To prep for her thick-skinned, tough-talking role in "Trucker," Michelle Monaghan did the logical thing. She learned to drive a truck.
"It's like a double clutch," she says. "You have to downshift basically every time you shift. It was very tricky. I can drive an 18-wheeler but not a five-speed. I parallel-parked it and learned how to drop and hook and all those things."
The hours behind the wheel transformed Monaghan into Diane, the title trucker in the film, which premieres Thursday at the Tribeca Film Festival. Diane coasts along, a hardened, promiscuous loner whose only friend is a married drinking buddy (played by Nathan Fillion).
She's foul, she's temperamental and the fact that she happens to look like, well, a movie star, seems to only speed her tour of the motels off the interstate.
The role is a far cry from Monaghan's other upcoming work, the romantic comedy "Made of Honor," in which she stars opposite Patrick Dempsey, or her turn in last year's remake of "The Heartbreak Kid," with Ben Stiller.
But when writer-director James Mottern spotted her in "North Country," the gritty, Oscar-nominated 2005 film starring Charlize Theron, he knew he'd found his trucker.
"It was just such a brutally honest portrayal of a woman," says Monaghan of Mottern's script. "I immediately attached myself to it and we all worked really hard from that point to get it made."
In Monaghan's case, that work meant seeking out female truckers through her driving school. She was surprised to find that the stereotypical image conjured by the words "female trucker" was almost wholly inaccurate.
"I went on some short hauls with women who had been trucking as a career for 30 years," she says. "People think, 'Oh, women truck drivers, they don't care about their physical appearance.' All these women, they had their nails done, their makeup on, their designer sunglasses.
"They had records of no accidents, which is pretty incredible," she adds. "There were a lot of male truckers below them and I tell you what, I met them all, [and] they had a great, great amount of respect for these women truckers. You don't want to mess with a woman who does a man's job just as well or better than you."
In the film, Diane is the best in the business, racing to deliver her cargos on time to earn cash bonuses. Things take a hairpin turn when cancer forces her ex-husband (Benjamin Bratt) into the hospital and leaves their 11-year-old son on her doorstep.
The family relationship - one in need of an overhaul - anchors the movie and Monaghan's performance. Oddly enough, perhaps the most touching moment comes when Diane - clad in panties and a tank top - jogs across the highway to pummel a couple of hooligans who bullied her son.
"It was important to me to work out a little bit before I started the film," Monaghan says with a laugh. "Just to work out my arms mostly, because the movie is physical."
Plus, there's a scene in which she drags a drunken Fillion from the cab of his pickup to his front porch. "I wanted to look as believable as possible," she says, "and I guess it did aid me in pulling Nathan up the lawn."
Fistfights, abusive 11-year-olds, downshifting - it's enough to justify a summer vacation. After promoting "Made of Honor" in Australia last week, she jets back to town for the "Trucker" premiere. Then she'll be holing up in her New York pad for a little break before her next release, "Eagle Eye," a thriller in which a slacker played by Shia LaBeouf and a single mom are framed in a political assassination attempt.
"I'm going to take some time off and enjoy the summer," Monaghan says. "I'm really looking forward to that."
And if she needs something to do, two words come to mind: road trip. [via]
Michelle Monaghan at Trucker premiere at 2008 Tribeca Film Festival 
