Michelle Monaghan

By: Interview by Sonja Magdevski | Photographs by Jeff Lipsky | October 08, 2009 |

How is life now with your family in the public eye?
It is not really an issue for us. It isn’t any different for me now that I am a mom than when I was without child. You naturally feel more protective, but we generally don’t have an issue with paparazzi. I don’t walk outside in a glare of lights. It thankfully hasn’t happened, and I am not too concerned about it.

You studied journalism in college, but did you always want to act?
No, I never knew I wanted to act. I grew up in a really small town in Iowa, so I was always interested in current events and what was going on throughout the world. My dad was a news buff, and he was always reading the paper. We’d watch the news together and talk about current events at home, so I thought I wanted to be a journalist. I had really loved the big city, so I moved to New York and continued modeling there. Then I started doing commercials, and an audition came for this show called Young Americans. They couldn’t find an actress, so they came to the modeling agency and encouraged me to audition for it. I got the role, and it is amazing that I even got through it!

How do your parents feel about your career?
Amazing. They are remarkable parents, and they have been supportive since day one.

How many people lived in the town where you grew up?
Seven hundred. Yes, really small. Seven hundred! (She repeats the number, responding to my wide eyes.) You know everyone and everybody and everyone’s business. I go back often. It is a really close-knit community. It doesn’t seem weird to me when I am there, but after spending time in New York, I think there are more people living on my block than in my whole town. I am very connected to where I am from, and I have a very close family that plays a very big part in my life. I am sad I am going to have to miss my 15-year class reunion.

What made you take the role in Trucker?
It was so well written, and it was really a role of the lifetime that I couldn’t pass up. It was a very honest look at a woman. I was really intrigued by her character and about the idea of playing somebody who I didn’t initially identify with. She makes a lot of choices most women wouldn’t, and I was really intrigued by playing someone most people wouldn’t identify with or probably wouldn’t like, so I wanted to get her. The challenge was not to make people like her in the end; it was to help people understand who she is and why she makes the choices she does.

How did you prepare?
I went to truck driving school. My teacher, Phillip Malloy, was amazing. I learned truck driving with all the other students, and it was the most challenging thing I’ve had to do. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do it. My character’s career as a truck driver surrounds her entire being, so it was important for me to learn how to drive and get my commercial driver’s license. I made a deal with myself that I wouldn’t make this movie if I didn’t get it. I just couldn’t see the point without it. And I really wanted to make this movie. When I actually got to drive the big flatbed truck, it has a different rhythm and everything felt different. But my instructor was with me in the back of the cab the whole time, and it was amazing.

Were there any misconceptions about people in the trucking industry that you uncovered through this process?
I think people seem to think that they can’t find anything else to do, and these people couldn’t be further from that. Many truck drivers are very creative and free. Many people choose trucking as a career because they absolutely love it. They love being on the open road, they love this country and they love watching this country go by. It is a very unique profession. I loved meeting these strong, independent women, which you have to be because it can be dangerous if you aren’t careful. At truck stops, attacks can happen, or worse, so obviously they have to be safe and protected.

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