Winthrop native Michelle Monaghan can now add “truck driver” to her impressive resume.
After several years of pairing up with Hollywood bigwigs like Tom Cruise and Patrick Dempsey, she switched gears to make the big rig indie film, “Trucker.” It opens in limited release Friday, including at the Starlight Cinema in Independence near Monaghan’s hometown. The film keeps rolling through theaters nationwide the rest of October.
Monaghan, 33, has the lead role, a “female truck driver who loves the open road, loves being her own boss. She’s also a mother who has not had a relationship with her son for 12 years. As the movie opens, he turns up at her doorstep.
“She has to take her son in and develop a relationship with him and take responsibility. She is not prepared to do that,” Monaghan says by phone from New York City, where she now lives with husband Peter White and their daughter, Willow, born Nov. 5, 2008.
Monaghan grew up with one foot in town and one foot on the farm, but she hadn’t driven a truck before signing on to the film, shot in Riverside, Calif., in 19 days in 2007.
She got her commercial driver’s license so she could get behind the wheel for real and says driving a semi is “amazing.”
“I miss driving it,” she adds. “It’s an incredible challenge, scary, but a lot of fun.”
A self-described tomboy who likes to do her own stunts, she says, “Any opportunity to run, jump, shoot a gun, kiss a guy — any action I can get. I also have to throw a baseball in the movie,” she says with a laugh.
While Monaghan has made numerous studio films — “Eagle Eye,” “Made of Honor,” “Mission: Impossible III,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and “The Bourne Supremacy” — she also enjoys the different feel of shooting an independent film.
“As an actor, you have a lot more creative control, you have more access to the cast and crew with independent films that you don’t have with studio films. You work at a really fast pace — it’s really exciting, like doing a high school film or a short film,” she says.
She’s also happy the film is coming home for its theatrical release.
She says the Starlight in Independence
is “a great little theater in a great little town. I hope people far and wide come to see it.”
“It’s a wonderful film, a small little poignant film,” she says. “Anybody who gives it a chance won’t be disappointed. I want to thank everybody for their support. I’m really proud to be from Eastern Iowa.”
She gets back to visit her folks, Bob and Sharon Monaghan, about every three months. Her parents still live in Winthrop, while her older brothers are nearby — John lives in Cedar Falls and Bob lives in Cedar Rapids.
In another month, she’ll start working on the comedy “Due Date,” the next project from Todd Phillips, director of the outrageous buddy flick, “The Hangover.”
Her co-stars are Zach Galifianakis, also from “The Hangover,” and Robert Downey Jr., who plays her husband.
“I’m nine months pregnant and these two leading men are in a mad rush to get home to me before the baby pops,” she says. “I’ve worked with Robert before. I’m really excited. I get to wear a pregnant suit, which I’m kind of excited about.”
— Diana Nollen, THE GAZETTE
