go out, as they started to let the real world in. They started asking questions like, ‘Are we going to be okay?’ And I thought, ‘That’s it. That’s what I need to make the movie. I need to write a love letter to them to tell them everything will be okay. That there’s always someone who has your back. That you can always go to that world of joy and happiness, even if you’re not having a great day.’ And what that led to was this bigger concept, which is: when is it in our life that we decide that childhood is gone and we accept this new version of ourselves? Do we ever change? Or are you never too old to be a kid? Whether that means listening to records you loved as a kid, or watching movies you loved, or hanging out with people you used to, or just choosing to have life be a little less stressful. This idea that we can change our lives every single day. And I think – I hope – that this movie inspires you to remember all those things that you used to love.”
With that in mind, did you revisit the movies you loved as a kid before making this?
“Actually, no. It’s funny, when it came to A Quiet Place, I wasn’t big into horror movies. I was too much of a scaredy cat. So I had to watch all these horror movies before I directed that. On this one, I decided to not re-watch any movies, but to just use my memory of what the movies were. Because when I saw them when I was younger, they inspired me so much. I wanted to ask myself, ‘How did they change me? What was the magic that was indelible from them?’ It was that, rather than trying to steal the actual logistics and ideas. For me, it was movies like The Goonies and all the [Steven] Spielberg movies, with all those great hooks. It was also Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and My Neighbour Totoro – all the [Hayao] Miyazaki stuff. All these different worlds that people took me into. That was my big inspiration for this.”
You’re a bona fide multi-hyphenate on IF, writing, producing, directing, and also acting. Which was the most fun creative aspect for you?
“It’s funny because they all sort of intermingle when you’re doing it at once. Clearly, the directing has to be the most fun because you get to do all the different jobs. That’s a lot of stress but that process is also the invite into all these different creative worlds, from visual effects to storyboards. I’m not a storyboard artist and had never before gotten to play around with character artistry. Same with visual effects. It was incredible because you realize you’re making two, if not three, movies at once. So, I shot the movie, I edited the movie. And then, as visual effects came in, I found I had to do a whole other movie. And that third version of the movie is where the two worlds connected. When you put in Steve’s [Carell] character [Blue], you realize that you have to shoot another take [of the real-life actors] so these performances balance each other out. That’s the nerdy side of it. And that’s what makes it the most fun, because you keep playing in this sandbox with a whole lot more toys than you ever thought you could have.”
All the IFs are amazing creations. Where did they all come from?
“I came up with almost all the IFs when I was writing the script – because I didn’t trust myself to wait until down the road, thinking, ‘Who knows what these characters will be?’ I had to write Blue [Carell], Blossom [Phoebe Waller-Bridge] and Lewis [the late, great Louis Gossett Jr.] first because they were the three major characters who would interact most with my actors. Then, once I came to writing the interview sequence [in which Fleming’s Bea, Reynolds’ Calvin, and Lewis, interview a series of IFs], I thought, ‘This is where we can have some real fun.’ At that point, I started introducing things from my real life. In fact, both my daughters’ real imaginary friends are in the movie. Maya Rudolph’s pink Alligator is my seven-year-old’s imaginary friend. I asked her, ‘Where did you come up with that?’ And she said, ‘Oh, she lives under my bed.’ I said, ‘Isn’t that scary?’ She said, ‘No. She’s there to eat any bad guys who might come into my room.’ I thought, ‘Oh, that’s really good…’ And then my oldest daughter came up with Melting Marshmallow. That’s because she’s an incredibly empathetic person. We were making s’mores one day, and when the marshmallow caught fire, she had tears in her eyes. She said, ‘What happens to this marshmallow?’ I said, ‘Don’t worry. That’s just who he is now. He’s become this flaming marshmallow.’ And she thought that was great, so he became her imaginary friend.”
Your daughters aren’t the only family members involved in this movie. Tell us about Emily’s [Blunt] input in the creation of Unicorn.
“It’s funny because I had come up with the idea of Unicorn. We’d designed her and she was such a rad character – one of the first characters we had created. Before Emily played her, I don’t think I had in mind a personality that big, with that brassy laugh that Emily does. [Laughs] When she did that, Emily said, ‘I think I sound psychotic.’ But I thought it was great. And she had so much fun with it. It’s hard doing ADR because you really are conjuring up something entirely on your own. All of us actors on set, we have the set, the lights, the cameras – all these things that tell your brain you’re in a movie. But when you’re in an ADR booth by yourself, there are none of those things. So you basically think you’re insane.”
Your cast for this film is basically ridiculous. How did you get them all?
“Listen, I was so lucky. I know that I will never have a cast as good as this again. Also, working with your friends is the best part of the job, for sure. So, getting them to all say yes was huge. But the other thing for me was that I think they all really connected to the idea of the movie. Whether they had kids or didn’t, the idea behind this movie was also really why we all got into this business in the first place, which is because we believe in imagination. We believe that you can be a kid for the rest of your life, that we can play for the rest of our lives. I think that it was that message, and how important that they think it is, that meant they all jumped on. I’ve never had so many yeses in my whole career. I won’t again, that’s for sure.”
Did anyone get competitive about which IF they were going to play?
“No, I deliberately didn’t even let them know about the other IFs. I just sent them a picture and said, ‘Would you play this guy or this girl?’ It was great, because I let them all do what they wanted before I even told them what was happening in the movie. I let them do a voice that came purely from that character. And then, as we went down the road and more VFX came in, I was able to show them more of what the character looked like. Steve [Carell], for instance, the first time he did Blue, he had no real idea about him. I’d just shown him a drawing. And you could hear his voice change, the more we showed him the scenes. Like any actor, he started realising what he was doing in the scene, and it was magical to watch. You could just see that he got it. It was a blast.”
What are your favorite memories from the sound booth sessions?
“I don’t think I’ve ever laughed harder than I did in the ADR booth. Because it’s just ridiculous seeing these people standing there with nothing and making these huge voices. Everybody really went for it. Bradley Cooper playing Ice was so much fun. Sam Rockwell [Guardian Dog] was all over the place. And, I gotta say, most of what he was doing was really not suitable for a family movie. So, unfortunately, we couldn’t use it all. But if there were ever any DVD extras, I could make an entire DVD of them.”
When did George Clooney come into the mix?
“George being in the movie is a very inside-baseball joke. I was with him one day and said, ‘I have this character who is going to be a spaceman…’ I had no idea if George would do it. The idea came on set one day, when Ryan pushes him [the spaceman character] into a room. When he did, he said, ‘Just get in there, Matt.’ And Matt is George’s character in Gravity. So I said to George, ‘Would you ever want to pretend that your character from Gravity actually ended up being someone’s imaginary friend?’ He thought that was a really funny idea. That’s how we got him.”
On set, you’d hold puppets representing the characters, so the cast had something to interact with. Which did you most enjoy playing with?
“I really enjoyed playing with Unicorn, because I gotta say that Emily brought so much magic to her. But I think my favorite puppet to play with, and the character is now probably one of my favorite things in the movie, is Cosmo [a private investigator imagined from the pages of a ‘50s noir serial spy novel, played by Christopher Meloni]. Because he just had this energy as soon as I started developing him. I said, ‘He can’t operate in real speed. He has to do these lightspeed movements.’ He’s a spy. So, he pops up and he pops away. That puppet was so much fun to play with because it meant I could really jump on Ryan, on his back and on his shoulders. I remember Ryan saying one day on set, ‘I love working with you. And you do Cosmo really well because you’re such a menace.’ I took that as a compliment.”
You’re also a bit of a menace to Ryan in this because for one sequence you give him a horrendous mullet. How did he take that news?
“He was great with it! [Laughs] His hair and make-up team did that whole look [for the ‘80s-inspired dance sequence set to Tina Turner’s Better Be Good To Me]. The idea was that as soon as Ryan’s Cal gets pushed onto the Tina Turner stage, he would be in the ‘80s. And he really went with it. In the script it just said, ‘He looks like he’s in the ‘80s.’ And that was what he and they came up with, so he was personally involved in that decision. Maybe secretly it’s a hairstyle that Ryan has always wanted to model.”
What are your memories of Ryan walking onto set, sporting the mullet?
“He just appeared – and everyone laughed. Luckily, Ryan Reynolds knows that that’s a good thing. Anyone else might have quit the business if they had 200 crew members laughing at them.”
This movie was inspired by your daughters, but kids can also be the harshest critics. What notes did they have for you when they saw it?
“It’s funny because they’ve been in the process from the very beginning. I showed them early sketches of the characters. I brought them to set and showed them around production design. They got to meet Cailey [Fleming] as soon as she was cast. So this has been an amazing experience for me because I’ve not only gotten to share this movie with them; I’ve also gotten to share moviemaking with them. For the first time – because, obviously, I didn’t share A Quiet Place with them! – they’ve gotten to see what I do. And why I love what I do. But, yes, to answer your question: I’ve never been more scared to have anyone watch a movie of mine, ever, than them watching this one. It’s actually extremely emotional. I put a lot of my heart and soul into this, so if they don’t like it, I don’t know what I’m going to do. The only two reviews I’m worried about are theirs. I hope it’s two tiny thumbs up.”
What have your daughters seen of the movie so far?
“I’m waiting for all the VFX to be finished before they see it. They did see the trailer and it was funny because the trailer wasn’t fully done either. I told Emily I was going to wait till the trailer was finished, but Cailey happened to be in town and came over for dinner. I started to play her the trailer. And then I heard my kids from the playroom come running over, like, ‘We are watching this right now!’ I actually videoed the moment. I will never forget them watching for the first time the trailer for a movie I made, with the lead of the movie, on my computer. That memory will stay with me always.”
You say your daughters hadn’t seen you in a movie before. What did they think you did for a job?
“I think they thought I was an accountant. And Emily had such a head start [on me], with Mary Poppins and Jungle Cruise right out of the gates. I mean, come on. That’s almost cheating! So this was real fun. Because Jack Ryan and A Quiet Place has been the last six or seven years of my life. And I haven’t been able to share that with them. One time, one of their friends saw a poster of Jack Ryan that had an explosion behind me and said, ‘Why is Uncle Kras on fire?’ And that’s not the best way to enter the world of children’s imagination.”
To make IF, you did some research into child psychology, and the role imaginary friends have in children’s lives. What was the most surprising thing you learned?
“How astute these kids are. I don’t think we give kids enough credit. They have an incredible ability to process more than we think. What I learned in the research is that a lot of child psychology says that kids create imaginary friends out of a need for what they need most. If you’re being bullied at school, you create a much bigger IF, to either protect you or give you a hug. Certain details about kids’ imaginary friends have real meaning in relation to their lives. If your parents were getting divorced and your Dad always wore a specific tie, your imaginary friend would have that tie. You realize that IFs are projections of these kids’ own lives, which made me make sure I took this all very seriously. Imaginary friends aren’t just these adorable creatures, they’re time capsules for your hopes, dreams, ambitions. And those are things we must fiercely protect. This movie is loads of fun, but it was also important for me to not take it lightly.”
So, if our imaginary friends are projections of ourselves, who was your imaginary friend as a kid, and how did he or she reflect you?
“I had an imaginary friend called Sam Brace. And that was because my brother at the time had braces. And I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Turns out, they’re not cool. But I thought they were. I remember, we had a video store a small walk away. I used to walk there and pretend to be with Sam, in an action movie. We’d be dodging different villains and things like that. Then I’d pretend we were in a horror movie. I’d never seen a horror movie because I was too young. But I imagined werewolves because I thought they’re your de facto evil creatures. Me and Sam would go on all these crazy adventures. I forget who I was talking to – it might have been Emily – when I realized: ‘Oh my god, is my imaginary friend the reason I got into movies? Is this all just a full circle moment?’”
What did Sam Brace look like?
“He was about my height. Weirdly, he looked a lot like Mr. Bill [Saturday Night Live’s comedy clay creation]. He was this sort of Claymation, funny looking guy. We were a dynamic duo. We got through a lot of harrowing times together.”
Speaking of dynamic duos, Ryan Reynolds is also your producing partner on IF. How does that dynamic work?
“The truth is, everybody knows Ryan is funny and wildly talented – as he very clearly is. And when you’re lucky enough to know him off camera, you realize he’s also got this deep well of being a very soulful, caring, sympathetic person. I thought that if I was lucky enough to get him in this movie, I’d be able to show the world even a fraction of that side of the guy that they don’t know as well as I do. And I got way more than I bargained for. His performance is unlike any other he’s ever given. It’s so special to be one of the first directors to get to show him off in that way. I’m really excited for people to see it. I mean, clearly, Ryan can do anything, even sell cell phones and make gin [laughs]. But he was very trusting of me, which I really appreciate. And I think him and Cailey made each other better. Most of the movies that Ryan is in, he’s the lead, the tour de force behind it all. I think the fact that Cailey was the lead of this movie was really exciting to him. And he was so respectful of her. I know it’s a tiny thing but letting her be Number One on the call sheet is a big deal. Cailey didn’t know he did that. When the call sheet first went out, he was Number One on it – it was Ryan’s decision to make himself Number Two. And then, in the movie, in the credits, he let her be first as well. It’s amazing how well they got along. I think she made him take his performance to a whole different level.”
You put Ryan through the wringer physically in this, especially in the sequence in the IFs community, in which the environment keeps morphing into different shapes and places. What was your main goal with that?
“Mainly it was trying to make sure that the crew didn’t think I was on drugs. [Laughs] I kept telling them things like, ‘Okay, and now that wall is going to fall down… and a giant star is going to pop out…’ And, of course, none of it was really there. Ryan did Charlie Chaplin/Buster Keaton-level performing with that whole sequence, and he was note-perfect, jumping through walls. That whole sequence is almost hallucinogenic, and Ryan got it right away. I don’t know that the crew ever fully got on board. They were more like, ‘This guy needs help.’”
This is such a fun movie to watch. What was the moment that made you laugh the most when you were making it?
“Oh, man, that’s a good question. I would say probably making the interview scene, because we got to do this speed dating version of imaginary friends, like something out of America’s Got Talent. Seeing what the actors did with that was pure movie magic. Their timing had me in pieces. I think that scene is this movie at its best.”
Paramount Pictures presents IF in UK cinemas from May 17, 2024.