The cast of John Krasinski’s IF is legendary. In the film about a young girl helping a bunch of imaginary friends find homes, A-listers like Steve Carell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Bradley Cooper, George Clooney, Emily Blunt and so many more voice the sweet animated creatures. However, at the heart of these IFs is a bear named Lewis, who is voiced by the late legend Louis Gossett Jr, and John Krasinski revealed the personal connection the Oscar winner brought to his movie that makes the project even more special.
John Krasinski Reflects On Having Louis Gossett Jr. In His Moving Following The Actor’s Death
During an interview with CinemaBlend, John Krasinski reflected on working with Louis Gossett Jr. and having the movie come out about a month and a half after his death. At the heart of the film, as I mentioned in my review of IF, is the moral that nothing you love can be forgotten, and the director/writer of it told me that having Gossett verbalize this lesson was “surreal and hard to process:”
It was more than an honor to get to work with him. I was a huge fan of his growing up. And so to get him in this movie was massive. But I will say what was borderline mind-blowing, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, is, of course, the tragic news that we had lost him was so sad, and yet the idea that the last character he played was talking about how nothing you love can ever be forgotten was really sort of surreal and hard to process.
Like Lewis the Bear says in IF, which is all about remembering and harnessing your childhood, nothing can be forgotten if you love it, and people will remember Louis Gossett Jr.’s and his work forever.
John Krasinski Explains Louis Gossett Jr.’s Personal Connection To IF
Along with reflecting on the actor’s legacy and the timing of his passing, Krasinski also told me about the first phone call he had with the An Officer and a Gentleman star about his loveable character in IF. It turns out, Louis Gossett Jr. understood the director’s vision on a deep level, because he lived it, as The Office star explained:
But what was mind-blowing about it was the first conversation we ever had on the phone I told him ‘I always tried to pitch my stuff before someone reads the script just so they can get inside my head before they read it.’ And I was telling him about his character and about how he ran a retirement home under Coney Island. And I remember him saying ‘Yeah, that’s great. And the boardwalk.’ And I said ‘Yeah, exactly.’
In the movie, Lewis the Bear has a conversation with Bea about the power of memory and why it’s important to embrace and invite memories into our lives. They are at Coney Island at that moment, and it turns out Louis Gossett Jr. grew up around there, and that boardwalk was just as special to him as it was to Bea and the IFs:
And then I thought ‘Wait, I didn’t pitch him the boardwalk.’ And he said ‘No, I grew up on Coney Island.’ And I said ‘What?’ And he said ‘Yeah, I grew up in Coney Island.’ And then he started talking about how his dad would take him to the boardwalk to listen to music, and how all the smells of the food you can still smell it.
Hearing that Louis Gossett Jr. started telling the same story his character tells in the movie before reading the script is so touching, and it adds so much meaning to his part in the film. Krasinski was blown away when he found out the parallels between Louis and Lewis, and to him, this personal connection added an immense amount of meaning to IF. He said:
I said to him, I said ‘You’re not going to believe this, but that’s the speech I’ve written for you in the script. And he said ‘Well then right on let’s get to it.’ And it was just that thing of like he couldn’t get, you couldn’t ask for that magic to have someone bring that. So when you say what did he bring? He brought absolutely everything to it.
Critics Have Seen IF, And They Have Mixed Feelings About John Krasinski’s Family Friendly Fantasy Flick
It’s so special to hear about the love and personal connection Louis Gossett Jr. brought to IF, and understanding how he related to the bear he played makes the movie even more heartfelt and special.
To hear the late great Louis Gossett Jr. as Lewis the Bear in IF, you can catch the film in theaters now. To learn more about the making of the movie – like the time John Krasinski shoved a puppet in Ryan Reynolds’ face – stay tuned to CinemaBlend.