Adrenaline junkie Michelle Monaghan: Rapping to Vanilla Ice is scarier than skydiving

Michelle Monaghan is, by her own admission, "pretty brave."  In her personal life as well as throughout her career she's tested the limits of that bravery, from skydiving to truck driving. So what was the most challenging aspect of her new AppleTV+ movie "The Family Plan" — a movie in which she pole vaults, does a keg stand  and fights a legendary action star? "Honestly," she told me during a recent "Salon Talks" interview, "the 'Ice Ice Baby.'" Playing an overextended  mother of three whose husband (Mark Wahlberg) hasn't entirely left his life as an assassin behind him, Monaghan gets to do an adept duet of the Vanilla Ice classic with the artist formerly known as Marky Mark. "You have to understand something, I don't sing," she said. "I'm way, way out of my comfort zone."

But the Golden Globe-nominated actor, who has spent a career toggling from rom-coms ("Made of Honor") to prestige dramas ("Gone Baby Gone," "True Detective") to horror ("Nanny," the upcoming "MaXXXine"), is happiest when she's testing her limits. "I do love an adrenaline rush," she said. During our conversation, Monaghan talked about facing off against Maggie Q,  the kinds of movies she gets "very, very invested in," and how she's gearing up next for a reuninon with her "True Detective" writer Nic Pizzolatto.

You can watch my full interview with Monaghan here, or read the transcript of our conversation below.

The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

There is a whole genre of the person who is secretly a spy or secretly has this action-packed life. You've even been in another one of those movies, "Mr. And Mrs. Smith." Tell me what drew you to this one.

It was definitely something that I hadn't read in a really long time. I think action-comedy family films are very few and far between. Certainly I hadn't done comedy for a long time. I'd veered off that path for a while. So when I read it, I just saw such a great opportunity to be able to tap back into that facet of what I love to do, and I got to do it with Mark Wahlberg. I really respect him as an actor. He's a terrific guy. We worked together several years ago on "Patriots Day" — obviously very different tonally, but we had such a great time working together. We have a real mutual respect for one another, and he of course has great comedic timing. He's terrific, and I jumped at the chance. 

Personally, the film I related to so much. I'm a mom, I've got a 15-year-old at home, I've got a 10-year-old. This film is really about the challenges and the struggles that families endure as a family evolves and ages together, people living in their own little bubbles and things that are going on. The film is really about reconnecting and rediscovering one another and reigniting that flame, as well in a marriage.

If there's a way we can do it without killing people, that would be good. But sometimes maybe we can’t.

Well, we only kill bad people, so there we go. 

You do a lot of really fun things in this movie. You get to do a keg handstand. You get to kick some butt. You do some pole-vaulting and you get to do "Ice Ice Baby" with Marky Mark.

Yes, and the Funky Bunch.

What was the hardest thing to learn how to do or to do?

Honestly, the "Ice Ice Baby." You have to understand something, I don't sing. I'm not comfortable. I'm way, way out of my comfort zone. Our director said the night before, "Hey guys, I really think that you guys should sing a song tomorrow and improv a song. Here's a couple of ideas." It was sort of picking the lesser of two evils. There were several songs, and really “Ice Ice Baby” was one that I was like, "OK, I know this a little bit, I guess." 

The next morning we put it on and I knew a lot more of it than I thought I did, but I am a kid of the '90s. We had a lot of fun doing it, and I think it's one of those moments that families can relate to because parents are just like, "Hey, I was cool. I know this music." I certainly know if I turn around in the car, I'm definitely getting an eye roll from my kids, so that was a really fun moment. 

This is one of the reasons why I love the film so much. It actually represents a lot of the qualities that I like to explore, that I do creatively. There's a lot of action, which I love. What made this action very different is that it was a lot, and I did pretty much all of my own stunts. I got to work alongside Maggie Q, who is not only a terrific actress, but well, she's a bada**, let's just put it that way. What made this really different and was a fresh spin for me, it just wasn't a traditional action scene. It was interlaced with a lot of comedy. That for me made it really, really fun, and I think that's cool to watch.

As far as the keg stand goes, I've done a few of those in my days, so there was no practice needed on that front. That was really fun too. Listen, I play a wife to Mark Wahlberg's character. We're the Morgans, Jessica and Dan Morgan. They've been married for 18 years and they're caught up in their life and the routine of marriage and a little bit in a rut. They love each other deeply, but she's looking for something a little bit more spontaneous. She wants their lives to be a little bit bigger. So when he takes them on an impromptu road trip to Vegas, obviously unbeknownst to her, he's escaping these assassins that have caught up with him. She's very, very excited. She gets what she wants, eventually.

You have described yourself as an adrenaline junkie. You're out there creatively, but also personally the kinds of risks that you're taking in your life. Are there things where you're on a set and you say, "Actually no, that one I'm not going to do. It's too scary"?

I'm not comfortable in the water. I do things in the water; I'm definitely game. I have no fear of heights. I do like to jump out of planes. I do love an adrenaline rush, I'm not going to lie. I do love getting to do my own stunts. But being in water and swimming underwater and having to hold my breath for camera, that one makes me a little uncomfortable. I grew up in a landlocked state, in Iowa. I'm used to playing in rivers and things like that, but being in the ocean and doing that, that's something that I usually don't lean into too much.

So how do you then summon the courage? When you have to do it, how do you do it? 

I do do it, and I am pretty bold. I'm pretty brave. I work really extensively with stunt teams and choreographers. I'm so lucky when we're working at this level, you have people that are really, really adept at what they do, and it's a really safe space. There are divers in the waters, you're rigged up, it's tested and then tested again and tested again. So I really feel safe and I really trust the people that I work with. I really do. It allows me that opportunity to really push my boundaries as an actor. 

I like to be on screen as much as I can, I really love it. I value it. I learned how to drive an 18-wheeler for a film called "Trucker." I still actually reflect on that, and I'm like, "I can't believe I actually did that." I got the license and I'm so glad I did because I learned so much about the livelihood and so much about lady truckers, which really informed me so much as a person.  I was so proud watching the film because I felt like you really could value this performance because I really was behind the wheel. I think you got that feeling from it.

You've been in big franchises, blockbusters. You've also been in smaller things that didn't go big. What is something that you've done that you think, "You should see this. This is something I'm really proud of"?

That's very easy for me. I love "Trucker" of course, as I mentioned, but there's another film that I'm really, really proud of called “Fort Bliss.” It's a story about an army medic who leaves her family to go to war, and she makes that choice. It's an important subject matter because I value anyone who is a soldier that's a veteran. But we share a perspective that when a man goes to war, he's a hero. However, if a woman goes to war and leaves her family, she's typically perceived as a bad mother. This film really, really explores what it means and the sacrifices it means to be a parent and go to war and leave your family for months on end, but also you're serving your country, you're serving your fellow man.

I got to spend so much time with our fellow veterans and soldiers, specifically women, to really hear their stories. It's an important film and it's really, really well done. It's authentic. I got to work with a first time lady writer, director. For me, that was really, really special. I love the intimacy of independent film. I love the collaboration. I get very, very invested in those particular films. They're really hard for me to walk away from, my husband can attest to, but they're the ones that I actually hold very, very dear to my heart in my career.

You do, however, do a lot of these great big blockbusters. You're in the new "MaXXXine," following on "X" and "Pearl." You've been in a lot of horror. What is it about horror that draws you?

It's interesting because I don't watch a lot of horror. It's not something that I'm drawn to, but I love the challenge of playing a darker character. Unless it's drama that's very, very dark, I guess a horror just really, really pushes the envelope in that way. I've done a movie called "Blood," which was a horror film, but it was a really great character study of a woman and a family, and I loved that. I enjoyed working with Brad Anderson, but that definitely was a darker one. 

As far as "MaXXXine" goes, I am a huge fan of Ti West, of course, Mia Goth. When that opportunity came up, I got to sit down with Ti and speak to him about the role in the third installment. I really just shared with him how much I respected him as a filmmaker, and it would be a dream to be able to work with him. And boy was it ever. I'm really excited about it. We've got an incredible cast. Mia Goth, of course, is reprising her role as Maxine, Kevin Bacon, Bobby Cannavale, myself, Elizabeth Debicki, Lily Collins, Moses Sumney. It's a really wonderful, wonderful cast. It's a great ensemble. This third installment is not going to disappoint you. It's so fabulous and so great. I'm so excited.

You also have two things with Vince Vaughn.

That's right. I did an Apple TV series, a Bill Lawrence production called “Bad Monkey” based on a Carl Hiaasen book series. He's a former Miami Herald writer. It was Bill's dream to adapt his books for television. It's starring Vince Vaughn, myself, Jodie Turner Smith, Rob Delaney, Meredith Hagner. We've got another wonderful ensemble, and I think it's going to come out this summer. The humor is fantastic. 

Vince and I we get to re-team on a movie called "Easy's Waltz" by writer Nic Pizzolatto, who we both know. I did season one of "True Detective," and he of course wrote "True Detective," and Vince was in Season 2 of "True Detective." We've remained really tight with Nic, and he's written a really, really amazing film. Al Pacino is also going to be co-starring in that, which is exciting, and coincidentally, that also takes place in Las Vegas. So I'll be back there, hopefully shooting that perhaps in March or April.

You and I have something in common, Michelle, and it's melanoma. I love that you are raising awareness of it, especially this time of year. People don't necessarily think about sun protection. They don't think that they need to pay attention to sunscreen, and people are going into tanning beds right now, which are not regulated. Talk to me about what we need to know, especially this time of year when we get a little sloppy.

This makes me really, really happy. Thank you for acknowledging that. It is very, very important to me. I had melanoma – it was discovered by my husband. He was very well-educated — he's Australian — in what skin cancer looked like. He really sincerely saved my life. What's really important to remember and to understand is that it is the most common form of cancer. It happens to one in five people in their lifetime. Melanoma is deadly if it's not caught early. 

The first thing that I always say is, of course, wear sunscreen. But even better yet, make sure you do those annual checkups. I'm glad that you brought up the tanning beds. Actually tanning in a tanning bed, also tanning outside, it's cumulative. All of those things add up over time and obviously manifest in cancer and things like that.

I'm going to be actively working on legislation, going from state to state to try to ban teen tanning because most of our sun damage happens before the age of 18. I was unfortunate, I was one of those gals that made the choice that I thought I needed a tan for homecoming and prom and all those things. I'm sure that was additive to me getting skin cancer. I want to spread awareness. I want to protect our kids. I really believe that we can spread good sun care habits. I saw all of our kids putting on hand sanitizer to protect themselves during COVID, and I just want to encourage people to wear sunscreen and just really share, and have that awareness.

"The Family Plan" is streaming on Apple TV+.