- I'm John Krasinski.
- And I'm Michael Kelly.
- And this is the Wired Auto Complete interview.
[upbeat music]
Come on man. [Michael laughing]
Pull it together.
We haven't even gotten the intro out.
- I'm sorry, okay.
[upbeat music]
Okay.
- Do you wanna take more time or?
- How many movies has John Krasinski directed?
- Technically I've directed five movies.
The fifth one is a movie called "If"
that I just finished directing a few weeks ago,
so I can't even believe I'm vertical.
I'm not, I'm in a chair, but close enough.
Yeah, it would be five movies.
Thanks for asking, Michael.
- Yeah, my pleasure.
- You should know that as a friend of mine.
[Michael laughing]
- What did John Krasinski do in "Free Guy?"
- Played a small voice.
Ryan Reynolds asked me to do a voice
in the movie on my phone.
I was a guy
that looked like he was in the Witness Protection Program,
and I believe made an inappropriate comment
in a sexual innuendo, as they call it.
You should see the movie. - I did see the movie.
I did not know.
- Yeah.
- How about that?
- You don't know anything about me.
- Look at that. - I thought we were friends.
- I should, I should do more Googling.
Where was John Krasinski a waiter?
- Anywhere that would have me.
I was fired from nine different jobs while pursuing acting,
but not just waiting jobs.
Oh no, it wasn't just the restaurant business that said no.
I worked at a yoga studio.
I was a illegal real estate agent,
still being followed by lawyers about that.
And what else did I do?
I was a casting associate
where I read with other actors in the room.
- How was John Krasinski in "Shrek?"
Who was John Krasinski in "Shrek?"
- Oh, boy.
Didn't know you'd be teaching him reading.
- I'm reading upside down.
- Yeah, that's not true.
It's right side up, is.
- Like this man.
- I played Sir Lancelot in Shrek,
which is really the only thing that makes me cool
in my house as of now
cause my kids otherwise thought I was an accountant
because my wife was in Mary Poppins,
which was a little bit of a cheap shot
to bring that into a kid's space.
My kids can't see anything that I'm in except for "Shrek."
So there we are.
- Yeah, John Krasinski
favorite office episode.
- Wow, that's a hard question to answer.
I would have to say my favorite office episode
was Diversity Day.
It was technically the second episode
but it was the first episode of our own,
meaning the pilot was a direct copy of the British show.
The whole script was the exact pilot of the British show.
So Diversity Day was our first episode
that was ours and ours alone.
And I will never forget that because being in that room,
not only was I the most unprofessional actor
because I laughed at every single thing that happened,
and I totally threw the being in a documentary
out the window.
I was like, no, I'm gonna laugh at everything
all these people do.
But I remember feeling in the room and looking around
at all these people
who didn't think anyone was gonna watch this show.
And we still didn't think anyone would watch the show.
But I said, this is gonna be one of the funniest things
that's ever been recorded on television.
Too bad no one will see it
because who knows where this show goes.
And I went back to waiting tables.
True story. [Michael laughing]
After we shot the first four episodes,
I was like best thing I've ever done.
No one will see it, and I signed up to wait tables again.
The hardest I've ever laughed in my life
is the Christmas episode where Steve pretends to be Santa
and asks Brian Baumgartner who played Kevin
to sit on his lap.
And as soon as Steve said, what would you like little boy?
And he lost all the air in his body when Brian sat on him,
I've never laughed harder in my life.
And if you're a fan of the show,
you know that they used to just swing pan to Jim
for a reaction.
And I looked over to the cameraman,
I said don't even try it.
I will not be here.
And so every time he swings to,
it was an empty room, I just wasn't there.
I just told him, I will not be here.
I'm not professional.
And I'll be here on the floor laughing my ass off.
And we did.
- Can John Krasinski ice skate?
- I can ice skate.
Thank you for asking.
Poorly, but I can do it.
Growing up in Boston, it was very cold.
So there's very few things to do when it's that cold.
So ice skating was definitely on the docket.
- And did you ever in a, anything on camera?
- I did.
My first commercial ever actually, yeah, weird.
- Maybe that's why.
- Nice question, oh, okay.
I think it was the first commercial I ever acted in.
It was a Dunkin' Donut spot
where you were a fan that won a fantasy
with the Boston Bruins,
and so I got to skate with the Bruins,
and I skated out on the ice and was supposedly
supposed to be checked by one of the Bruins players.
We did about 20 or 30 takes, and it was always funny,
but not funny enough
cause it didn't look like he really hit me.
And I said on this last one, really hit me.
And it's the one they use.
He kicked me six feet off the ice
and my skates come into the frame
and I landed, and my knee wasn't right for about six years.
So thanks Dunkin' Donuts.
You'll be hearing from my lawyer.
Let me see if I can read this upside down.
Does Michael Kelly speak Spanish?
[Michael laughing]
- No.
- You still don't?
- No, no, no.
- Porque no? - I had to learn it for
- Porque?
- I had to learn it for "Jack Ryan,"
and I did not speak a word of it.
And when I was offered the job,
the guys who were pitching it to me,
I said, look guys, I really wanna do this show.
I'm super interested, but I don't speak a word of Spanish,
so if you want to find somebody who does
I completely understand.
I really wanna do it.
And they were like, no, no, it's just a little bit.
Cut to getting the scripts and freaking out
when I saw how much Spanish I had to speak
and do interrogation scenes,
and I was like, guys, I don't speak any Spanish.
So I had to learn it for the show.
- Who Michael Kelly, actor Criminal Minds.
I'm gonna decipher it as
was Michael Kelly on "Criminal Minds"
or if you were what, I think they mean person of interest.
- So it was their first failed spinoff
to the best of my recollection.
It was me and Forest Whitaker and Janeane Garofalo.
But we did a spinoff, and we lasted all of one season.
Our spinoff was on their show,
and then we did a season of our show,
and then they canceled us because it wasn't good.
- Thank you.
We are answer you for.
Okay, perfect. [Michael laughing]
- That is the weirdest, that is the weirdest Google search.
- Well, it gets weirder.
Who is Michael Kelly guitars?
I just love that question.
- This is actually interesting.
There is a Michael Kelly guitars.
They are and they're, they make some really rad guitars too.
And I've.
- Don't send him one.
Do not send him one, no.
- They are.
They're sending me one.
- No, don't do that.
- We've been in contact on Instagram,
and they were like we'd love to send you a guitar.
And I was like, cool cause I play guitar.
So I was like, right on.
- And he does Instagram, so he's cool.
- And there you go.
- Yeah. - There you have it folks.
- Where does Michael Kelly live and what time do you shower?
- I know, right?
Like I lived in New York City for 25 years,
and we have kids now, and we just recently left the city
and moved about an hour north
to some beautiful horse country.
- Do you wanna drop a pin or?
- Yeah, yeah, I'll just drop a pin.
- Just show everybody - Come one over and visit.
[Michael laughing]
- Amazing.
- When did John Krasinski play Mr. Fantastic?
- Last year I was lucky enough to have a small cameo role
in "Dr. Strange Multiverse of Madness."
- What knife does John Krasinski use in "A Quiet Place?"
- Wow, that's a great question.
And I wonder if it comes from Andy,
the owner and artist of Half Face Blades.
Andy's an ex Navy Seal that I worked with,
gone into his own business of designing knives.
And so when I was directing "Quiet Place,"
I thought, I'm gonna call Andy
and see if he'd gimme one of his kick ass knives
for "Quiet Place,"
and so that's the knife that's hanging from my bag
the whole movie.
And they're so sharp, they will take your entire arm off.
Not a finger, your arm off.
- They really are.
They're badass.
And mine is under my bed.
Like he gave us,
he gave us, the Jack Ryan guys, knives as well.
- So if you ever ask where he lives?
- They're super cool.
- Don't visit him.
He will kill you.
- Yeah, exactly.
Where does Mike Kelly live?
You don't wanna know.
Was John Krasinski in every episode of "The Office?"
- Probably wasn't in every episode.
I don't know the answer to that question.
I would imagine I wasn't in every episode.
It felt like, I think I was in almost every episode,
but there were episodes where characters went on road trips
or things like that, that not all of us were in.
Although I was probably in the cold open to that,
to those episodes, so.
- Right. - That's a big question mark.
So thank you for searching it.
When you find out the answer, let me know.
- [Woman] John, you were actually
only missing in one episode of "The Office."
- Thank you.
So I was in 208 episodes, is that right?
- Wow.
- Yeah, I think that's right.
- All right, I'm old.
- I was in, I missed one as well.
71 of the 72 "House of Cards."
- 209 is more, but.
[Michael is laughing]
- Everything is a competition, everything!
How is John Krasinski so mean?
No, how is John Krasinski related to Stanley Tucci?
- Stanley Tucci is my brother-in-law.
He married my wife Emily Blunt's sister.
They met at our wedding, got married soon after that.
It was a pretty exciting thing.
Love was in the air that day.
It sure was.
Michael Kelly "House of Cards."
[Michael laughing]
- Yes.
- Dude, the wording of your questions are incredible.
- I know, it's.
- Michael Kelly House of Cards.
- I think, you know what it is? Five year olds do mine.
Doug Stamper's craziest thing, I think,
and he killed people,
so this is, he's so out there
that he thought he could control his alcoholism
by giving himself measured doses through a syringe.
That's how he consumed his shots of alcohol.
And funny enough, one day they,
I did a full shot of bourbon on the show
because they actually filled the syringe with real bourbon.
- Yeah, they filled it.
[Michael laughing]
Michael Kelly audio book narrator.
I mean, these are statements and questions
at the same time. - I know, but yes, I am.
Yes, I did a Stephen King book on tape, "Joy Land."
- "Joy Land."
- It's a creepy ass book, man.
It's crazy.
- Dude, I will definitely,
based on your reading skills,
it must have taken a really long time,
really long time to get through that.
I'm sorry to Stephen King.
- You know what was crazy?
- Big hero of mine.
I'm sorry that you chose him.
I would've done a better job.
I want to hear you read that so bad.
- Yeah, you'll get through a chapter.
- Michael Kelly "Sopranos."
- Statement.
Yes, I did "The Sopranos."
It was at that point in my career when you,
when they're like, all right,
we should probably stop doing guest stars.
But my manager called and he was like it's "The Sopranos."
They want you to come do an episode,
and I think it's something
that you are gonna wanna tell your kids one day
that you were a part of.
So it was season six, and I remember I went to the audition
and I was just fed up.
It was just a shitty time.
I had a beard, I had a thermal shirt on, a t-shirt
and it was an FBI agent.
And I was like, I'm not shaving man.
I'm just, you know, one of those moods.
And I was like, I'm not doing it.
And I go in, and I read for it.
First I sat down, and she was like,
what kind of FBI agent are you?
And I was like undercover.
And she was like, okay, that's funny, but no.
She was like, go ahead, just read it.
And so I read, and she was like, that was really good.
And then I got called and she said.
- Do you speak Spanish?
So I went to the callback.
I shaved.
It was for, David Chase was there, and I was like, oh wow.
Went and I did the episode, and then it turned into
I don't know, six or seven episodes
over the last two seasons, so it was cool
to be a part of "The Sopranos."
- It's unbelievable.
- Yeah. - Oh, these are "Jack Ryan."
- Let me see.
- Get my specs.
You gotta show the camera.
- Sorry, does Jack Ryan follow the books?
- That could be answered two ways.
You know, it's like, do we follow Tom Clancy's books
or am I a by the book kind of CIA operative?
- Oh!
- See what I mean?
See what I did there?
- I do.
- I'll let your brain explode for a while.
And then what it is
is we don't actually follow the books that Tom Clancy wrote.
It's a new take on the character.
However, in my opinion, we always try to put in an homage
to each of the books or each of the movies
that the character's famous for.
This new season, season three,
when we came up with the idea, it was "Hunt of Red October."
We wanted to pay a little homage to
by involving Russia, getting to go to Russia
but also instead of a nuclear submarine,
it's a man that we're looking for.
It's intel that we're looking for rather than a submarine.
That was the idea there.
- There you have it.
Is Jack Ryan an action series?
Hell, yeah it is.
And I love it, man.
It's so much fun to do.
I mean, I think it's one of the things that we enjoy most
on this show in that we get to do a lot of our own stunts.
And so to push yourself every season as I get older
to see if I can do it still is, it's a lot of fun.
- And I got thrown out of a helicopter,
so it better be an action series
or I really need to call a lawyer.
- Or people are just mean.
- Is Mike November Bad, Jack Ryan?
Take that two ways.
- Oh, shit!
[both laughing]
- Yeah?
No, no, man.
He's, he works for the CIA
and now he's an entrepreneur, so to speak.
He does some questionable things,
but I don't think that makes him bad.
- No, he's a morally questionable person.
- No.
- Yeah, he's a bad guy.
- He does some morally questionable things.
- But the guy who plays him is anything but bad.
- Aw, thanks buddy.
- Who plays him? [both laughing]
What does Mike November mean?
- It's the mil, I knew.
It's the military, NATO phonetic
- [Woman] NATO phonetic alphabet.
- That's right.
The NATO phonetic alphabet.
- So you meant NATO phonetic, like Wilcox or Charlie
or Bravo.
- Whiskey Tango, Mike November.
It just so happens to be the coolest name in any,
certainly cooler than Jack Ryan.
Just saying.
- Is Jack Ryan a real story?
No, it is not a real story.
It is based on the character
that was created by Tom Clancy in various books
and also movies.
I think the coolest part about the show versus the movies,
the big difference for me at least getting to play him
is that it's long form storytelling.
If you like it, you can buy a bunch of books.
They're out there for you.
So Michael,
how was your first Wired Auto Complete interview?
How did that feel?
- I really want to figure out why people ask my questions
in statements.
- I was really fascinated to learn about you.
I know you were
because you clearly don't know anything about me.
- I do, was a lot of times.
- And being what I thought was decent friends.
I actually thought that we were gonna
like our kids are friends.
- We talk about a lot of stuff,
but I was like huh, wow, interesting.
Didn't know you were anything besides a waiter.
- Thank you Wired.
- Thanks a lot. - By the way, I didn't know
that you were anything but a waiter.
That's what that guy just said.
I am gonna drop that pin.
I'm gonna show everybody where you live right now.
Gimme my phone.
[both laughing]