E-mail a friendMichelle Monaghan
airdate October 20, 2009
Michelle Monaghan studied journalism before becoming a successful model—traveling the world, strutting the runways and appearing in magazines and catalogs. But Hollywood beckoned, and she decided to pursue acting. A recurring role on the Fox series Boston Public in '02 opened doors for the Iowa native, and she's since shared the silver screen with some of Hollywood's biggest stars, with credits that include Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Mission: Impossible III. Monaghan is next up in the indie feature, Trucker.
Actress explains the excitement of playing a strong independent female character in the film Truckers. (1:32)
Full Interview (10:47)
Michelle Monaghan
Tavis: Michelle Monaghan is a talented actress whose film credits include "The Bourne Supremacy," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," and "Mission: Impossible 3" that I saw last night for the 18,000th time, opposite, of course, Tom Cruise. Her latest is called "Trucker," now playing in select cities. Here now, a scene from "Trucker."
[Clip]
Tavis: So you researched the role. Is it weird being a woman trucker?
Michelle Monaghan: I don't know if it's weird, but it's definitely a challenge. I went to truck-driving school and I got my CDL permit, and that was definitely a challenge. They're few and far between, female truckers, but fortunately they're growing at a rapid rate and they're very well respected in the industry.
I think you have a - there's a few instances here and there, as in any instance when you're in a male-dominated career, but these women work hard and they actually have some of the safest driving records. So that's interesting. (Laughter)
Tavis: Before I get into the movie itself, since you went and actually got your license, literally, as part of your research for doing the film, what did you make of the truck driving experience?
Monaghan: It's powerful. It's really powerful. Obviously, you're -
Tavis: Better than driving an SUV?
Monaghan: Are you kidding me? (Laughter) Yeah, you don't have any kids in the back. It's incredible. It's really empowering. You're talking to a gal who doesn't even know how to drive a five-speed, so truly this was a really big accomplishment for me.
And you really understand once you get into that cabin, you get behind the wheel and you're driving it, you really see the world from a different perspective and you really understand why people make a career of it. And I actually miss it. Unfortunately, I let my permit expire.
Tavis: Expire. What's the hardest part about learning how to do this?
Monaghan: Honestly, there's a double clutch, so you push down the clutch halfway, you just put it not quite into gear, and then you push the clutch all the way in and then actually put it into a higher gear, so it's just sort of getting the rhythm of the truck, and each truck operates a little bit differently. So that's definitely the challenge.
Tavis: See, I'm watching you -
Monaghan: They require a little bit of muscle.
Tavis: I'm watching you and listening to you and it sounds like something that's way too complicated for me to even possibly learn how to do. I have no trouble just driving an automatic in a car every day and double clutches sounds - that sounds insane.
Monaghan: Yeah, no, no, no - if I could do it, seriously, anybody could do it.
Tavis: All right, I'll take your word for that, but I won't try it, though. So tell me about the movie, about "Trucker." You're getting a lot of buzz. A lot of buzz on this thing.
Monaghan: It is. This is a really special film. It's a very quiet film, kind of an old-fashioned story about a mother-son relationship and it's about a woman who abandons her son and her family, he's a young baby, and the movie's about him turning up at her door 10 years later and their journey on the road together and discovering each other, and it's about a woman kind of taking responsibility for a life that she wants left behind. It's a really powerful little drama. We made it for $1.5 million.
Tavis: In 19 days.
Monaghan: Nineteen days, yes. So there was a real push to get it done and it was really pretty remarkable.
Tavis: I assume the answer here is going to be when you saw the storyline it got your attention, but when you're used to doing these blockbusters like "Bourne Supremacy and "Mission: Impossible 3" with Cruise, and somebody has a film that, again, has just a couple million dollars behind it, you're shooting it in 19 days, what - again, there's a lot of buzz on it now. It's being talked about as the little film that could and people are saying you ought to be Oscar-nominated already, those who've seen it, a lot of critics. But what pulls you to a project that is that small?
Monaghan: Well, it may be small in scale but it's huge in its role and it's so beautifully written, and here was a role that as an actor you don't have the opportunity to play that much, especially as a female actress. This role, Diane Ford, she's not one-dimensional.
She's unsentimental, she's honest, she's not a victim, and these are all qualities that are not all that common in today's film. I was really inspired by having the opportunity to play a woman that I really feel is truly the woman next door, and it's a really good, hard look at a woman who struggles and struggles with motherhood, and I wanted the challenge of playing somebody who you might not necessarily like at the beginning, that you may think is maybe flawed a little bit, but that you might come to understand who she is and why she makes the choices she does.
Tavis: I'm just curious here whether or not in playing the role, in researching it, you discovered some parallels between the challenges that working class moms have, like the character, and your mom, not working class. But are there parallels; are there struggles that you identified with in her being a mother, even though she's a working class mom?
Monaghan: Sure. I actually - I hadn't my baby girl when I made this movie. I wasn't pregnant. But I think regardless if you're a working class mom or a white collar mom, whatever kind of mom you are, you struggle with motherhood. It's definitely challenging. I was drawn to this role I think and other roles that I've done, working class females. I'm from a working class family and a working class community and these are real struggles. So that's one of the reasons why I was so drawn to it, I guess.
Tavis: I was reading about your background. I grew up in a really, really small town in Indiana called Bunker Hill.
Monaghan: You did?
Tavis: A small place. And I thought my town was small until I read about your town. How small is your town?
Monaghan: Seven hundred people.
Tavis: Seven hundred - that's a small town.
Monaghan: That's a really small town, it is. (Laughter)
Tavis: Tell me about your town of 700 people.
Monaghan: It's an amazing community.
Tavis: In Iowa.
Monaghan: In Iowa, that's correct. Winthrop, Iowa. It's very tight-knit, close-knit community.
Tavis: Winthrop is where on the map, between what and what?
Monaghan: In northeastern Iowa, it's about an hour west of the Mississippi River. The nearest cities would be Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Cedar Falls. Right there in the middle. And it's predominately a farming community, working class, and it's a great little place to grow up.
Tavis: You stayed in the state of Iowa until you were what age?
Monaghan: Until I was about 17.
Tavis: So you were obviously maybe not involved but certainly aware that Iowa is the place where all the candidates come for president.
Monaghan: Oh, of course.
Tavis: So you recall this? You remember these days?
Monaghan: Oh, my gosh, absolutely.
Tavis: What do you make of living in a state that everybody comes to first when they want to be president?
Monaghan: Well, it's so exciting because usually the rest of the time we always get kind of flak for being hicks and that sort of thing, but Iowa's really a progressive state, I think, and sort of underestimated a lot of the times until it comes along during election. So very proud to be from that state.
Tavis: What's the best part for you? As I said, I grew up in a small town - what's the best part for you? What do you most appreciate as an adult about having grown up in Small Town, USA?
Monaghan: The sense of community, truly. I still go back there, all my family is back there, and everyone is so supportive and that's an amazing gift to have and to be given growing up and having people around you that always support you, no matter if you're on the football team or you're in drama or an actress. It's always there, so that's really nice.
Tavis: Can anything good come out of Winthrop, Iowa? Yes. (Laughter)
Monaghan: A few things have.
Tavis: How did you get from Iowa to "Mission: Impossible" and all this?
Monaghan: Well, I went to college in Chicago, that was my dream. I wanted to be a journalist, actually, so I studied college at - I studied journalism at Columbia College and realized in my senior year I didn't want to be a journalist and I didn't know what I wanted to do.
Tavis: Hold up - when you discovered that you did not want to be, you didn't know what you wanted to be but you said you didn't want to be this.
Monaghan: That's right.
Tavis: What turned you off to that?
Monaghan: You know what? I think it was I was discovering - I was doing really well and I really did enjoy it, but I found out that I was going to have to go back to small markets, I think, such as Iowa, Winthrop, and sort of be that one-man band, if you will, and I had just had a taste of the big city in Chicago and I really wanted more, so I decided to move a little bit farther east and I had been modeling at the time in Chicago so I continued to do that in New York.
I started doing commercials and I really started out small doing, like, Secret deodorant commercials and doing bit parts in television shows like "Law & Order," and I finally got an agent and I just - a lot of perseverance, really. And now you see me for 18,000 times on "Mission: Impossible 3."
Tavis: Every night. Is Secret the one strong enough for the man, made for the woman?
Monaghan: Made for the woman, yes. (Laughs)
Tavis: How did - I'm always curious. My audience knows I always love the back story. How did you, through all those trials and travails and figuring out that you didn't want to do journalism and you went to the acting into the modeling thing, how did you know that acting was where you wanted to be?
Monaghan: Well, I think it was the feeling that it gave me and that it still gives me. I remember the first time that I was on stage in high school, I was a young girl, and I'll never forget that feeling. I think I'll probably always chase it. I've learned a lot about myself, I think, through acting, and I hope I'll be able to continue to keep doing it because it's been a real blessing for me.
Tavis: Yeah, well, you keep finding work like "Trucker," and you'll be around for a while.
Monaghan: That's right. Let's hope I do. (Laughs)
Tavis: There is a whole lot of buzz on this little film. It's called "Trucker." Do whatever you can to get a chance to check it out, starring one Michelle Monaghan. Michelle, nice to have you and all the best on the project, and maybe, who knows, I've seen this happen a few times, you may be back here around March for another conversation on the eve of something big - who knows?
Monaghan: Okay. (Laughs)
Tavis: Nice to see you.
Monaghan: All right, thank you.
Back to October 20, 2009