Beautiful People 2006: John Krasinski

John Krasinski was born for comedy. As Jim, the shaggy-haired wage slave on NBC's The Office, Krasinski is the identifiable everyman in a setting he describes as "a zoo gone wrong." And as said zoo finally emerges from the shadow of its critically acclaimed British predecessor, the 27-year-old is drawing Hollywood's notice. He had small roles in Jarhead and Kinsey and will soon appear in Christopher Guest's next mockumentary, For Your Consideration. What's more, Krasinski -- who completed the English honors program for playwriting at Brown -- is adapting David Foster Wallace's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men for the screen. Translating the writer's prose into movie form isn't easy. "I didn't want to dumb it down," Krasinski says. "He has an incredible handle on the language, and his vocabulary is unmatched. I didn't want to make this some action movie -- although that would be kind of genius."

Krasinski hopes to complete the movie by the end of the year, but for now he's wrapping the second season of The Office, which will soon have an episode written by the show's U.K. creator, Ricky Gervais. "It's the ultimate compliment," Krasinski says. Still, he has one concern: "It better be good. None of these jokes about boots and bumbershoots and all this British jargon. You gotta learn the language." A Krasinski-Gervais beef would be the best U.S.-U.K. battle since the War of 1812. Only funnier.
Paul L. Underwood

John wears a shirt by Morphine Generation, blazer by Modern Amusement. * Fragrance: John Varvatos.

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