Tag! Michelle Monaghan is “it”—as in Hollywood’s latest “It” Girl.
2005 has proven to be a breakthrough year for the lively 29-year-old, New York-based Monaghan: After catching the Industry’s attention on TV in Boston Public and on the big screen in The Bourne Supremacy she’s suddenly popping up everywhere. After kicking off the year with a supporting turn in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, she’s currently turning heads with her sexy, spunky turn as Harmony Faith Lane, the long-struggling actress and object of Robert Downey youthful obsession in the comedic noir thriller Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, as well as holding her own in scenes with Oscar-winning heavyweight Charlize Theron as one of the sexually harassed miners in North Country.
Hollywood.com caught up with Monaghan on a break from filming her latest gig, opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 3 and learned all about the soon-to-be star.
HW: Your Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang director Shane Black said you just walked into the audition off the street and he loved you right away.
Michelle Monaghan: “Yeah, I was–well, I’m always surprised to get any role, to be quite honest. You know what I mean? People always ask, ‘Is this your breakthrough role?’ and I think, ‘God, every job that I’ve ever had is like a breakthrough role for me!’ That Secret deodorant commercial I did six years ago was a breakout thing for me. So it was really great. When I first read the script, it was one of those that you just can’t put down. I read it literally like in an hour, which is a record for me. And I had such an idea–it just spawned all these ideas in my head. And I just got really excited about auditioning, and at the same time, I went, ‘Oh, my gosh, I don’t know if I can do this.’ And I did it, and I didn’t hear anything for a couple of months, and then they called and they had me come in from Berlin. I was working on The Bourne Supremacy. They flew me over quickly, I auditioned with Robert [Downey, Jr.] and I had a great audition with him. We had a lot of chemistry, we improvised a little bit, it was really fun. And then I started three days later and that was it.”
HW: How was your experience working with Robert Downey and Val Kilmer?
MM: “Surely they both have reputations that precede them. But I have to say it’s funny, at the end of the day, when you get this question, because they’re both healthy and happy and they’re in such good places. I never encountered anything but goodness from them, truly. I can really honestly say that. One important thing that I realized is that we all were in a really unique position: For Shane, this was his first time directing; for Val, it’s been years since he’s done a comedy; for Robert, this is kind of a comeback; and for me, this is like a breakout role. So I think we all knew that we couldn’t really judge each other on any preconceived notions, because we were all in a place where we were safe and that’s very, very important. And Robert and Val–they’re just bold. I’m in awe of them every time I see them work, especially the two of them working together. It’s like they’re two peas in a pod. What blows my mind is they hadn’t met each other prior to this. Maybe that’s a good thing. But it’s just incredible, and they were so supportive to me. I mean, I don’t have big brothers or anything like that. It was just nothing but a really wonderful experience for me. It was a dream job.”
HW: Even the spider scene?
MM: “Oh, the great thing in the spider scene: I’m not afraid of bugs or that sort of thing, but Robert and Shane were freaking out. They couldn’t even watch the scene being done. But it’s different, I think, if you’re watching something crawl on you. I had my eyes closed. It started to spin its web after a while, which got a little bit weird. But it wasn’t that bad, actually. But you know what’s the oddest thing? They actually have spider wranglers. Have you ever heard of such a thing? They had two guys, like, wrangling this spider.”
HW: On your breasts.
MM: “Well, I think Robert was doing that. I don’t know.”
[PAGEBREAK]HW: Were you ok with the idea of the nude scene later in the film?
MM: “Yeah, I was absolutely okay with the nude scene. Before they offered the role to me, they said this is necessary in the film, and I understood that this was something that was really, really important to them. They certainly wouldn’t do a whole rigmarole of ‘Okay, we’re going to show this and not this, and it’s going to be a closed set and this and this and this.’ So at the end of the day, Shane was so respectful, and I love the way, aesthetically, it was shot. And to be honest, I’m not that modest of a person, so I didn’t really have a problem.”
HW: How did you feel about moving from a lead in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang to your supporting role in North Country?
MM: “No, to me that wasn’t stepping down. I guess on the page it’s a smaller role, but it was such a prominent role to me, and it was a completely different character than anything I’ve ever played. And also the caliber of actors and working with Niki Caro was amazing. And that’s not bad. I mean, what is it? ‘There are no small jobs, only small actors’? I mean, it’s such a cliché thing, but it truly is, as an actor. If you’ve never tried something or challenged yourself in a different way, something speaks to you, then you’re going to do it. It’s not about that and it didn’t feel to me that I was stepping down in any way…. I contort my face in so many ways in North Country. I saw it for the first time, and I went ‘Oh, my God. Did I really do that?’”
HW: We’re going to see you next in Mission: Impossible III–how’d that come about?
MM: “I got my role around Easter. J.J. Abrams had seen an audition tape of mine, from Constantine, [NOTE: Monaghan’s scenes were cut from the final film but can be viewed on the DVD]. He had written the role and he’d seen this audition. I went in and I met with him, and he thought I was right for the role. He had me go meet Paula Wagner and that was really positive. I was working on North Country in Santa Fe at the time, and the following week I came up and I auditioned with Tom and J.J. And then on Easter Sunday I found out I got the job.”
HW: Has Tom Cruise jumped on any of the furniture in your trailer yet?
MM: (Laughs) “No, he has not. He’s amazing. What you see is what you get. He’s absolutely been so incredible to work with–I mean, an absolutely outstanding actor. And getting to work with him, he’s so professional, and he’s one of the most present actors I’ve ever worked with. He’s really there for you in every single moment. He’s incredible.”
HW: Can you talk about where you grew up and how you got into acting?
MM: “I grew up in Winthrop, a little town in Northeastern Iowa, a rural farming community. I always wanted to be a journalist. And I actually went to school in Chicago and studied journalism. And it was after the end of my third year–I think I had a semester left–and it was something my heart had told me I wasn’t right for. I didn’t want to be a journalist, I wanted to pursue something creative, but I didn’t know what. I knew I wanted to move to New York City, so I moved to New York, and I had been modeling in Chicago at the time, pretty much all through school, so I just continued that when I moved to New York for lack of anything else to do. And then slowly but surely started doing commercials, like the Secret deodorant one I mentioned, and kind of did the rite of passage: ‘Law And Order,’ those shows in New York. I did plays in high school, but I never really thought that you could be an actress when you come from, when you grow up in a town of 700 people. It’s just that you have certain other goals or aspirations, and I always thought, ‘Okay: journalist, that’s what I want to do,’ And you never think that you can be on a TV. But at the same time, the world is your oyster.”
HW: So the world of North Country was familiar to you.
MM: “Absolutely. It was why it appealed to me. I read that script, and that’s a place where I grew up. So I know working class. I grew up in a working-class family. I understand these people. It was really close to home, that film. It was a blessing for me to play that role, because I felt I could add some personality.”
HW: So with that Secret ad on your resume, it must have been fun to play a struggling actress who’s claim to fame is that beer commercial.
MM: “Absolutely. I loved shooting that commercial, the generic beer commercial. Yeah, you know because you think that’s her one shot, and maybe she hasn’t worked in years, and she’s really going to ham it up, because this is her moment, you know? I loved that.”
HW: It seems like it’s your moment right now, with the offers getting better and better.
MM: “I have to be honest: I’m not getting offers. I’m still reading scripts, I’m still auditioning–I’m not by any means near that level. It’s easier to get meetings. That’s been really great. But you certainly feel the energy, the intensity building and everything. It’s wonderful, because everything is kind of coming to fruition now, which is really exciting. Yeah, I’d say it’s been a pretty good year for me. If I start complaining about anything right now, you should all shoot me.”
