John Krasinski: Filling Up His Non-'Office' Hours

His upcoming projects aren't mere child's play: He's editing Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, a movie that he directed and adapted from the David Foster Wallace short-story collection. (''This isn't me declaring to the world that I'm George or Zach Braff,'' he says of his venture into multi-hyphenation. ''It was a passion project, plain and simple.'') This month, he and Maya Rudolph begin shooting an untitled comedy — directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty) and co-written by novelist Dave Eggers — about a road-tripping expectant couple searching for a place to settle down. ''It was the first role I've ever been offered where [someone] called and was like, 'I just have you in mind — would you want to do this movie?''' Krasinski recounts. ''That was insane.'' And don't worry, he'll remain happily tied down to his desk at Dunder Mifflin. ''That show has taken such great care of me that I don't want to leave,'' he says emphatically. ''I'll be there as long as they'll have me.''

Despite his rise, this single guy swears — no, really — that he hasn't been singled out by phone-number-wielding female fans. ''The character of Jim doesn't really bleed 'I will take you out of this bar and we will go to the nicest hotel and have a night that you won't forget!' He plays more like [shrugs], 'I wear a messenger bag. And my hair's weird. I'm your buddy.' Not very threatening.''

There's got to be a way to drop this nice-guy image. Any ideas, John? ''I will light this entire hotel on fire,'' he deadpans. ''I'm going to yell out, 'I'm going to burn this mother to the ground!!!!' and then do it. And it'll be weird, because I'll blow right past diva status and go right into, like, arsonist. I want to be a diva for a split second, and then forever a criminal.'' He's grinning now. ''That's how big I want to go.''

Class Act
John Krasinksi imagines his alternate-universe life as a teacher

I go by Mr. K. I'm teaching English at a prep school in rural Connecticut. In my class, homework is not homework, it's preparation for the next day. I love teaching books that have been pigeonholed as ''epics,'' and my big thing is discovering for yourself why you like them. I'd have a lot of stuff written in some cryptic way on the whiteboard where you can't understand it until we start talking about the book. I'd throw desk supplies off bridges... I've gone out on several dates with the bio teacher. Her name is Sarah, and she's just a really great girl. I'm more gregarious than she is; she brings me into the underground indie-world stuff and I bring her sonnets. It's weird because the kids are talking about this new show called The Office and they're like, ''You guys are so much like Pam and Jim!'' and I'm like, ''I don't have a TV. Sorry, I'm not into pop culture stuff.''