Eva Mendes often turns up on the silver screen as some sort of incendiary device, so it's interesting to see how she plays it on the subtle side in Last Night. Her character is a serious business woman whose seductive tricks include intellect, independence and a total lack of romantic embellishment.
Her role in the film is to attempt to lead a married man (Sam Worthington) astray. Mendes was in Toronto to promote Last Night when the film had its debut at the International Film Festival last fall. She loved the script at once, she says.
"But I had an issue with the character because I was weary of playing a seductress. I spoke to Massy (Tadjedin, the director) to figure out how we could make the character more interesting and less one-note."
That process began with a general stripping-down, says the actress. "I think I wore makeup in only one scene, and none in most. And that strips down the sexuality. Without all the mascara and lip gloss, what you're left with is yourself."
Mendes also made sure her character was dressed like an Air Canada flight attendant. "She's not your obvious threat at all. She's very buttoned-down, A-line skirt, conservative, not flashy. Not an obvious sexual threat, because I thought that would be boring."
It seems unlikely that Mendes, dressed up or dressed down, could ever be perceived as boring. The Cuban-American actress, 37, was busy finishing a marketing degree in college when her photo caught the eye of a talent manager. She'd had no interest in acting before, but when she got the first film for which she auditioned (Children Of The Corn 5 -- seriously) a new career was born. Mendes was so humiliated by her own performance in the horror schlockfest that she dove into acting lessons with her formidable focus and drive.
It all clicked into place for her when she starred opposite Denzel Washington in Training Day (1991), and since then she has starred in such films as Hitch, Stuck on You, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Ghost Rider, The Women, We Own the Night and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Not long ago, Mendes made her directorial debut with a short film called California Romanza. It played in April at the Florida Film Festival. Mendes has been a Revlon spokesperson for a few years and recently became the face of Thierry Mugler's Angel fragrance; her personal interest in design and architecture has been channelled into a line of household goods available at Sears and Macy's. "With that I get to put out a product I wholeheartedly believe in," she says, "whereas, when you walk off a set, you relinquish all rights to your director and to your editor and to the studio."
Mendes is energetic and humourous in person, and she says being funny is part of her heritage. "Cubans love a joke. It's really cultural," she claims. "If you go to Cuba, the people are resilient and jovial. I wouldn't say we were happy. Politically we're repressed, but we're jocular. Always up for a laugh. I was more off-kilter in my humour as a kid, but we all love a joke."
Her own humour was off-kilter?
"I was a weird kid. I was obsessed with Pippi Longstocking," says Mendes, laughing. Her obsession led her to dress up as Longstocking, complete with wild braids and freckles, and pose in the front window of her family home. Her sisters helped, she claims.
"Unbelievable that I did that! My sisters said, 'You were always such a ham.' But why would I want to sit there dressed as Pippi Longstocking and pose like that for hours? And here I am," she says, "making a career out of it, somehow."