OMEN
04-11-2006, 10:44 PM
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Action figure ... Michelle Monaghan
FOR American actor Michelle Monaghan, starring alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III was not exactly hard work.I could imagine a worse day at the office," Monaghan said in Sydney yesterday.
The 30-year-old stars as the love interest of Cruise's Ethan Hunt, the character he plays for a third time in the spy film franchise.
While the latest Mission has the usual high-action stunts and explosions, director J.J. Abrams has injected more romance. The first two films in the series were directed by Brian De Palma and John Woo.
Abrams, who has a cult following after the success of his television shows Alias and Lost, said he wanted to find out what happens when a spy falls in love and actually has a home life.
"As big as this film is and as much as there is a lot of action, it's very much an intimate story," said Abrams, who completed the film just four days ago.
"It's a very personal, emotional and romantic story that happens to be told in the hyper-real world of the spy genre. It looks at how you can exist as a superspy and be a real person. What happens when you go home?"
Featured alongside Cruise and Monaghan in the movie, which opens nationally on May 4, are Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Laurence Fishburne, Keri Russell and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Monaghan said Cruise - who has produced all three Mission films - was "a consummate professional" on the set.
As was Hoffman, who won an Oscar last month for his performance in the biopic Capote. Monaghan said he was so chilling as the villain, she was still scared when the cameras stopped rolling.
"He couldn't be a nicer fellow, he's such a good guy and he's so funny," Monaghan said of Hoffman.
"But the minute I heard 'action' and he was in character, he gave me goosebumps - I didn't have to act, I was honestly pretty frightened.
"Then I'd hear 'cut' and he'd be back to being himself and would be normal and say things like 'So what are you going to do for lunch?'."
Abrams, visiting Australia for the first time, was yesterday keen to see the sights and climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
But Monaghan is much more familiar with this country. She married New York-based Australian graphic designer Peter White in Port Douglas last May. "I love it here," she said.
Buzz Showbiz
Action figure ... Michelle Monaghan
FOR American actor Michelle Monaghan, starring alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible III was not exactly hard work.I could imagine a worse day at the office," Monaghan said in Sydney yesterday.
The 30-year-old stars as the love interest of Cruise's Ethan Hunt, the character he plays for a third time in the spy film franchise.
While the latest Mission has the usual high-action stunts and explosions, director J.J. Abrams has injected more romance. The first two films in the series were directed by Brian De Palma and John Woo.
Abrams, who has a cult following after the success of his television shows Alias and Lost, said he wanted to find out what happens when a spy falls in love and actually has a home life.
"As big as this film is and as much as there is a lot of action, it's very much an intimate story," said Abrams, who completed the film just four days ago.
"It's a very personal, emotional and romantic story that happens to be told in the hyper-real world of the spy genre. It looks at how you can exist as a superspy and be a real person. What happens when you go home?"
Featured alongside Cruise and Monaghan in the movie, which opens nationally on May 4, are Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Laurence Fishburne, Keri Russell and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Monaghan said Cruise - who has produced all three Mission films - was "a consummate professional" on the set.
As was Hoffman, who won an Oscar last month for his performance in the biopic Capote. Monaghan said he was so chilling as the villain, she was still scared when the cameras stopped rolling.
"He couldn't be a nicer fellow, he's such a good guy and he's so funny," Monaghan said of Hoffman.
"But the minute I heard 'action' and he was in character, he gave me goosebumps - I didn't have to act, I was honestly pretty frightened.
"Then I'd hear 'cut' and he'd be back to being himself and would be normal and say things like 'So what are you going to do for lunch?'."
Abrams, visiting Australia for the first time, was yesterday keen to see the sights and climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
But Monaghan is much more familiar with this country. She married New York-based Australian graphic designer Peter White in Port Douglas last May. "I love it here," she said.
Buzz Showbiz