In the Company of “Men” with John Krasinski

The "Office" star on serial monogamy, being a triple threat and adapting David Foster Wallace.

Congratulations on your engagement to Emily Blunt, by the way. Since we’re talking about deep relationships, is it difficult to undergo one when you’re under the scrutiny of the limelight?

It’s completely and totally surreal as far as that information being disseminated. I’ve been lucky enough to be left alone for the most part. I’m sure I’m not a very interesting character, or interesting enough to be newsworthy, and I’m fully happy to admit that. As far as the slight experience I’ve had with any invasive publicity, you have to view it as part of the game. If you’ve been put in the spotlight, then people are going to pay attention to you. Instead of getting frustrated with it, you have to hopefully adapt in a way that will allow you to not go crazy.

Having read the book, my first thought about this film was, how the hell is he going to pull that off? By most standards, people call Wallace’s work unfilmable. How did you comb through the material and decide what would be dramatized, left as monologues, and otherwise?

My immediate reason for doing this, and also my biggest fear, was the legions of fans that he has, of which I was one — until I decided to stand up and stupidly take on an adaptation. [laughs] I didn’t expect to manipulate it into some completely unrelated movie. “Brief Interviews” is the anomaly in his catalog of books because it is actually written to be performed, in a way. Whereas a lot of his other books, I would agree, are unadaptable.

The biggest problem was editing it down into a movie rather than a 12-part miniseries, and then figuring out which literary stuff you wanted to leave in to keep a sense of his writing. My big cinematic leap is that I connected one of the men to Julianne’s character — it’s all separate interviews in the book, non-linear. So making that connection helped as far as bringing the scientific side and connecting it with a personal journey.

You turn 30 next month, old man. Does that feel like a milestone year?

Thanks for reminding me. [laughs] To be a part of something like “The Office” is one of those things that gives you life way beyond your years, and I’m lucky to be on a show like that before I turn 30. I’ve never felt old because I was given this opportunity so early. If I stop working, that’s when I’ll start to feel old — when I allow the record to stop playing.

Your man Rainn Wilson is one of the reigning kings of Twitter. Why aren’t you on there, or, I’m guessing, any social networking site?

You can’t sit next to the king and actually compete! He’s incredible at that. I’m pretty tech-savvy, but not very internet-community-savvy. The Twitter/MySpace/Facebook thing passed by me without me even knowing, and I’d be scared out of my mind to jump in now. I’d be terrible at updating. You’d have a welcome message from me, and then you probably wouldn’t hear from me again for six months, until I put one out that said, “Oh, crap! Forgot about this thing. How is everyone?”

“Brief Interviews With Hideous Men” opens in limited release on September 25th and is currently available on VOD.

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