Actor John Krasinski, who has starred on the hit TV show “The Office” as well as portraying CIA agent Jack Ryan in the Amazon Prime series “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” has fired back at critics complaining that he has played roles celebrating the military.
As Fox News notes, Krasinski also assayed the role of a “former Navy SEAL-turned-private military contractor working in Benghazi in Michael Bay’s 2016 film ‘13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.’”
Esquire, which conducted an interview with Krasinski, noted the criticism that had come his way for seeming pro-military:
In August of 2018, BuzzFeed wrote an article titled, “John Krasinski Wants To Play Red-State Heroes Without Getting Political” and in November an old video of him saying “the CIA is something that we should all not only cherish, but be saying thank you for every single day” was being heavily criticized on the Internet. Insider wrote, “A brief history of John Krasinski’s transformation into a guy who absolutely loves the CIA,” and Mel magazine ran an article saying “Jim From ‘The Office’ Was Always a Cop.”
Krasinski told Esquire, “That narrative is certainly not the narrative I intended to put out there. When people look for something that they want to see, I can’t stop them from a subjective belief in something … I have 11 aunts and uncles and cousins who have been in the military or still are in the military. So it was a big thing on my list to get to do a military movie or show or something.”
In 2018 Fox News spoke with Krasinski at the series premiere of “Jack Ryan” at the USS Iowa, and Krasinski spoke of meeting actual CIA personnel:
I have to say; I completely nerded out when I went to see them. I will say I also thought that it would be the most uneventful interview I’ve ever had in my life because I thought every answer would be “We can’t talk about that” and instead they were the most unbelievably diverse, intelligent, giving and generous group and we are so lucky to have them.
To be honest, I think I went in there very similar to “13 Hours” — I think I went in there with a more Hollywood version of what I was expecting and what I wanted to get out of it. So, for “13 Hours” I went in there really wanting to learn about the warrior and I think what I really ended up coming away with was being proud to get to know these men …
And, I think that’s how I feel about going to the CIA, I went in there wanting to meet spies and wanting to meet officers, and instead I met incredibly dedicated people and very honorable people and people who are putting their lives [on] the line in a whole different way. And, if chosen to do that selfishly — I don’t know, there’s nothing more heroic than that for me.
Krasinski told Esquire, “If you start breaking down every single CIA event, do I respect and honor all those? Of course not. Of course not. Do you respect and honor every facet of every single president? Of course not.”