How Steve Carell Made Former ‘Workplace’ Costar John Krasinski Cry (Unique)

Steve Carell is understood for his good comedic timing, however he’s fairly good at tugging at heartstrings too.

Simply ask John Krasinski, his former costar on NBC’s The Workplace. He tells PEOPLE Carell made him cry after they reunited to work on IF, the brand new household film about imaginary buddies that Krasinski wrote and directed. 

“When he got here in, I assumed I might have one of the best time ever, and I did,” explains Krasinski, 44. “However the very first thing he did was make me cry, which sounds unhappy nevertheless it was wonderful.” 

The 2 labored collectively on the Emmy-winning comedy sequence from 2005 to 2011, the yr Carell, 61, who performed bumbling paper firm supervisor Michael Scott, left the sequence. Krasinski, a.ok.a. candy gross sales rep Jim Halpert, remained till the sequence resulted in 2013.

Although they’ve stayed in contact, Carell and Krasinski hadn’t seen one another for just a few years till Carell got here to do voiceover work for Blue, IF’s major imaginary good friend.

“I wrote the half for him and had no concept that he may do it, whether or not scheduling-wise or no matter,” says Krasinski, who has loved success and acclaim as a author and director due to his A Quiet Place franchise.

“For him to signal on was an enormous increase. It felt [like] that stamp of approval from household,” explains Krasinski.

After they embraced on set after years aside, Carell gave his good friend “the best brother speech about how proud he was of me and the way a lot he cherished the script,” says Krasinski, who shares two daughters, Hazel, 10, and Violet, 7, along with his spouse Emily Blunt, 41.  

“He stated, ‘I knew you’d go on to be a writer-director.’ I stated, ‘I did not even know that.’ He simply stated, ‘I am so pleased with you and hold going, and I’ve watched every little thing and [I’m] cheering you on from the sidelines,’ ” remembers Krasinski. “So I wept firstly of our VO session, after which fortunately he jumped into being Blue and cheered me up. It was nice.”

IF tells the story of 12-year-old Bea (Cailey Fleming), whose widowed father (Krasinski) is hospitalized with well being points. His daughter strikes in along with her grandmother (Fiona Shaw) in a Brooklyn brownstone the place she meets a neighbor, Cal (Ryan Reynolds), who, like Bea, can see the IFs (imaginary buddies) — animated characters voiced by a cavalcade of stars together with Blunt, Carell, George Clooney, Bradley Cooper and Matt Damon.

He says getting everybody on board was so simple as selecting up the telephone. 

“I had completed the script, I used to be sitting with my producing associate and we simply caught all these drawings up on the wall and we stated, ‘All proper, dream forged, let’s simply go for it.’ And I’ll say, I’ve by no means gotten extra yeses in my profession or quicker yeses in my profession,” says Krasinski. “I received each single particular person I requested. It was really too quick. So now I’m spoiled.”

For extra on John Krasinski, choose up the brand new situation of PEOPLE.

IF is in theaters Could 17.