by If you’d have told a fan of The Office that the guy who plays Jim would go on to become a highly respected director in a few years’ time, they’d have probably looked at you like you’d just dropped a load of chilli on the floor.
That’s exactly what happened, though. John Krasinski actually made his directorial debut in 2009 with a comedy called Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, but it wasn’t until his world-conquering horror A Quiet Place that he really took off. Now, he’s locked into that franchise seemingly for the rest of time, with everyone clued in to his talent behind the camera.
As well as earning plaudits for his own directing, Krasinski has also acted for some of the best filmmakers around. He had brief roles in Sam Mendes’ Jarhead and Christopher Guest’s For Your Consideration. Greg Daniels, Harold Ramis, and JJ Abrams all directed episodes of The Office in its third season, AKA the ‘Jim Wears a Wig’ season.
Recently, Mr Emily Blunt ticked another name off his list of fantasy collaborators. In an interview with Collider from May 2024, he previewed an upcoming project that he had just wrapped on, one that was being helmed by an absolutely massive name.
“Right now, I’m shooting a Guy Ritchie movie as just an actor, and that is, like, a dream come true,” he said. “I’ve been the biggest Guy Ritchie fan forever, so if you had asked me back at Sundance if I would ever work with Guy Ritchie, I would have told you, ‘No way.’ So, I just leave the door open, and hopefully, a little magic has room to come in and give me an idea.”
The film in question was Fountain of Youth, and it eventually saw the light of day in 2025. Krasinski stars as archaeologist Luke Purdue, a former star of the field who has fallen on tough times. Together with his sister Charlotte (Natalie Portman) and a ragtag group of adventure movie clichés, Purdue embarks on a quest to track down the titular artefact so a wealthy backer can make use of its life-restoring powers. If you think that sounds generic as balls, then you wouldn’t be the only one
Fountain of Youth was not received well by the critics. There was nothing new or original about the film, just a hodgepodge of different, better franchises that had broken the same ground a decade prior. There was also zero need for Ritchie to direct it, as Apple TV+ could have hired any mercenary chancer to pump out something this by-the-book. And for considerably cheaper, too.
It might have been in one of the most forgettable films of the year, but Krasinski working alongside Ritchie must have felt like a huge personal achievement. And isn’t that what acting is all about? Well, that and the huge paydays from multi-billion dollar corporations, but that’s a discussion for another time.
