John Krasinski tells PEOPLE how watching his two daughters 'disappear into a magical world' with imaginary friends helped inspire his new movie 'IF.'
Eric Andersson joined PEOPLE as a senior writer in 2022. His work has appeared in TV Guide Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and Us Weekly.The idea to tell the bittersweet story of imaginary friends forgotten by the kids who dreamed them up came, in part, from his own daughters.
Krasinski, 44, recalls being at home and watching Hazel, 10, and Violet, 7, the girls he shares with his wife,, 41, “disappear into a magical world that we, as parents, aren’t allowed into,” he says. “I said to Emily, ‘That would make an amazing movie.’ ” Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. “They started doing fewer imaginary games, and they started to let the real world in. They started asking bigger questions and then finally said, ‘Are we going to be okay?’ ” he continues.“I said to Emily, ‘That’s kind of the definition of growing up, isn’t it? When you let fear in?’ I thought, ‘I have to do this movie right now to show them that magical world they created, they can go back.' " adds Krasinski.
The result is a story about 12-year-old Bea , whose widowed father is hospitalized with health issues.Courtesy of Paramount Pictures; Jeff Spicer/Getty; Courtesy of Paramount Pictures His daughter moves in with her grandmother in a Brooklyn brownstone, where she meets a neighbor, Cal , who, like Bea, can see the IFs —-animated characters voiced by stars including Blunt,Hazel and Violet’s imaginary friends also come to life in the movie.. “The pink alligator lives under Violet’s bed. I said, ‘Is that scary to you?’ And she said, ‘No, that’s why she’s there, to eat all the bad guys when they come in.’ And I said, ‘Oh, that makes sense.
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