Michelle Monaghan in Trucker Courtesy of the Tribeca Film Festival

What about those sad country songs? Do they actually listen to a lot of that stuff?
No, no, not at all, actually. No, there was no sad country music. I'm trying to think, what were we listening to? I think we had rock on, we were listening to rock music, yeah. And the SIRIUS radio, that's a good thing for them. It was just incredible. It was enlightening. I think people have this misconception of truckers a lot that they're uneducated, that they have to be a trucker because of a lack of anything else they can do. It's really, really not like that at all. Every single person I met was educated, college degree, a lot of them have creative backgrounds, which is really unique. They just love the open road. They just love being on the open road and after having experienced it myself, I totally get it. It's absolutely incredible.

They love the solitude?
It's the solitude, I think. You're up high and you can see everything around you and it's just beautiful. You make your own hours, you make your own wage and there's something really kind of peaceful about it.

Your character clearly has a self-destructive side, but does the movie give us the full picture? We keep seeing her having these random encounters with guys, some of them creepy guys, and I started to wonder — is business being transacted there?
Yeah, see I never saw it as that. I never saw it. I just thought she was being a woman and it wasn't any different than any man, like going off, like maybe a male trucker going and picking up a girl or anyone else for that matter that might have a one-night stand. I never saw her any differently. [Trucker director] James [Mottern] mentioned that I personally tried not to judge the character and that was the whole thing. I wanted her to be an honest woman. I like the idea that the movie opens with her having a sexual experience and listen, she pays for the room, she picks up the guy, you know, and that might not be something everybody's used to, but nobody would think twice about it if it was a guy doing it. So I love that she owns her sexuality, I love that she's in control of it. I found it incredibly empowering to play a character that makes no apologies for that. So I never thought for a minute there was a business transaction or anything like that, I just thought, listen, you're on the road and you have a moment where you wanna take care of business, so to speak.

She's quick to tell people "this is my truck, I own this truck" or "this is my house, it's almost paid off," and stuff like that. What's that about?
That's interesting. That's really interesting. I think there's a lot of pride, certainly when you own a truck. These people own their trucks and they're incredibly expensive. We're talking like a couple hundred thousand dollars for a new truck. So if you own that truck and you paid it off — she's like, "I paid it off last year!" — then you have a lot of pride. So I think that's something she's just incredibly proud of, and listen, she's sort of defined in a sense by it. Certainly her motherhood doesn't define her, so what defines her? It's her career. She loves her career, her self-reliance, that she can take care of herself and she doesn't have to depend on anybody, which I think is great. That's why she can take care of herself in a truck stop with a random guy from the coffee shop.

Director James Mottern on the set of Trucker Courtesy of the Tribeca Film Festival

You've already got some blockbusters on your résumé, like Mission: Impossible III and The Bourne Supremacy — was this heavily dramatic role something of a departure?
You know, it was honestly what I'd been longing to do for a long time, to play a character like this. Somebody I don't necessarily identify with or even like, but now I love, and for me, it was probably the most active role I'd done just because of learning how to drive the truck and all of that. It wasn't so much a departure. It was certainly the biggest role I'd ever done to date. But for me, every role is always a bit different for various reasons. I'm drawn to them just because they're new, there's something else that entices me about them. I try not to do the same thing twice, but I like being physical. I grew up with big brothers and sort of just had to be physical by default, so I'm used to that I guess.

I'm sure that came in handy on Eagle Eye.
Eagle Eye was just mental. That was so physical that it was over and beyond. Probably the most physical work I've ever done on a film.

Have you seen it?
No, I've seen bits of it and it's amazing. Shia is one of the finest actors I've worked with and he's only, like, 22. I can't imagine what he's going to be like ten years from now. I'm blown away by him and he's such a good kid too. I call him a kid; I feel bad, he's my co-star, he's not really a kid.

Well, you're probably his love interest, right?
No! Not love interest. No, no, no. That's what people keep thinking, and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. He's like ten years younger than I am.