The beautiful and talented Michelle Monaghan has quickly grown to prominence among Hollywood’s glamour stars. Since stepping off the catwalk to try her hand at acting, the former model has earned credits in blockbuster movies such as “Gone Baby Gone” and “Mission: Impossible III.” Now this attractive and vivacious brunette, who has appeared with some of Hollywood’s A-list – Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie and Shia LaBeouf, to name a few – is jamming gears and logging miles in an 18-wheeler for her latest movie role.

Opening in theaters this October, “Trucker,” written and directed by James Mottern, stars Monaghan in the lead role. The movie tells the story of an independent professional truck driver, Diane Ford (Monaghan) who enjoys her carefree lifestyle. Her life is put into disarray when her estranged 11-year-old son is thrust back into her world. As Ford encounters new responsibilities and expectations in her life, including her profession as a truck driver, she must find a new balance and overcome the new challenges she faces.

Once she was cast in the leading role, Monaghan took it upon herself to self-educate in preparation for the movie. This included Monaghan joining several female truck drivers for short hauls to experience life on the road for a woman. “I have a lot of respect for people in this industry, particularly the women,” explains Monaghan. “I got to go on two short hauls with two women drivers. It can be very dangerous for women out there. But I learned they love their career. And they love the freedom. They choose to be truck drivers and they love their jobs.”

However, the more daring action in adopting the truck driving lifestyle, according to Monaghan, was enrolling in a driving school to earn her commercial driver’s license (CDL). Monaghan passed and is the proud holder of a CDL. “It was amazing,” says Monaghan. “I went to a CDL school near Los Angeles and worked with a very patient man. I was very excited to be able to drive a truck.” Although she seems surprised at her ability, this small-town girl had plenty of exposure to the trucking industry growing up.

From Winthrop, Iowa, Monaghan was raised not as a Hollywood actress or model, but as a small-town country girl. Her father worked as a part-time farmer while her mother ran a day care center from the family home. “I guess I was a bit of a tomboy growing up, shooting guns or whatever,” Monaghan admits. “Winthrop is a very small town with only about 700 people. It was a very small and close community. When I graduated high school there were only 39 people in my class. It is a very rural area of Iowa. Thinking about it now, you don’t really appreciate where you are from until you move away and come back to visit. I definitely appreciate home much more now.”

Visitors to Winthrop will not see a “Welcome to Winthrop, Home of Michelle Monaghan” sign as they come into town, much to Monaghan’s relief. “There isn’t a sign, thank goodness. I hope they never put one up. That would be very embarrassing.”

Acting and modeling were not Monaghan’s original ambition. She moved to Chicago after graduating from high school to attend college in the pursuit of a journalism career. Looking to pay the bills, Monaghan took up a few modeling jobs at the encouragement of a friend and soon found herself more behind the camera than behind the books.

Realizing the substantially larger financial benefits of modeling and acting, plus the potential timeline of success, Monaghan elected to pursue her newfound career. “I just knew that it would take a long time to get places in a journalism career so I looked at a change,” explains Monaghan on her altered career path. Her switch to acting came with particular ease, landing several television roles in episodes of “Young Americans,” “Law and Order” and “Boston Public.” “I’ve been very fortunate in my career,” says Monaghan. “I’m very lucky to have had good people behind me.”

Monaghan hit the big screen in 2001 with a small role in the drama “Perfume.” Bigger roles would quickly follow, as the talented actress would soon gain the attention of critics and directors. Parts in the 2002 drama “Unfaithful,” alongside Richard Gere and Diane Lane, in the 2003 comedy drama “It Runs in the Family,” starring father and son Kirk and Michael Douglas, and in the 2004 action thriller “The Bourne Supremacy” with Matt Damon not only placed Monaghan with a highly credible list of actors, but also broadened her acting resumé to include several different genres.

It would be the lead role in the 2005 comedy thriller “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” where Monaghan would gain positive notice from critics as well as future fellow cast members and directors, including Mottern. Her role as Julia Hunt, wife of Tom Cruise’s character in the action film “Mission: Impossible III,” took Monaghan’s acting portfolio up yet another notch, with the blockbuster earning more than $300 billion in gross revenue.

‘Trucker’

Writer and director James Mottern faced an uphill battle when working to bring “Trucker” to fruition. After seeing Monaghan’s performance in “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” he knew he had found his leading lady; however, he had a difficult time securing financing for the film. “There were some problems with getting funding but we got it sorted out, particularly with the help of Plum Pictures,” explains Monaghan. “It was one year to the day from when I saw the script until we started filming. It is very exciting for us, especially since this is a small film.”

Mottern himself was no stranger to the trucking industry and pulled from his upbringing in Virginia when writing the film. “I grew up in Virginia and knew some people whose dads were truck drivers,” says Mottern. “I was a real ‘motor head’ growing up and thought about driving a truck when I first moved to California, as you can make a good living, but got into other lines of work. When I was living out toward Riverside, Calif., a few years ago I came into contact with the trucking industry at every turn.

It is very big there, as it is at the cross-roads of heavily traveled north-south, east-west routes. And I just started thinking about it and wanting to capture maybe what it was or what it meant, if only a little bit. To me truck drivers always captured the wildness and mythology of America.”

DIANE Ford

The movie’s main character, Monaghan’s Diane Ford, portrays the image of a tough, hard-working, independent woman who pulls no punches and never backs down in a confrontation. As Mottern explains, it was a chance encounter that brought Ford’s profession to mind. “I was at a truck stop near the Interstate 10 and 15 interchange in Southern California and I saw a woman driver around 40 years old come in, all in denim with tan skin and bleach blonde hair – a real California type. It looked like she had seen a hell of a lot; but she looked smart and wise and free, and she just sort of stuck in my mind – a woman who seemed like she would say what she thought and do what she wanted to do, good or bad. And that is who my main character of Diane Ford is. She really couldn’t be a waitress or a nurse or something like that. She captures the essence of hard-fought and much-lost freedom.”

“The character was extremely interesting and very likable,” says Monaghan of Ford. “She is not one-dimensional. There is a line in the movie when she says ‘I am what I am.’ She makes no apologies for it.”

“Trucker” is not representing the trucking industry, nor does it aim to portray the life of a professional driver. Rather, the movie characterizes an independent woman who enjoys her carefree lifestyle, which is suddenly interrupted when her son comes back into her life. There are depictions of the life of a professional truck driver, the priority for new tires or the importance to drive more miles to earn pay, showing that Mottern and Monaghan have done their industry homework.

“I talked to many drivers and knew some myself over the years as I was writing this movie,” explains Mottern of his research. “I really enjoyed it quite a bit. Truckers are people who have seen many things many times over, so there’s very often a sort of calm or patience to them. The truck drivers I met and talked to were extremely forthcoming, generous, smart and damn funny. Really. Such great senses of humor about life and living.

“In some ways truckers are some of the last folks who still carry a kind of American dream that I believe in. It tends to be a real Western kind of dream: that if you work hard and approach it with a good nature and it doesn’t hurt anybody else you can live a free life. That’s not to say you don’t have your ups and downs; the character of Diane Ford has plenty. But it’s more of an approach to life that I learned a great deal from and carry with me to this day.”

“There is such a misconception of the image of a truck driver,” Monaghan says. “These are talented artists out there. These guys are talented, educated, hard-working people. I’m so impressed with everything that a driver does. I enjoyed getting a different viewpoint on everything, on life.”

Behind the Wheel

Hollywood is abundant with many stunt drivers looking to crack it in the big time. Many professional truck drivers would be willing to take the wheel on the big screen. But when the decision came for Monaghan to earn her CDL, it was her own choosing rather than Mottern’s desire that she would learn how to drive an 18-wheeler and not turn to a stunt driver.

“Michelle was so dedicated to the part of Diane Ford,” says Mottern. “I asked her if she would take a few driving lessons and not only did she agree, but she insisted on getting her driver’s permit so she could operate the truck during filming. And she did! At the time she didn’t even know how to drive a stick shift but damned if she didn’t get her permit and get in that truck and pull it off. You should’ve seen her on the splitter. It would’ve taken your breath away. So every time you see Michelle driving in the movie, it really is her driving. No filming trailers, no computer graphics, nothing. Just Monaghan behind the wheel.”

“It was amazing,” says an enthusiastic and proud Monaghan. “I was one of those kids growing up who pumped her arm up and down when the truck came past, and now it was me behind the wheel. My dad and brother both have their CDL so they were really impressed. I was so nervous my first time on I-10. I can’t even drive a regular stick shift but now I can drive an 18-wheeler. Reverse parking was the hardest, and double clutching. I hope truck drivers know that I appreciate what they do.”

With his leading lady opting to earn her CDL and gain an appreciation for the trucking industry, many directors would probably be hesitant, if not terrified, to watch their Hollywood star attraction cruise on down the highway. However, for Mottern, there seemed no choice but to accept that Monaghan was climbing into the driver’s seat.

“Monaghan has nerves of case-hardened steel,” Mottern explains. “She got in that truck and got out on the freeway and opened it up and there was never a moment where I thought I wasn’t going to come out on the other end with all my fingers and toes. Not one. She’s a red-blooded American woman with guts to spare and she drove that rig with a 53-foot trailer! It was like riding with a fighter pilot or maybe a bull rider. Seriously. That girl’s got cowboy in her soul.”

Monaghan is also credited as executive producer of the movie. “It was something I always wanted to do,” explains Monaghan. “It was great to be able to be a part of filming decisions.” Monaghan plans to continue her role as a producer in future projects.

“Trucker” is slated as an independent film and has made several appearances at various film festivals in the United States and Canada. The film is scheduled for national theater release in October, followed by a DVD release in January 2010.

For now, Monaghan has relinquished the keys of her 18-wheeler and is taking a hiatus from movies after the birth of her first child. With husband Peter, Monaghan is enjoying the challenges of parenting, raising her daughter, Willow, from the family’s home in New York. She does plan to return to work, however, as she explains, “I just need to work out how to juggle both.” However, with the mindset of achieving what she sets her mind to, and a determination to expand her growing career, fans won’t be waiting too long to see Monaghan back on the big screen.

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August 1st, 2009 | Category: Featured
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