Celebrity Parade With Jeanne Wolf

May 2, 2008 — -- Emile Hirsch

Emile Hirsch puts the pedal to the metal in "Speed Racer." He felt like a hero, fearless on the track. Behind the wheel on a giant hydraulic lift, Hirsch didn't have to fake looking mean.

Emile told Parade, "The g-force power of it can break your neck if they turn it up high enough. This thing gives you whiplash. I mean, it's just brutal. And so, all my anger in the film, all those scenes that I'm angry, I'm actually filled with rage that I'm even there."

Emile reveals he's been a fan of Speed Racer since he was a kid. "Believe it or not when I was six years old, I would wake up everything morning. Pour myself a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, pour a bunch of root beer in it, because we never had milk at my house for some reason, and get a total sugar rush and watch 'Speed Racer.'"

And Hirsch also connected with what was driving speed to be the best against some tough odds. "Just the need to do the right thing, you know. And to keep his integrity and to keep the bad guys in check. I mean it's just such a wonderful motivation. It's such a pure motivation for a character. I really responded to that part about speed racer. He's not one of these horrible heroes that's so flawed and such a jerk and he has to overcome his own pompousness in order to do the right thing. Speed's a good guy. And the rest of the world is just trying to take him down and trying to take his family down. He's just trying to do the right thing."

Michelle Monahan

Michelle Monahan loved co-starring with Patrick Dempsey in "Made Of Honor." She reveals you don't have to really be in love with a hunky co-star to fake a little romance on the screen. It's all about having fun.

Monaghan told Parade, "If we get along and we can laugh – if I can laugh with a co-star, I'm immediately, like I'm in. That's all I need is just to be able to have a good time. So for me that's basically all it takes. I don't need to be physically attracted to them."

Surprisingly, Monahan finds being funny on the screen tougher than exploring her emotional side in a drama. "To be honest, I find comedy more challenging than drama. In preparing for a drama, you develop your character and you know what you want to achieve over the course of a film. But, I find in comedy, you can't really prepare to be funny. You just sort of have to be open on the day to really just try anything to achieve whatever you need to do to make somebody laugh. I'm not a comedian. I'm kind of an actor doing a comedy."

Ironically, Monahan had her sights set on another career before she became an actress. "I grew up fascinated by world events," she says. "I watched the news every night and read the paper. I always wanted to be a journalist, actually."

Robert Downey Jr.

Robert Downey Jr. Loved the action in "Iron Man" even if he had to wear a heavy and hot armored suit. After some tough times in his personal life, Robert is back on the right track.

Downey told Parade, "I know that I'm enjoying the space I'm in. I believe that astrology is astronomy and I think there's some times when your stars are just really messed up. And then there's other times when it seems like the gate's wide open and you can move, you know."

Downey is still writing his autobiography and he may be taking a little dramatic license with the legendary ups and downs he's faced. "I'm sort of reinterpreting," he says. "I don't want to read a straight-up autobiography of anyone. I think it's kind of self-indulgent. So mine's more like historical nonfiction."

Downey may include some flashbacks to the time he spent in the slammer which he remembers with his trademark darn sense of humor. "Some of the inmates slipped me scripts they'd been writing," he says. "I used to do a lot of autographs. Finally, one of the correctional officers came over and said, 'Bro, if you don't get the hustle on and charge them for those autographs, they're going to think you're a sucker.' So some guy came over and I go, 'That's forty cents man.' He goes, '40 cents for an autograph?' I go, 'I'm sorry, I meant to say fifty cents.' He goes, 'dude, you just said forty.' I said 'dude, it's fifty unless you keep talking.' And he goes, 'fine.'"

For more on famous faces, go to Parade.com.