John Krasinski Was Hired By The Office Three Weeks After Being Talked Out Of Leaving Acting By His Mom

In September 2018, John Krasinski appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and, during the conversation, revealed a fascinating detail about the history of his acting career. He explained that his original plan was to become an English teacher, but then he changed his mind to becoming an actor and transferred from Brown University to National Theater Institute. After telling his mom that he wanted to be an actor, she was very encouraging but made him promise that if nothing was happening within a few years, he would agree to move on.

Krasinski continued, "Cut to two and a half years later, I was like, so I'm out, this is terrible, it's so scary." But then, his mom told him to wait it out until the end of the year, just to see. Then, three weeks later, he landed his gig on "The Office." Referring to his mom's encouragement, Krasinski then quipped, "So I give her a lot of love and 10%. She deserves it."

In response, Colbert joked, "So that's something that all parents should know is that success is only three weeks away."