‘I always wanted to make a movie for my kids’
Writer-director John Krasinski and stars Cailey Fleming, Fiona Shaw and Phoebe Waller-bridge tell Rachael Davis about family, fantasy comedy IF
While in recent years, The Office star John Krasinski’s filmmaking has been focused on the horror genre, directing 2018’s A Quiet Place and 2020’s A Quiet Place Part II, his latest directorial venture is the charming, colourful and heart-warming family film IF.
IF, which stands for “imaginary friend”, is a fantasy comedy that blends live action with animation to tell the story of Bea, played by The Walking Dead’s Cailey Fleming: A young girl who has been having a tough time due to her parents’ ill-health. She unexpectedly gains the ability to see people’s IFS, colourful creatures of all kinds, who have been forgotten by the kids who created and loved them as they got older.
She then meets Cal, a neighbour played by Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds, who can also see the imaginary friends that others cannot, and the pair unite to help bring the abandoned IFS back to the kids and adults they belong to.
The movie also stars Killing Eve’s Fiona Shaw and Fleabag’s Phoebe Wallerbridge, as well as Krasinski himself as Bea’s dad, and his The Office co-star, Steve Carell, voicing IF Blue.
Krasinski, 44, wrote and directed IF for the two daughters he shares with Oppenheimer actress Emily Blunt.
“I’ve always wanted to make a movie for my kids, but I didn’t know exactly what avenue to take,” says Krasinski.
“I was genuinely standing in a doorway for so long, all these years, watching my girls go to this magical world that we’re not invited to as parents. And it wasn’t just the joy on their face, it was the authenticity of seeing how themselves they were being … I just thought that would be an amazing movie to make.
“Then, it was actually in the pandemic, when they started imagining a lot less, and they started asking real world questions and fear was setting in, as it does for all of us, and they started asking questions like, ‘Are we going to be okay?’ and I thought, ‘That’s it, I gotta write this movie right now’, and remind them that that magical world they created will always be there for them.”
At the heart of the film is an important message for kids, that growing up does not have to be scary, and that all the fun things about being a kid do not have to stop just because you get a full time job and have to go grocery shopping for yourself.
“I think it’s super important,” says 17-yearold star Cailey Fleming of the film’s message. “I think growing up is very scary. I think about growing up all the time and, like, taxes and stuff. I don’t want to do that. But it doesn’t have to be scary.”
Fleming, who played the young version of Daisy Ridley’s Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, adds that she thinks kids going to watch IF in the cinema will “love the entire thing”.
“I mean, there are so many magical moments in it. Obviously, the IFS, but then you have Coney Island, and you have dancing numbers,” says Fleming.
“I think the parents are going to be having breakdowns in the car park, because it’s so moving,” adds Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-bridge, 38, who voices Blossom, one of the IFS.
“I can’t wait to talk to some kids after they’ve seen it, but I imagine that they’re like, ‘Yeah, that’s what our life is like, surrounded by these (imaginary) people all the time’.
“And for the adults, it’s very emotional remembering the kind of imaginative freedom that you had as a child.”
Playing Bea’s grandmother is Fiona Shaw, known for portraying Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter film series, who interpreted the film’s message to be “about innocence, and about preserving innocence by defending yourself against the adult world, which is always an onslaught on children”.
Shaw loved the animation in the film: “It’s a firework display of genius,” the 65-year-old actress says.
“It’s just gorgeous, seeing all of those colours of creatures coming up.”
The IFS were born from Krasinski’s own imagination, and brought to life by visual effects house Framestore.
“As I was writing the script, I’m a horrible artist, but I was drawing these little sketches of each character because I knew in my head w ha ti basically wanted them to look like,” Krasinski says.
“And then you go through this amazing process where you bring in artists who you get to bounce (off ) and collaborate with, and you say, ‘Because of this horrible drawing, what would you make it look like?’ And in doing so you get this really fun process where everybody gets brought to life.”
“I really prefer to shoot practically, so everything I shoot is really there,” he adds.
“We did hardly any green screen at all, so in order to do that, you have to have artists who are willing to be brave. And I had brave and courageous and extremely talented people working with me.”
For Krasinski, as much as IF is about “silly, fun, imaginary friends”, it’s also “about hope”.
“I think the funny thing is, we all think kids are the only ones growing up, but we’re all always growing up,” he says.
“We’re always sort of progressing to this place that we don’t know what’s going to happen. And I think the best part is (to) just go with the things that you created when you were the most ambitious, when you had all these dreams.
“That’s where we should all be coming from when we go through our daily life.”