MICHELLE Monaghan talks about appearing in Farrelly brothers comedy The Heartbreak Kid, making Ben Stiller laugh and why she has a blue sense of humour.

She also discusses egg tossing on movie sets, working with Morgan Freeman and why she’s delighted with her career right now…

I believe you read for both roles on The Heartbreak Kid but managed to avoid playing Lila and wearing the kitty ring!
Michelle Monaghan: Well, I wear one personally! No!!! Honestly, when I first read the script I knew Ben [Stiller] was attached so I was happy to do either role. I was like: “Give me either one and I’ll run with it!” I ended up auditioning with Ben and Peter [Farrelly] and did both roles and they ended up hiring me for Miranda.

What were the scenes you auditioned?
Michelle Monaghan: Well, there were three scenes in total. One of them was the bar scene, the other one was the beach scene and I can’t remember what the other one was. But we actually ended up improvising as well – I’m a big fan of improvisation but I can’t say that I’m great at it. But Ben Stiller is such a pro and sitting in a room with Ben and Peter Farrelly I had no choice but to say it was a great idea when they suggested it. But we had a lot of fun and I just kind of followed his lead. And if you can make Ben Stiller laugh, well that’s like making your folks proud! We also carried that into the actual making of the film because if you’re doing something 10, 15 or 20 times it’s just not fun anymore… when the crew stops laughing you know you’re in trouble. So we’d refresh some of the dialogue. But there were plenty of times when I’d say something that was not funny at all and in the blink of an eye Ben would say something to make what I’d said sound hysterical. That’s just a testament of what kind of actor he’s like to work with.

Q. Was there anything that your co-star Malin [Akerman] did that you wouldn’t have been comfortable doing had you won that role?
Michelle Monaghan: Absolutely not! This sort of sense of humour is pretty right up my alley. I’m pretty blue. The Farrellys are pretty much the only movies on television that if I see them I’ll just drop everything and watch. I’ll never get tired of the bathroom joke in Dumb & Dumber, or when he takes the wee on the back of the motorbike while driving up the mountain. They just crack me up. I’ve always been a fan of Ben. But if you want to make a really fantastic comedy I think the Farrelly’ are the perfect guys to do it with – and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Would you forgive someone in real life if they told that big a lie?
Michelle Monaghan: I don’t think so! But I think where some of the comedy lies in this film is that his character actually did try to tell me [that he is married] and there was a really big misunderstanding. So, he wasn’t really deliberately trying to be mean about it. I’m a big believer that he tried.

But everyone’s been in a relationship where you try and make things work and realise that it just won’t…
Michelle Monaghan: Absolutely. Certainly, I was in a relationship once where I cheated on but then thought: “OK, well everyone makes a mistake, right?” But then when you think it probably happened again that’s when you think: “Shame on you once and shame on me twice, or however that saying goes.” But everyone’s been down that road. It’s not about the little things anymore, but the major things that tell you if you don’t move on at that point then I’m a fool.

You’ve done a lot of different roles in quite a short time – Mission Impossible III, North Country, The Heartbreak Kid – so which do you feel most comfortable with?
Michelle Monaghan: Well, I love them all so much but to be honest comedy is more challenging for me than anything. I find that in preparation for a drama you can do a lot of character work and develop the character and know what you want to achieve and project throughout the course of the film. But I find with comedy that you can’t really prepare to be funny. It’s kind of walking into the unknown, which was really scary for me. You just have to hope you’re in a good mood on the day and are prepared to just push the envelope, especially if you’re working with the Farrelly’s. You’ve got to try anything, whether it’s improvisation, or anything to keep it fresh.

I’m not a comedian, I’m an actor doing a comedy so to speak, so it’s really about following the lead of Ben I guess. Fortunately, in this particular instance the Farrellys created such an environment in which it was almost expected that you were going to have to embarrass yourself. They would have been upset if you didn’t. In that sense, they kind of give you a gift as an actor to just do or say anything you want. You can’t really go too far. For me, that was essential when making this film because 95% of the time what you do isn’t right and you sometimes fall on your – sometimes literally, I broke my toe! – but you get back up and do it again, they’ll be really enthusiastic when you get that take.

Q. Is there a lot of prank playing on a Farrelly brothers movie set?
Michelle Monaghan: They’re just so goofy. It’s just like adolescence all the time! I kind of think they’re perpetual 15-year-olds with hearts of gold. We’d have a weekly egg toss contest. There was 20 bucks in a pot, everyone brought out dozens and dozens of eggs and you start tossing and then pretty soon you have a whole city block’s worth of people chucking me a raw egg. Everyone was just getting covered in egg. There’s actually an art to catching the egg – you should always throw it under-handed and then catch it by cupping your hands and going with the momentum of the egg. There’s two big winners, of course, and there could be as much as $500 to $700 involved.

Q. So who was the best tosser?
Michelle Monaghan: Peter Farrelly is the best tosser! [Laughs] He really was. But this whole job literally felt like a paid vacation. I mean, we were down in that beautiful resort in Mexico for months – my folks came down, their families came down, it was just friends and family. We were up at 5am and worked until the sun went down, and then we’d all have dinner and a couple of margheritas – it totally ruined me! [Laughs] It’s like where do you go from here?

Q. How easy is to to judge when you’re in the moment whether something is going to be funny with audiences?
Michelle Monaghan: It’s true, most actors would agree that you can do something in a film when you’re making it that you think is absolutely hysterical and then all of a sudden you see it with an audience and it falls flat. There’s no real judge. Everybody may find it funny [on set] but is that because you’re all in the experience together?

The Farrellys are pretty unique as far as their brand of comedy is concerned and both Malin [Akerman] and I agreed that we wouldn’t probably have done this kind of role had it been in the hands of other directors. You sort of appreciate the hands that you’re in when you see their films; you know they’re going to do right by you and you can trust them. They have mastered the art of balancing crass, in your face, shock value humour with some real charm. They spend a lot of time developing the heart of characters so that audiences can really become invested in who they are.

Q. You say you’re very blue in your humour, so I’d imagine that Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was also very fun to do?
Michelle Monaghan: Oh, nothing compares to that experience. That was the first time I ever had a lead role in anything. I just loved the writing, I loved the fact we shot it at night for 30 days, I loved Robert [Downey Jr], Val [Kilmer] and Shane [Black] and I think it’s just such a clever movie. I think it’s so bright. It’s a different brand of comedy, obviously, but it was really, really unique.

Q. How did you get that first break?
Michelle Monaghan: From [the movie] Perfume. It was funny because it was an audition where I had to improvise. I’d been modelling in New York, I’d studied journalism in college and realised it wasn’t for me. So, then I got to New York and did some tampax commercials, secret deodorant commercials and that sort of paid my way. But they were looking for a model for this movie, Perfume, because it was about that industry, so I went in and auditioned. They asked me to pretend that I had been out all night and had turned up late for a job, and that my boyfriend had cheated on me, and I remember going into this really long-winded emotional tirade and she gave me the job. I then got all those sort of rite-of-passage Law & Order type shows. For me, initially, it was cool, I was getting a pay cheque.

But then Unfaithful was an unforgettable experience for me. Most of my scenes were cut out but it was with Adrian Lyne, Richard Gere and they were so good to me. After that I thought: “Do you know what? I’m going to give this [career] a real shot.” So, I took it really seriously and progressively and went onwards and upwards.

Do you have a career plan?
Michelle Monaghan: I guess for me what’s most important is to continue to stretch myself in all these different genres. I really love this job and I really want to do it for as long as I can. I don’t want to get bored with myself, and I don’t want audiences to get bored. I really like comedy but I also really like drama. I’m a bit of a drama queen… and I’m doing a thriller next. I just produced and starred in this $1.5 million drama that I’m really excited about. It’s about doing different things and collaborating in all sorts of ways. I also really want to do theatre one day. It’s the privilege of living in New York is getting to see amazing actors on stage and I have an extraordinary amount of admiration and respect for them. I just don’t think I’d feel complete unless I do it. But if I did, it would have to be way off Broadway… like Conneticut or somewhere [laughs]. I just can’t imagine anything more challegning or fulfilling.

Q. What was it about journalism that didn’t work out for you?
Michelle Monaghan: I didn’t know if I could really be objective because I’m pretty biased in my views. I didn’t know if I was really cut out for it. I was supposed to start an internship for a network I won’t name but I found it was more about creating the story rather as opposed to finding it. I also realised that as far as what I wanted to do I was going to have to go back to small places like Iowa, where I came from, to start and work my way up. And I just felt: “I’ve just got the hell out of Dodge, I don’t know if I’m ready to go back!” I always wanted to live in New York, so I just thought I was going to wing it. It’s funny because for the longest time I was sort of beating myself up over having not finished and got my degree, and wasting a lot of time and money, but then I was preparing my role for North Country and I realised I was using the “who, what, when, why and how” and I was actually using the tools that I learned. Thank God! It wasn’t all for nothing. So now when I prepare for a role, I find myself asking: “Well, who is this person? And why? How does that makes her feel?” So it’s really been pretty beneficial to me in the long run, so I’ve quit beating myself up over it.

You’ve recently just finished working with Morgan Freeman [on Gone Baby Gone], how was that?
Michelle Monaghan: He’s just a big old teddy bear. He has this voice that reverberates but you kind of just want to hug him. There’s something so gentle and he sort of just draws you in with that voice. He’s very tall and he’s just a legend in my eyes. You know, The Shawshank Redemption, forget about it… So to be working with him and Ed Harris, it was phenomenal. I’m really proud of that movie, so hopefully you’ll get to see it over here eventually.

Do you agree with the decision to postpone its release in light of the Madeleine McCann case?
Michelle Monaghan: I think they made the right decision in lieu of the events that have happened here. It was right to be sensitive about it and I think it was really thoughtful of Ben [Affleck] and Miramax to hold off on it for a while.

b>Read our interview with Bobby Farrelly

b>Read our review of The Heartbreak Kid

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