Eva Mendes: Tough Girl is Just an Act

Siobhan Synnot - Scottish Daily Record

Which actress is tough, sexy, and talented enough to play the manipulative man-eater in the upcoming movie, The Women? Answer: Eva Mendes.

In a star-studded cast that includes Meg Ryan, Jada Pinkett- Smith, and Annette Bening, Eva is the bad girl who steals husbands

However, the luscious star credits her fellow actresses with finally managing to turn the vampy Latina into a lady.

Usually Eva is content to sling a look together at the last minute - even when she's the star of the red carpet. She also admits she prefers to slob around the house wearing her boyfriend's underpants.

She said: "I came from working on We Own the Night, which was an all-male cast, to working on The Women. You would think I would be wanting to look good at rehearsals for the boys, but I never cared more about how I looked than with the girls."

With a set full of fashionistas, Eva realised she would have to dress up - or get looked down on.

"I found myself really aware of what I was wearing," she admits.

"With guys it doesn't matter. But this was with women who all looked cute with their little dresses and their earrings.

"It's a girl thing. A timeless, ageless, ethnicity-less girl thing."

Eva has the plum part of conniving Crystal, a role Joan Crawford made famous in the 1939 movie, who steals the husband of Meg Ryan's character.

"In no way did I try to emulate her," Eva said of Joan Crawford. "But there is one scene where I pay a little homage to her in a bathtub, so I'll probably get in trouble for that."

It's a busy autumn for Eva. As well as The Women, she also appears in superhero action picture The Spirit, with Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson.

Playing a jewel thief with dangerous curves, her best line as the femme fatale of the film is "shut up and bleed". The actress also played alongside Denzel Washington in the film Out of Time.

Her racy TV commercial for new Calvin Klein fragrance Secret Obsession has also been pulled from screens in the US due to a quick nipple slip from a mostly naked Eva rolling around on a bed.

But despite the Calvin Klein contract and the ultra-sexy image, Eva says her tough image is a hoot - because when it comes to blokes, she's anything but tough.

She said: "Before I was an actress, when Oasis were really hot in America, I went to LA to see them play.

"I had a crush on Liam Gallagher. I got backstage and met him. But I was so in awe of him, I couldn't say anything.

"He just looked at me like I was dumb. Just thinking about it now makes me break out in a cold sweat."

Born in Miami, Eva grew up the youngest of four in Los Angeles, and spent weekends at the Mann Chinese Theatre, where her mother worked, after she split up with Eva's dad.

"That was back in the day when the staff wore long Chinese gowns," said Eva. "It was so glamorous. I was so proud of her."

Her father is a meat distributor.

"We grew up without much financially, but one thing we never lacked was meat," said the actress - who now prefers sushi.

Although one of Hollywood's highest paid Latin actresses, Eva said there was a time when she was embarrassed by her Cuban roots.

"I wanted to have finer features, I didn't want to be so dark, I didn't want to have my mom speaking Spanish in front of the school where everyone was watching. But thank God it was just a phase," she said.

Eva reckons that she's escaped many of the starlet pitfalls thanks to her strict Catholic upbringing and her college education.

"My parents came from Cuba. My mom in particular is Fifties Havana, which means children are brought up a certain way and girls are expected to have high standards," the star said.

Her supportive family always turn out for her premieres - although they have yet to be convinced by her tough image.

After all, this is the girl who had to have hypnotherapy in order to conquer her fear of spiders.

Eva said: "Ever since I was a little girl, if I saw one, I would freak out. If I saw one I'd have to have somebody kill it and then I couldn't take their word for it, so I had to see the dead carcass."

So when the Mendes family first saw Eva play a cop, squaring up to bad guys and unholstering her gun to take them down, they thought it had to be a comedy, not a thriller "They were laughing in the aisles," admitted Eva. "But I think I'm just drawn thatway. I'm drawn to look tough. The arched eyebrows are just there, I don't do them like that. I have strong features, but I wish I could be tougher."

For her cop film Training Day, Eva even carried a knife to remind herself to be as cool as Angelina Jolie.

"Obviously I had no intention of ever using it," she said hastily. "I had mace as well, but the blade sounded cooler in interviews. I was young and stupid."

But the usually open actress gets tight-lipped about her recent stint in rehab for fear of upsetting her mum.

In February, the 34-year-old checked into the Cirque Lodge Centre, the same facility in which Lindsay Lohan was treated last year, while her publicist confirmed she was taking a break from work to attend to "personal issues" although Eva refuses toelaborate on what they were.

She said: "There are different stories. People can speculate all they want. I'm not going to clear up the misconceptions. I have to think of the pain it might bring my mother."

But the break seems to have strengthened her six-year relationship with Peruvian filmmaker George Gargurevich. The pair took a break before Eva quietly slipped off to rehab, but now things are back on.

"I'm home spending time with my family, going to the gym and actually enjoying taking care of myself," said the star, who has four hour-long cardio sessions each week.

"And I'm getting a lot in the love department, too."

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