hhh… the life of an actress. Filled with ups and downs and undoubtedly a lot of disappointment. Just how exactly do you break into the business? How do you land that major role that gets you found? Well, sometimes it is just blind luck combined with natural talent. You have to be found before the world can find you.

Michelle Monaghan has been in a handful of films to this point. Small parts in such films as Unfaithful and The Bourne Supremacy and then being quite literally completely cut out of Constantine have caused audiences not to recognize what this young lady has to offer. However, that is all about to change.

Starring opposite three Best Actress winners in North Country (Charlize Theron, Sissy Spacek and Frances McDormand) and then Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and finally, the role she is currently filming for Mission: Impossible 3 I think it is safe to say Michelle Monaghan has officially been found.

Sitting down to talk with her is like sitting down with a tornado. She has an exuberant amount of energy and is a ball of laughs, and don't think she doesn't feel the energy surrounding her at this time.

"It really is such an exciting time right now," Michelle told us, "I love both of these films (North Country and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang). Originally [Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang] was supposed to come out a few months ago. We shot this a year and a half ago, and North Country we completed in April so the turnaround on that was really quick. So, all of a sudden, they're both coming out and it is just amazing actually. I'm kind of walking on air right now."

Before Kiss Kiss, Michelle had only played small roles in films and before that it was commercials, "I continued modeling through lack of anything else to do while I was in New York, and then started doing commercials – you know like Secret deodorant, I got that Tampax commercial in there to make my dad proud. Then started doing right-of-passage stuff, like 'Law and Order,' 'Hack,' all those things, and then really started to work."

Her television career led to a small part as a secretary in Unfaithful opposite Richard Gere, "I played a secretary, and I always joke, it's a completely forgettable role, but that experience for me was totally unforgettable. Then, slowly but surely, I got into it."

She followed that up with a turn in The Bourne Supremacy, which was when the larger role in Kiss Kiss reared its face, "I completely forgot all about it and then I got a call while I was working on The Bourne Supremacy," she said. "Joel Silver called and said, 'Listen. We really, really want Michelle to fly in and read with Robert [Downey Jr.] and we'll have her right back on the plane.' Then they called me and said Kiss Kiss, and I was like I don't even know what script you're talking about, I forgot all about it. Anyway, I got on the plane and flew out here, and I was literally in the Warner Bros. office for less than an hour, had a great reading with Robert and the minute I got off the plane and turned on the phone, as you do, I found out I got the job and then started three days later here in L.A."

So here she is, this 28 year-old woman from Winthrop, Iowa who at one point pursued a journalism career at Columbia College in Chicago only to leave with 18 credits left toward her degree. It was off to New York, to pursue an acting career and now she is working alongside some of the top names in Hollywood, which can be a bit scary especially when you are working opposite a couple of Hollywood's actors given the label of "tough to work with" in Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. and she tells us what it was like the first time she met Val.

"This is funny, because I did my read through like two days after I did The Bourne Supremacy and I was literally just thrown into it. I was jet lagged and I gave the worst read through known to man." She continued, "It was so bad, and then Val came up to me a couple weeks later and pulled me over to the side and he said, 'You know what? You sucked so bad at that read through. You sucked so bad I couldn't believe I signed up to do a movie with someone like that.' I was like, 'Ahhhhhh!' Then he goes, 'Now I am just telling you that because I think you are one of the most extraordinary actresses I have worked with.' So that was my first experience meeting him and knowing how badly I sucked. Nobody even had to tell me. I was thinking, 'They're seriously going to fire me if I don't pull it out of my like… you know.' Thankfully I did, there's nothing better than when the chips are down and you've got nowhere else to go but up and I kind of love being in that situation."

On top of that she had Robert Downey Jr. on the other end of the spectrum, and when you check out our feature with those two [click here] you will see just what kind of madness this set must have been, but her story involving Downey simply tells you what a talent she is, "There was one scene in particular I was so nervous about doing… and then as soon as [Shane Black] yelled action I was like, 'Hail Mary…' and you just go for it. It's one of those moments where you just love being in the room, where it's so intense were you just do it and it is the most exhilarating, most beautiful feeling. We went home that morning, the sun was coming up, and [Robert and I] were taking the car back to base camp and he said, 'That scene just made you a movie star.' We're both in our robes in the back seat of the car and I looked at him and I just… you know it was such a beautiful thing. I couldn't believe Robert Downey Jr. just said that to me."

So from here she has rolled directly into Mission: Impossible 3, which is being kept extremely "hush, hush" but I managed to get a few tidbits about the film out of her.

"I am learning snow-boarding right now because I have a scene where I snowboard, which is really interesting because I didn't know you could actually learn how to snowboard on a machine. I've been doing it now for like three days and I keep thinking I would have fallen at least 200 times by now, and I'm saying there is no way I am going to learn how to do this until I get out on the slopes. I'm just doing it two hours a day and I am beat at the end of the night," she said.

Filming on Mission has taken them all over the world, and is actually moving to Shanghai next but she is still unsure of where her snowboarding scene will be taking place, "We haven't figured out when or where there is going to be snow. I say we just shoot it on the machine. Just blue screen."

Michelle has managed to show us the gamut when it comes to acting, from dramatic in North Country to action comedy in Kiss Kiss. Does this mean she will be playing the part of "tough chick" in M:I 3?

"You know, not necessarily. Gosh, I really hate to say too much about it because it freaks me out - they made me sign my life away - but I've got a few of those bits in there where you see some action. The great thing about this script from Mission is that it explores Ethan Hunt's home life and so you see a lot of drama in that. If you can imagine it's J.J. Abrams, it's 'Lost,' it's 'Alias,' so of course you're going to have all those bits where it's like shoot 'em up. So you're going to have the action, but you're also going to have a lot of drama, he's a wonderful writer. So, you're going to find this one is a lot more character driven than I think you have seen in the past."

This was when the day took a dramatic, yet fortuitous turn as Val Kilmer walked in on our interview and Michelle was asked, "Who is it better working with, Tom Cruise or Val Kilmer?"

To find out what happened next follow the links to get Michelle's, I mean Val's, response and what transpired next.