Eva's Scot High Hopes

Eva's Scot High Hopes


Daily Record.co.uk


March 1,2007




What Ghost Rider leading lady really, really wants is a Caledonian co-star

By Brian Mciver
SHE'S one of the hottest stars in Hollywood and is about to wow cinema audiences in a Nicolas Cage blockbuster.

But gorgeous Eva Mendes, whose new movie Ghost Rider opens in the UK tomorrow, has one big ambition ... to work with Scottish actors.

Despite having played opposite some of Tinsel Town's top leading men, she wants to team up with one of the growing number of Scots stars after becoming close friends with Glasgowborn actor Gerard Butler.

"I love Gerry," said Eva, 31."We have the same agent. Gerry's a really cool guy and I'd love to work with him.

"He recently did PS I Love You and there was a role I really wanted.

"I didn't get the opportunity to meet the director and Hilary Swank got it. She's amazing so I understand why they went with her, but I would have loved to work with Gerry.

"I also think James McAvoy is going to be huge, but I would really love to work with Ewan McGregor.

"He's really cool and talented. And to be shallow, he's drop-dead gorgeous."

But Eva's love of things Caledonian isn't limited to hunky men.

The Latina star is a massive fan of Scots band Belle And Sebastian and prefers staying in and listening to them to attending glitzy parties. "I love Belle and Sebastian," said Eva. "Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant is one my favourite albums. I saw them at Coachella, the festival in Palm Springs. They're amazing.

"I'm not the Hollywood girl. You don't see me at parties. I'm not in it for the fame. If I was, you'd see me everywhere.

"When you do see me out, it's for a purpose. Either I'm out supporting a friend or it's for a movie. I do have celebrity friends but we don't party together because we know it will end up all over the place. We just meet up at somebody's house, hang out and listen to music."

Eva, recently crowned as Cosmopolitan's Fun Fearless Female of 2007, has taken another step towards the A-list pay scale as Cage's leading lady in the comic book adaption Ghost Rider, which set the US box office alight by taking almost Û45m in its first weekend earlier this month.

Cage plays Johnny Blaze, a stunt motorcyclist who sells his soul to the Devil to save the life of his father.

At night, Blaze turns into the Ghost Rider, a spooky bounty hunter tracking down rogue demons on behalf of Satan.

Eva is his childhood sweetheart, Roxanne Simpson, who in the comic books looks more Pamela Anderson, with long blonde hair, white skin and blue eyes.

But Eva has made the part her own and is pleased Hollywood is now considering ethnic actresses for more roles.

She admitted: "I was worried about the fans because in the script she's very blonde, has blue eyes and is very caucasian, and I'm obviously not.

"But it's a modern version and Roxanne is an American girl, and American girls are no longer just like that. They haven't been for a while, with just brown or blue eyes.

"They look like me now.

They look like Jessica Alba. They look like Lucy Liu. They look like Jada Pinkett Smith.

"It's all changing, which I think is fantastic. That keeps me working hard, because I really want to be considered for the parts that Kate Winslet gets.

"I take everything so seriously and, whether it comes across or not, I put my heart and soul into every part." To put her heart and soul into the part of Roxanne, Eva was indebted to self-confessed comic book obsessives Mark Johnson, the director, who had previously made Daredevil, and leading man Cage.

She revealed: "Mark put my character in perspective when we started shooting. He said I was the light of the movie because everything else was very dark.

"I loved working with Nicolas. He's so intense and he is so interesting because he is so quirky. I'd never worked with somebody like that before.

"He will turn something on its head and deliver a line and you're thinking, 'God, that's genius.

How the hell did he think of that?' "I learned from him how to play against the line.

If I had the line 'I'm so tired', I'd normally play it like 'I'm sooo tirreedd'.

"But he taught me how to turn it on its head and be like, 'I Am So Tired'. You take it someplace else, like 'I'm so tired, I'm neurotic, I'm going crazy'."

CAGE'S high standing in her acting affections is praise indeed from a woman who has starred alongside Johnny Depp, Denzel Washington, Matt Damon, Antonio Banderas and Will Smith.

But even though Eva has seen her career become as hot as her looks and is being compared to fellow Latina star Jennifer Lopez, she insists America Ferrera, who plays the wire-toothed, furry-eyebrowed heroine of hit TV show Ugly Betty, is just as inspiring to her.

Eva, who has been rising to the top of the Hollywood tree since her breathtaking debut in Denzel Washington's Training Day six years ago and lead role in Will Smith's Hitch, is a huge fan of Betty. She thinks the show's success is one of the most exciting things to happen in years for women in Hollywood, and especially the booming ranks of Latina stars.

And although she is sitting on an almost-too-comfy hotel suite couch relying on her charm and bottles of fizzy water to get her through a bout of jet lag as she promotes Ghost Rider, she is visibly excited when asked about her favourite TV show and being compared to Latina stars such as Lopez.

She said: "It's flattering to be compared to her. She's a beautiful, powerful woman who has made something of herself out of nothing.

"She didn't come from a wealthy or a showbiz family and has created an empire.

"But I also love Ugly Betty. I didn't know America Ferrera and when she was nominated for a Golden Globe, I asked my agent for her phone number.

"I called to congratulate her and she is very sweet, so it would be a compliment to be compared to her as she is breaking down boundaries and conventions for a lot of women."

Eva was born in Miami to Cuban immigrant parents and grew up in Los Angeles as the first American-born member of the family.

She started acting in her early twenties after leaving college, and made her screen debut in an episode of ER nine years ago.

After plodding her way through other TV appearances and small movies, she made it to the big time with her supporting role opposite Denzel Washington in Training Day.

Since then, she has become one of the best-known faces in the movies, with parts in the Farrelly Brothers' Stuck On You, action sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious, and thrillers Once Upon a Time In Mexico and Out Of Time, again with Washington.

And while she has only really hit the big time in the last six years, Eva is a woman who knows what she wants.

A quiet life, her friends... and getting up close to a hunky Scot.

Ghost Rider is in cinemas tomorrow.

I would really love to work with Ewan McGregor. To be shallow he's drop-dead gorgeous.




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