Hitch (2005)
Der Date Doktor
Interview with Eva Mendes
One of Eva Mendes' first jobs in the entertainment industry was appearing in a music video for Will Smith. In the five years since the party song "Miami" Eva has slowly but steadily made her way from a bit part in a video clip to the leading lady in a major motion picture. In Hitch she joins Will Smith again. And this time it is more likely that Will will not forget her as it has happened with Eva's minor role in "Miami". And so won't we!
Bienvenido a Miami
Her unconventional beauty combined with the courage to work alongside Steven Segal and to do frontal nudity brought her quickly to the top. Not too bad considering Eva Mendes' acting debut in Children of the Corn V. She has worked with Johnny Depp in Once upon a time in Mexico, Matt Damon in Stuck on you and twice with Denzel Washington (Training Day and Out of Time). The Cuban-American is definitively not your average type of Hollywood starlet and quite simply rocks. I actually felt a little bad when told, that I was drinking a can of her sugarless Red Bull that the five star hotel in Berlin especially organized for Eva - apparently her favourite drink. But what can I do? I took what's there and usually they don't offer such a beverage in those fancy interview rooms. When Eva came in she didn't mind though and took a Coke on the rocks. She sounded as if she had the sniffles. She must have gotten up just a little earlier and was hiding her hair in one of these fashionable baker boy caps. I got a glance at her beautiful bare toes in sandals though.
OutNow.CH (ON): Have you been to Berlin before?
Eva Mendes (EM): I have. I promoted a movie like a year and a half ago here. And I did the same thing. I haven't really had the time to get to know Berlin. I know the hotels.
ON: What were your expectations when you first heard about Hitch?
Eva smiles
EM: My expectations where pretty high because I knew that Will (Smith)was waiting to do a romantic comedy. He was waiting for the right one. I thought this is going to be great if he has waited all this time. I definitively wanted to be a part of that. Absolutely. And I've been wanting to do a romantic comedy too. So it just kind of like happend. Usually it never happens like this in Hollywood. I don't know the process. It's kind of arduous. So when it happens it does happen serendipitously.
ON: Were you the first choice for the leading lady in Hitch?
EM: I don't know. It's a question for Andy (Tennant) and Will (Smith). I do know that somebody else was attached to it a year or two years ago when the script was floating around. But I'm not sure what happend.
ON: The press conference yesterday was very funny.
EM: My mouth was going off. I kept getting into trouble because I tend to just say what's on my mind.
Her mouth was everywhere
ON: That's a good thing isn't it.
EM: No it's not. Especially when you have these around. (She points to the tape recorder). But they asked me what romantic means for me. I love flowers. But I don't like receiving them romantically. I don't like the usual kind of obvious stuff. I like little things like poems, just anything under the norm. And I hate Valentine's day. But I couldn't say that in the US during the promotion of Hitch because the movie was opening that day.
ON: You said somebody needs to write a song for you in order to win your heart.
EM: Oh no. I said if somebody wrote a song for me that would seal the deal.
ON: But noone ever had?
EM: Somebody has. But he's my best friend now. But it was still romantic. The notion of it was romantic. But he is one of my best friends now.
ON: Do you believe that people who are alike date more easier than others? Would you date somebody that is so different from you like Kevin James' character is from Amber Valetta's character?
EM: I dated some pretty odd guys. My friends were like: "What the hell?" I am the right girl to answer that question. I don't like big muscular guys. I just don't like it. I like brainy guys that are a little nerdy, that read a lot. In men I look for things that I like so that we can complement each other. I dated this guy once who was really not attractive, you know, what we find attractive as a society. He played chess. I don't play chess. Excuse me, I need a tissue. (She gets up an looks for a Kleenex.) Excuse me. My allergies are horrible this morning. I don't know if its the carpet or the air.
ON: So there's a lot of the character you play in yourself too?
EM: Except that my character goes for the beautiful guy. Will Smith is hot! But yes there's a lot of myself is in there.
"a little bigger"
ON: But when you are in Hollywood, there is a certain beauty ideal that you have to follow. Do you feel the pressure of that?
EM: I have to tell you no. And I think I go against certain things on purpose. If you really want to talk about it, i could be skinnier. I could lose a few pounds and really fit in with all the other girls. I don't want to, though. I enjoy being a little bigger for some sanity. That I don't fall into that kind of stuff. It's ridiculous. We don't have to be perfect.
ON: What do you think of plastic surgery?
EM: I think it's out of control. I am not saying I am against plastic surgery at all, because I don't care what anybody does to themselves. But it's gotten out of control. When girls under thirty are getting protox that blows my mind. It's beyond my comprehension. Not only that. They are doing it and you are seeing theses things. It's sick. We are used to their faces. We see these people. We analyze their faces. We see them 50 feet wide on the screen. Everybody notices it. We've been watching their face for ten years.
ON: So your beautiful lips are all yours?
EM: Oh yes. Thank you. They are all mine.
ON: Are you comfortable with watching yourself on the screen?
EM: Yes I am. The only time I'm not, is when I feel I could have done better in the scenes. Usually I stay pretty objective. Last night I saw the movie with everybody else and I loved it. It was great with the audience here. It was awesome. (All of a sudden she stops and asks) I've met you before right?
ON: Yes, I was sitting in the press conference yesterday.
EM: That's where! Right!
ON: Otherwise we have not met. Unfortunately.
EM: I was like, wait a minute. I know this face.
ON: You just said that you feel comfortable watching yourself on the screen.
EM: Except when I suck!
ON: Was there any scene in this film where you thought this could have been better?
EM: This is one of those crazy, crazy things. You will be thinking I am nuts. There is just one line that I don't like. At the end of the movie when I am driving the car. That was a rushed scene. It was rewritten. We got that scene that morning. There were a lot of scenes rewritten that morning. I thought of it as a challenge. I thought that was cool. But I didn't like the last scene when I am in the car. I like the scenes with me and him. But the last scene, no. That is just me though.
Who wouldn't be confortable?
ON: Have you always been so comfortable with yourself?
EM: No. I was not comfortable in my own skin in 9th, 10th, 11th, 12d grade. Going through school, I was not comfortable with myself.
ON: Would a beautiful women like you need the help of a date doctor?
EM: It's more like I wish somebody was there. Now I think I am ok. Because I went trough all of it. But I wish somebody would have been around that I could have talked to a few years ago.
ON: Did you have friends that could help you?
EM: Yes but their love life sucked too. We were all horrible. We gave each other advice but everybody is in the same situation. It's histerical.
ON: What's your worst dating experience?
EM: I have a couple. One of them was I asked this guy to a dance in twelved grade. It was a "girl asks a guy"-dance. So me and my friend asked out him and his friend. Me and my girlfriend went to pick them up. He had the worst attitude the whole night. It was a Halloween thing. We were all supposed to dress as Hawaiian people. He gets in the car and doesn't have his hawaiian thing on. I said: "Come on, Rick!" I thought that was kind of rude but I kept trying. So we go to the dance and he was really not interested. You were supposed to take a group picture. He didn't want to take it. I just felt horrible about myself. And I go: "Ok. Let's just dance." So we were out there dancing. He then went to bathroom and he left me. It sucked. He was like out of there. And I was like "Aahh my god."
ON: At twelved grade, how old is a person then?
EM: 17.
ON: You must have been really mad.
EM: I was. But I didn't like him that much. It was more of an ego thing. And everybody knew about it. So I was definitively hurt.
ON: Did you get even with him?
EM: I don't get even with people. I'm not vindictive. I have so much confidence in the universe that everything will take care of itself. There is always a reason.
The women of Revlon
ON: How was it to become a spokeswomen for Revlon?
EM: Really great.
ON: Are they testing products on animals?
EM: No they don't have animal byproducts nor do they test products on animals. It's me, Halle Berry, Julian Moore. Now its also Susan Sarandon and Kate Bosworth. It's a really great team of women. But the number one thing that made me choose them, since there is obvisously a lot of cosmetic companies, is that they raise money for women's cancer research. When I came on board, I was amazed that they've just raised over 25 Million Dollars for cancer research. That's something I feel really good about.
ON: Do you think you have a responsibility as somebody famous to do things like that?
EM: I think so. Even at things like yesterday we were so well received at the premiere and I was in shock. I had no idea that all these people were going to be so beautiful. And I thought we had the power. Right now I could say anything and I would have the power to influnence kids or even adults. And I always remind myself of that power. I gotta put it into good use. I gotta do something really good about it. I haven't found my personal field but I am searching for what it is, that I am going to use as my voice.
ON: We usually finish the interview with some pop-up questions. I give you a word and you just tell me what pops into mind.
EM: Ok. I am a little slow this moring, so it might not pop so fast.
"Isn't that Julia Roberts?"
ON: Latin Men
EM: Macho
ON: Will Smith
EM: Perfect
ON: Dates
EM: Horrible
ON: Sugarless Red Bull
EM: Ah, the Best.
ON: Revlon
EM: Fortunate
ON: Switzerland
EM: Ohh. Beautiful.
ON: Excellent. Thank you very much.
EM: Ok. I was a little slow there.
ON: Have you ever been to Switzerland?
EM: I haven't. But the image in my mind that I have of Switzerland is just something beautiful.
