John Krasinski Recalls How His Former ‘Office’ Co-Star Steve Carell Made Him Cry on ‘IF’ Set

John Krasinski is recalling an emotional moment between him and Steve Carell, his former co-star on The Office, when they reunited on the set of his new animated movie IF.

The Quiet Place star, who wrote and directed the family-friendly movie about imaginary friends, recently opened up to People magazine about the moment Carell made him cry.

“When he came in, I thought I would have the best time ever, and I did,” Krasinski said. “But the first thing he did was make me cry, which sounds sad but it was amazing.” 

The duo worked together on The Office, NBC’s Emmy-winning comedy series, from 2005 to 2011, playing Michael Scott and Jim Halpert, respectively.

Though they’ve kept in touch, they hadn’t seen each other in several years, which made the reunion even more special. When Carell came in to do voiceover work for IF, Krasinski said the actor gave “the greatest brother speech about how proud he was of me and how much he loved the script.”

“He said, ‘I knew you’d go on to be a writer-director.’ I said, ‘I didn’t even know that.’ He just said, ‘I’m so proud of you and keep going, and I’ve watched everything and [I’m] cheering you on from the sidelines,’ ” the Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan star recalled of their conversation. “So I wept at the beginning of our VO session, and then luckily he jumped into being Blue and cheered me up. It was great.”

Earlier this week, at IF‘s New York premiere, Krasinski told The Hollywood Reporter that he planned a large portion of the animated movie around Carell.

“I was writing [animated character] Blue to be Steve because of his sense of humor and how sweet he is, and how incredibly vulnerable and also how big and open-hearted he is and he gives great hugs,” he explained. “So I was like, ‘If he doesn’t do this, we’re in trouble.’ And as soon as he said yes, it was like a family member giving you that love and support that I needed. As soon as he jumped on, I knew we were off to the races.”

Carell added to THR that doing the project with his longtime friend was a “joy from beginning to end.”

IF hits theaters on Friday.