John Krasinski gives 10 percent of his earnings from “The Office” to his mother — a gesture of gratitude for advice that changed his life.
Listen to Mother
Just three weeks before landing the role of Jim Halpert, Krasinski had considered giving up acting altogether. Fresh out of Brown University’s theater program in 2001 and struggling to make it in New York, he called his mom to say he was ready to quit.
But his mother, Mary Clare, urged him to hold on a little longer and keep chasing his dream.
“She said, ‘It’s September. Don’t give up yet,’” Krasinski recalled during a 2018 appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” That simple encouragement helped him push through, and not long afterward he landed the role that would launch his career.
“I was leaving that theater school that I was telling you about,” Krasinski continued. “Truly, my mom picked me up from that theater school after 16 weeks or something, and as soon as we left the driveway of the school, I said, “ I am moving to New York, and I am going to be an actor.’ And my mom paused for probably half a second; she said, ‘Great! Go do it. The only thing I ask you in two and a half or three years, if you don’t have any sense this is not going to happen — we used to fish as kids — so if you don’t get a nibble or eat in two and a half or three years, you have to make me one promise.’ I said, ‘What?’ She said, ‘You have to pull yourself out because, as your mother, you can’t ask me to tell you to give up on your dreams.”
Two and a half years later, he was going to give up before his mom encouraged him to stay a few months longer, having served as a waiter, waiting for his opportunity in a show.
“I was telling her to come get me,” Krasinski said, “and three weeks later got ‘The Office.’”
The role he landed was salesman Jim Halpert on the American adaptation of the British-sitcom “The Office.:
NBC’s “The Office” overshadowed the original, and one reason was the cast’s dry and awkward chemistry translated well in a show that was filmed as a mockumentary.
Krasinski’s role was salesman Jim Halpert, a straight man to many of the jokes of lead actors like Steve Carell, who played Michael.
By the third season, he was earning approximately $100,000 per episode, which is four times more than his salary in the first two seasons, according to a forum post from 2007 from former Entertainment Weekly blogger turned Deadline Senior TV writer Lynette Rice.
“I show her a lot of love and 10 percent,” Kransinski said.
The hit NBC sitcom, which lasted from 2005 to 2013, was the start of many opportunities for Krasinski, who would go on to star in mainstream movies and lead in his action TV series ‘Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan’ from 2018 to 2023. A “Jack Ryan” feature film starring Krasinski is currently in development, according to Deadline.