When you see John Krasinski on "The Office," as nice guy Jim Halpert, the words "tortured" and "dark" don't come to mind.
Watch Krasinski's debut as a writer and director -- "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men," premiering Monday afternoon in the U.S. Dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival -- and you'll look at ol' reliable Jim a lot differently.
"I've always admired anyone who can expand what it is they're perceived to do," Krasinski said in a phone interview. "I wouldn't say I'm trying to break any mold, because being Jim from 'The Office' is the greatest gift I could ever get. … As an artist, everybody wants to be seen they can do other things."
"Brief Interviews With Hideous Men" is based on an anthology of short stories by David Foster Wallace, exploring -- in very literate ways -- some quite abhorrent behavior by men.
Krasinski was introduced to Wallace's book when he was in college. A friend was directing a staged reading of the book and cast other friends to perform. Krasinski got involved because "I definitely had that age-old thing of wanting to be at the cool kids' table," he said.
"Each of the interviews was almost like a three-act play, in and of themselves," Krasinski said. "There was a beginning, a middle and an end, where these characters had a little arc. They presented something, lived through it and then came to a conclusion in each one."
Since the book is broken up into vignettes, Krasinski never saw the other parts being rehearsed. When he saw the whole of the piece, "it was one of the most moving and inspirational things I had been a part of at school," he said. "It was the moment I decided to give acting a shot for a life choice."
Wallace's writing, Krasinski said, "is so direct, that the guys usually start out hiding something, and then reveal it. And what they reveal even further is the insecurity that they live with, with whatever problem they have."
To frame the stories in Wallace's book, Krasinski hit on the idea of having the men being interviewed by an anthropology doctoral candidate, played in the film by Julianne Nicholson.
When Krasinski finally spoke to Wallace about the film -- after Krasinski had finished the script and was into casting -- the author revealed his central thesis behind the book. "He said it was a failed experiment," Krasinski said. "He said, 'I was trying to write a book about a character that you never hear from or see. But through all the other characters that you meet, you learn a lot about her.' I said, 'Oh, so it is a woman.' He said, 'Yeah, it's probably a woman doing her dissertation at some college on something like feminism, and she's trying to get into the truth behind the male psyche.' I just went silent. He said, 'Why? What's your script about?' I said, 'That's exactly what the script's about.' "
When Krasinski heard about Wallace's suicide last September, "I was completely blown away. In no uncertain terms, it's a tragedy on every single level. … We've lost someone who had changed writing forever, and who knows what he was going to go on to do."
With the movie, Krasinski said, "I just hope I do him justice. … My movie, I know, will only achieve a fraction of the imagination that's inspired by his work."
