Emily Mortimer is a better car than driver

By Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY

If there were a government file featuring unlikely international screen secret agents, Emily Mortimer's name would feature prominently.

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  By Matt Sayles, AP

  Emily Mortimer voices Holley Shiftwell in 'Cars 2,' but she's urged not to drive in real life in New York.

By Matt Sayles, AP

Emily Mortimer voices Holley Shiftwell in 'Cars 2,' but she's urged not to drive in real life in New York.

While her Holley Shiftwell character is the very picture of spy efficiency in Cars 2, the British star concedes that she is strongly discouraged from getting behind the wheel by friends, family and her husband, actor Alessandro Nivola.

"I tend to crash them and not drive very well," she says. "My husband is adamant that we not get one."

Mortimer, 40, borrowed a car to show him how helpful the vehicle would be around their New York City home. Bad idea.

"Within the morning, I had received three tickets for various offenses ? two at the same time for being on my mobile phone and driving without a seat belt," she says, sighing. "And then, I reversed into the car behind me, and the number plate came off. I had to take it to the garage.

"I completely failed in my mission to convince him to get a car."

But Cars 2 director John Lasseter was so taken with Mortimer's voice work that he expanded Shiftwell's role alongside that of Michael Caine's sleek super-spy, Finn McMissile.

"Her character just kept growing because of how good she is and how cute," he says.

The movie allowed Mortimer to fantasize about being a "glamorous little number" even though she is so "physically awkward" that her friends laugh when she attempts to run.

But in Cars 2, Shiftwell does more than run like a dream. During a screening of the film, Mortimer's son, Sam, 7, was floored when his mother's car sprouted wings and flew.

"He just turned to me and said, 'Mum, you're amazing,'" she says. "I just said, 'Yes, I know.' That was a good moment."

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