John Krasinski opens up about 'The Office' lesson he was able to apply making 'A Quiet Place' films

In their review of A Quiet Place Part II for Collider, Vinnie Mancuso states that the delayed horror sequel features "a vivid human core at its center." IGN's Jim Vejvoda writes something similar, making mention of "the emotional intimacy between the characters that made the first movie work so well." The film's warm and squishy center was not lost on late-night host Stephen Colbert, who noted it's got "heart" during a Late Show conversation with Part II's writer/director, John Krasinski.

"It is actually a deeply moving story at the same time," Colbert said. "How do you mesh those two? I don't usually associate deeply moving human story and horror." 

The actor-filmmaker answered the question by harkening back to one of the best pieces of advice he got from Greg Daniels, the creator of the U.S. version of The Office (all of whose episodes are now streaming on Peacock, by the way).

"It was like three weeks into shooting and I was so nervous for this scene and he said, 'Can I ask you a question? Are you ok?' I said, 'Yes, this is my favorite joke in the script, I wanna make sure I deliver it really funny.' He went, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa. You don't deliver anything funny. You just deliver and let people decide whether it's funny or not ... You just do the character and if they fall in love with you, they'll go on any ride.' I literally thought of him when they said, 'Direct a horror movie.' I was like, 'I don't know how to do a horror movie.' So instead, I just did a family drama and Trojan horsed it as a horror movie because I thought, 'You'll be more scared if you fall in love with these characters.'"

Watch the full interview below:

The segment also featured some clips of Krasinski surprising movie fans who had returned to theaters after more than a year to see his movie (since Part II isn't technically out until next weekend, we imagine these were special pre-screening events). "Listen, it was a bizarre thing, but it was clearly the right thing to do, so that sort of takes the emotion out of it," Krasinski told Colbert when asked about the project being delayed several times by the COVID-19 pandemic. "I believe you have to [see it in a theater]."

A Quiet Place Part II tiptoes into theaters everywhere next Friday, May 28.