Inside John Krasinski's Unbreakable Bond With His Daughters

It turns out that even the most well-known celebs can also be down-to-earth parents. To us, married stars John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are on-screen faves. To Krasinski and Blunt's two daughters, Hazel and Violet, the stars are just mom and dad. The "A Quiet Place" director and "The Devil Wears Prada" actor keep their family life relatively private. "Pics of kids should only come direct from parents," Krasinski wrote in May 2014, when he shared a super sweet picture of baby Hazel with the world on X (formerly Twitter). Just as the parents shielded their daughters from the world, they also worked to keep fame from going to their heads. Hazel and Violet once fell into the category of celeb kids who didn't know their parents were famous. In a 2021 interview with The Sunday Times, Blunt described Hazel asking her mother if she was "famous." "And I'd never heard her ... we've never said that word in our house," Blunt said. "We don't talk about it."

While Krasinski and Blunt have been extremely thoughtful about how and when their girls end up in the public eye, they haven't been at all shy about sharing their love for their children with all of us. "When Hazel gives a hug to Violet, right there in that moment you can see this huge relationship that will last much longer than I'm around ... it's so beautiful," Krasinski said in an interview with People. Krasinski clearly adores his daughters, so much so that they've inspired some of his best work.

Love is a powerful emotion. It inspired Krasinski to write, direct, and star in the award-winning horror film "A Quiet Place," which was an already-written screenplay that Paramount wanted Krasinski to be in. When he got eyes on it, he and Blunt had recently welcomed Violet, their second daughter. "I was already an open nerve of emotions and fears — so as I read through the spec script I couldn't help but obsess over the idea that this story could be so much more than just a scary movie," Krasinski wrote in an essay for Empire. "It could actually be one of the best metaphors for parenthood ever: 'What would you REALLY do for your kids?'" He ended up revamping the script and also asked to direct, based on Blunt's encouragement. 

The actor's transition into writing and directing makes sense — Krasinski studied English with a playwriting specialization in college. And he continued to put that degree and his love for his kiddos to good use. On a February 2024 episode of "The Late Show," Krasinski told host Stephen Colbert about a new project he wrote, directed, and produced: "IF," an abbreviation for "imaginary friends." 

"So I wrote the movie for my kids," he said, who were growing and working to understand things in a pandemic-era world. Krasinski added, "And I wrote a movie to show them that there's always hope, there's always someone there behind you that has your back and you can always turn to."