‘Bad Monkey’: Michelle Monaghan on the most “amusing” role she’s gotten to play

There’s a lot going on with the new Vince Vaughn led dark comedy ‘Bad Monkey’, which comes from ‘Ted Lasso’ creator Bill Lawrence. Based on the Carl Hiaasen novel of the same name, the show follows Andrew Yancy (Vaughn) down to the Florida Keys after he’s shuttered there to become a health inspector after years on the Miami police force.

As you could guess, his retirement doesn’t last long, and through a string of different events, severed body parts, and colorful characters, the story picks up—and so does the cast.

For one, Michelle Monaghan steps into the role of Bonnie, who’s connection to Yancy is only the start of her problems. To chat a bit more about the show, Monaghan sat down to discuss the charm and chaotically entertaining world of ‘Bad Monkey’ and what fans can expect from this new Apple TV+ program.

You’ve mentioned before that Bonnie was the most amusing character you’ve gotten to play so far. So I just wanted to know what made her so amusing to play?

I just loved all the layers of Bonnie, and I love the way that she presents herself at the beginning. She’s very kind of playful and confident and sexy. And then as we start to get into the series, we start to see that she’s masking a lot of things and that she’s hiding a lot of secrets. She’s very sly, she’s kind of treacherous and she likes to mark her territory.

She’s quite damaged, and she’s wanted by the law—she’s got quite the backstory. And she’s really fun and funny about the way that she moves through the world, very much a narcissist, but also very naive. She’s just like the queen of her domain really. And the world revolves around her.

I’m always a fan of stories that tackle these darker subjects, but they’re also funny. For you as an actor, what is it like to step into that headspace?

It’s definitely challenging. Bill (Lawrence) is such a genius at tone, and I think that’s why I was so excited to get to specifically collaborate with him on this. He understands that tone where he can balance that satire and that sarcasm with sincerity and vulnerability. It’s really hard, it’s complicated, but he writes for that. He writes for actors.

I think that it’s also a compliment to Carl Hiaasen’s work. Bill has been a lifelong fan and I know it was a dream of his to adapt the book for the screen. I think he stays true to a lot of Carl’s work, and what makes his work so entertaining is that he has these crazy characters, these shady characters in Florida based on things that really happened.

But he also goes a little deeper and he talks about humanity a lot and talks about sustainability, and he talks about manmade disasters versus the natural world and how we can preserve all of that. I think Bill did such a wonderful job of honoring that and then infusing that into the narrative all the way through. It’s really subtle and it’s really smart, and I think that’s where you find all that balance.

For fans of Carl’s book, what does this show bring, and also, what does it bring for viewers who are not familiar with his work?

I think people are going to love it so much because first of all, if you’re a fan of Carl’s work, this show is just a beautiful extension of what he’s done for TV. It’s shot in Florida, which is just such a great character unto itself. And I think what Bill’s done so well for audiences traditionally with ‘Ted Lasso’ and ‘Shrinking’ is he’s making something really fun and entertaining.

Plus, there’s a lot of action in this, which I don’t think you’ve seen so much in his other shows. It’s very noir, it’s sexy and it’s just a lot of fun. And it’s dark. The show goes really dark, and I don’t think we’ve seen one of his shows go quite this way. Audiences are really going to like the direction with this one.

‘Bad Monkey‘ debuts on Apple TV+ Aug. 14.