John Krasinski, director, writer, and one of the real life stars of IF, sat down to share more about his new film including what it was like reuniting with his friend Steve Carell after so many years.

INTERVIEW: John Krasinski Reuniting With Steve Carell, Real IFs, and more!

From writer and director John Krasinski, IF is about a girl (Cailey Fleming) who discovers that she can see everyone’s imaginary friends — and what she does with that superpower — as she embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten IFs with their kids. After watching the film, which is full of whimsy, charm, and heart, I couldn't wait to hear what John had to say about the creation of this world. From IF inspiration to reuniting with Steve Carell, IF has been a journey for John, one that he was excited to embark on.

As a longtime fan of The Office, seeing John and Steve Carell reunited put a big smile on my face. When I asked about that and how fun that must have been, John shared it started with tears before ending in laughter.

John: Well, Steve is sort of undirectable. He's so good that you just sort of let him do whatever he does and hope that the microphones and cameras are rolling. I don't know how much direction I gave him, but it was so much fun working with him. I will say, I hadn't seen him in so long because of the pandemic and when he came in, I was expecting just nonstop hilarity to ensue. Instead, he came over, put his hands on my shoulder and gave the greatest brother speech of all time, where he said how proud he was of me. He said he loved the script and he's been watching ever since The Office. The fact that I went on to start writing and directing…he said he was so moved by it, inspired by it. He [said he] was really proud of me and gave me a hug. So I started the thing weeping and then we ended the day laughing as soon as he started doing Blue.

The IFs in the film were mostly created by John during his writing process, but he also got a little help from his daughters Hazel and Violet.

John: I wrote the character Blue for Steve and as I was writing for Steve, I sort of imagined what that would look like with his voice. And then I did the same for Phoebe and for Louis.

Probably the two most special ifs are my daughters' imaginary friends. So one of my daughter's imaginary friends is the pink alligator named Allie…So my daughter had this alligator living under her bed, still does, and I said, is that scary? And she said, no, she's there to eat any of the bad guys coming to get me. I went, great! Logical. Then my other daughter created the flaming marshmallow because she's a very empathetic person. We were making s'mores one day and her marshmallow burst into flames and she was destroyed. I said, oh no, that's what he does, he lights himself on fire, he puts himself out. She went, really? And I went, oh yeah, it's just his thing. She was like, great, and that became her imaginary friend.