LOS ANGELES — John Krasinski is still pinching himself over the critical and financial success of his experimental thriller “A Quiet Place,” but the Cinderella year is not over yet. With awards season heating up, “A Quiet Place,” has found its own spot in the conversation. Krasinski who co-wrote, directed and starred in the film opposite his wife, Emily Blunt, is only humbled.
“It’s nothing short of overwhelming,” he said. “Emily and I really are still digesting the fact that we made this small little special movie that some people really connected to. This was literally a meditation on parenting!”
“A Quiet Place” is a mostly silent horror film about a family (Krasinski, Blunt, Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds) trying to live among creatures that attack and kill at the smallest sound. It became a surprise box-office phenomenon when it was released in April, grossing $338.6 million in worldwide ticket sales off a production budget of $17 million. It is now available on home video and streaming, and a sequel is already in the works.
Critics loved its high concept thrills, too, and while many have offered praise, a certain phone call stands out for Krasinski — the one he got from his favorite director, and friend, Paul Thomas Anderson.
“It was probably 30 minutes long about how much he loved the movie and how much it meant to him and how much he wished movies like this happened every Friday. I genuinely blacked out on that phone call,” Krasinski said. “He said, ‘I’ll tell you the best compliment I can give you: As I was walking back to my car I thought, OK, I need to get back to work.'”
Anderson actually provided some inspiration for “A Quiet Place.” Krasinski said he studied the opening of “There Will Be Blood” and other modern films that employ silence to figure out how he would approach it in his film. He looked at “Jaws,” “Rosemary’s Baby” the films of Alfred Hitchcock for ideas in tension-building.
“Jaws” was one of Krasinski’s biggest touchstones, and the first movie he and Blunt watched together when they started dating.
“It’s a perfect film,” he said. “It’s not about a shark, it’s about these characters trying to overcome fears that they’re running away from and at some point those fears are going to manifest themselves in the most bizarre ways.”
In that same way, “A Quiet Place,” to him, is about parenting. He had been sent a script to look at and had an idea to re-write and refocus around those anxieties.
“I was actually holding my 3-week-old daughter. We had just had our second daughter,” he said. “Reading a story about parents doing whatever it took to protect their kids was exactly what I was living through.”
