John Krasinski was a teenage lifesaver

Actor John Krasinski once saved the life of a woman in Costa Rica while he was living in the country as a teenager.

Years before becoming an action hero in films like 2016's 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi and his new Jack Ryan TV series, the star reveals he came to the rescue of a lady who had been swept away in a riptide.

"One of the places I went was this amazing beach called Manuel Antonio that I didn't realise had an insane riptide," he recently recalled during a Playboy magazine interview.

"While I was swimming there... this Costa Rican girl and an American guy were swimming right next to me, and we were knee-deep. I went underwater for a second, and when I came back up he was screaming at the top of his lungs. Literally in three seconds the girl had been swept 150 yards out."

John was able to draw on his mother's skills as a lifeguard and leaped into action - although there was a moment when he thought the rescue mission wouldn't end well for either him or the other swimmer.

"In that moment, I didn't ask anyone. There was no one to help me. I just went out and tried to save her," he said.

"And then of course when I got out there, I was in a crosscurrent with her. It was one of those moments of, 'Oh my God, you just made a poor choice and it might cost you your life.'"

"It was just this survival instinct," the 38-year-old continued. "It was really weird - like the girl was asking me to let her die. But I got her back."

The scary incident left a huge impact on the young Krasinski, who was in Costa Rica perfecting his Spanish after high school: "Granted, not everybody needs to have life-or-death experiences, but that changed my entire life," he reflected. "All of a sudden I grew up."