John Krasinski wasn’t exactly sure what to think when he got word that he was being crowned PEOPLE’s 2024 Sexiest Man Alive.

“Just immediate blackout, actually. Zero thoughts,” he tells the magazine in this week’s cover story. “Other than maybe I'm being punked. That's not how I wake up, thinking, ‘Is this the day that I'll be asked to be Sexiest Man Alive?’ And yet it was the day you guys did it. You guys have really raised the bar for me.”

While fans might know Krasinski as a crush-worthy, prank-loving paper salesman, or an intense former Marine turned CIA agent, or a devoted family man sacrificing himself for love, the actor, 45, prefers just being a husband and father, who binges Netflix documentaries and relishes bedtime stories with his kids.