For a journalist, there’s nothing more refreshing than talking with a celebrity who’s not afraid to let her guard down in an interview, instead of sticking to the guidelines suggested by media coaches the world over. In fact, when speaking with Eva Mendes, you get the sense that she probably never needed or wanted a media coach. The actress makes her own decisions, whether it’s posing nude for her racy Calvin Klein campaigns (one of which, in true Calvin Klein form, was banned thanks to a visible nipple) or starring in every Williamsburg hipster’s favorite director Werner Herzog's latest movie, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (Don’t know Herzog? He’s the Grizzly Man and Rescue Dawn director who also starred in a documentary in which he eats his own shoe, appropriately called Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe). A self-professed lover of all things crazy, Eva Mendes plays by her own rules, and there's nothing we find sexier than that. So, if you want to know why Mendes told AskMen.com, “I’m going to get killed for that comment by women, but that’s what I like,” you’ve come to the right place. AskMen.com talked to the actress about reteaming with Nicolas Cage for Bad Lieutenant, the qualities she finds sexiest in a man, her nude photo shoot for Calvin Klein, and why she loves AskMen.com. We love you too, Eva.Looking at Eva Mendes is like starring at a hologram that's made from images of Cindy Crawford and a young Sophia Loren. One second, she’s sex personified; the next, she’s a regal beauty who makes men want to throw their coats over puddles marring her path. It’s no wonder then, that Mendes’ Hollywood story begins more like a fairytale than it does a story about a casting-couch hopper. Discovered by an agent who stumbled upon a photo of Mendes at her neighbor’s house, Eva got her start in music videos like Will Smith’s “Miami,” and shortly thereafter moved on to blockbusters like Training Day opposite Denzel Washington. In her latest movie, Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Mendes plays a high-class call girl who’s also the girlfriend of a gambling and drug addicted detective (Nicolas Cage) trying to solve the murder of five Senegalese immigrants murdered in post-Katrina New Orleans.
AskMen.com : Since Werner Herzog is the kind of director who has no problem making a movie about eating his own shoe -- what unique things stood out about his work ethic when working with him on this movie?
Eva Mendes : Working with him has been a dream of mine for a long time. He’s a cinematic god to a lot of us actors because he is completely outside the box -- he’s an iconoclast. He does gritty films that actually mean and say something, not to even mention his documentaries. He’s one of the very few out there who I would eat a shoe for. When I found out it was him collaborating with Nick [Cage], I knew it was going to be a match made in heaven because these two people are crazy, and I love crazy, and I want crazy, so I was in.
AM : This movie speaks a lot about the different reasons people get into drugs. Nicolas's character's drug use escalates after he hurts his back, and your character Frankie -- a high-class prostitute -- presumably takes drugs to get through her work day. What kind of backstory did you give her as to why she does so many drugs?
EM : I keep my backstory pretty private and personal. I work with my acting coach Ivana Chubbuck. I’ve worked with her for nine or 10 years, since I pretty much started in the business. What we do with ever story and every script is that we have a process on how to break down a script and how to breakdown a character, and then we work backward to create a history. That part I keep pretty private because sometimes I intertwine my own history with my characters. But for Frankie, my number one thing was not to judge her because she is a prostitute who happens to be hooked on drugs. I thought this doesn’t have to make her bad or good -- it doesn’t have to make her anything -- it just makes her a survivor. Although I’ve been blessed enough in my life where I haven’t had to make extreme choices like that -- to take extreme action -- I still understood how a person, how Frankie, could get to that point and find herself in that situation of being a prostitute.
AM : I've read articles in which you speak quite candidly about how much hearing about substance abuse upsets you.
EM : The good thing about being my age [is that] I grew up watch E! True Hollywood Story. The biographies are very enlightening because you realize, “Oh my God, all these people I’ve admired -- and tried to emulate even -- when I was younger died tragically from substance abuse. So when I’m a part of a film that totally takes the glamour out of it and totally makes it look as disgusting as it is... I like the light this film puts drug use in.
AM : When you juxtapose Nick’s character to yours, it’s so blatant that he’s falling apart, whereas you seem to still look great in the film. Do you see a lot of that in Hollywood? People who think they have it together because they feel in control?
EM : That’s really interesting that you bring that up. Yeah, I think a lot of times that happens. We’re shocked when we hear about someone because they look a certain way or they don’t look sick. My character was a lot like that. To be totally honest, I wanted to play her more rundown, and I wanted to play her more raw. But I really listened to Werner because, again, he’s my director and he’s incredible; he’s Werner Herzog. But he really wanted her to have elegance. He thought it would be boring [for her] to fall into the stereotypical druggy. He wanted her to have a clean facade and be falling apart internally. But I wish I could have gone darker, more raw.
AM : Do you think there is more substance to your and Nick’s character’s relationship than just drugs?
EM : Yeah, I think there’s something in their disgusting habits and lifestyles, there’s something really sweet about their relationship. It’s kind of a warped fairytale in a weird way because he is her knight in shining armor, he is her Prince Charming. He saves her when she’s in dangerous situations, which we see a couple of times in the film, and he saves her. Yeah, it’s in extreme situations, but people can relate to having someone you feel safe with and having someone who’s your protector. What they have is incredibly real. I think the movie ends on a pretty funny note because I have no idea how these people are going to be parents because they love the lifestyle so much.
AM : Having the movie set in post-Katrina New Orleans, what do you think having New Orleans as a backdrop added to the film?
EM : It was Nick’s idea to do that. He has a house in New Orleans. And rightfully so, because we brought so much business into the city, and that felt really good -- providing jobs for people in a city in need. It was depressing to shoot there, but there are certainly a lot of amazing things going on. Habitat for Humanity is doing some amazing rebuilding. But it’s pretty sad to be there and to see that there are a lot of areas that are still shattered. I saw the footage on television like many other people, but when I was there filming, I thought, "I can’t believe this happened in our own home, and I can’t believe our government failed us so." To be there and to feel the spirit -- it was very haunting. But on a positive note, there is a lot of rebuilding and growth there right now, but it’s a long ways away.
AM : Your character, despite her problems, is still dead sexy, and recently you've done a topless shoot for Italian Vogue and had a Calvin Klein ad --- which I loved! --- banned in the U.S. for showing nipple. Why are Americans so prudish about the human body when we're so comfortable with violence?
EM : That I don’t know. I’ve always tried to ponder that. I guess it’s because we still have those puritanical views that we started this country on. I’m not sure. I just want people to know -- and I love AskMen.com -- I really do because I feel you guys don’t exploit women. That’s my issue. I’m very free with my sexuality, but not everywhere all the time. I pick and choose when I do nudity, and who I do it for when I’m working, and when I’m doing it. I’ve done nudity twice in a film. One time was opposite Denzel Washington, which he won the Oscar for Training Day, and the other was opposite Joaquin Phoenix in We Own The Night. To me, that’s what it was about. It was about the character, it was about the scene, and then I go for it. When I bared it all for Italian Vogue, it was for Steven Meisel in a 22-page -- what I call -- “art catalog.” And when I was a part of the amazing Calvin Klein campaign... I love that you liked it!
AM : It was beautiful!
EM : There’s more to come! And I bare it all again… well, not all but a lot. Calvin Klein [is] this iconic brand, so I always have a purpose. I try to juxtapose that with -- if you see me on the red carpet, hopefully I look like a lady. I’m not wearing anything too short, and the cleavage isn’t jumping out at you. It’s all very methodical on my end but, no, I won’t be afraid of my sexuality. I won’t be afraid to put it out there when I choose to, and I have never felt exploited. In 11 years of being in this business and doing some pretty risqué shoots and movies, I’ve never felt exploited.
AM : I have to tell you that you were our No. 1 woman last year [on our list of the 99 Most Desirable Women of 2009].
EM : I know! You know what’s funny is that normally I don’t pay attention to that stuff because -- whatever -- but because I like you guys and because I’ve been doing interviews with you guys from the beginning, and I like what you do, I thought, thank you. I was really excited about that.
AM : I have to tell you one funny thing though: Conan O’Brien talked about being ranked No. 3 on our most desirable women’s list on his show the other night. Are you worried about him beating you in the ranks?
EM : Wait, what is he saying?
AM : He’s saying that he’s No. 3 on our list of the most desirable women.
EM : Of the most desirable women? Huh, I can kind of see that. I’ve always thought [Conan O'Brien] was kind of feminine. He’s going to kill me! I’m doing his show next week. I’ll tell him. So basically, on his show, it will be him and me head-to-head competing for the title. And you know what’s funny: People have seen me in my underwear, so I think it’s time people see him in his.
AM : I think so too.
EM : That could be a fun thing!
AM : So what do you find to be the sexiest qualities in a man?
EM : I like a mysterious man. I like a man who reads and is knowledgeable about the world, but who doesn’t have to brag about it. And I really like nice forearms -- nice strong hands and forearms. I love that because then they can wear a watch really well. I do like a nice watch on a man, [but] not flashy. I like a Rolex, but not a modern Rolex -- more like a vintage 1970s Rolex, or a ‘60s. It has to be vintage. I don’t like my men to be too ornate. I like them to stand back and let their women shine, and they should really wear the pants in the relationship. I’m going to get killed for that comment by women, but that’s what I like.
AM : You have a film coming up called Tell Me with Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington in which you play the other woman.
EM : You guys are going to have a field day with it because this film is so interesting. It’s written and directed by a female, but it’s all about infidelity: What is being unfaithful? What is betrayal? Is it a physical thing? Is it an emotional thing? Is it something you tell or something you don’t tell? It is so fascinating that film. Everybody is the other person. How’s that? It’s me, Sam Worthington who I love, Guillaume Canet who is really delicious as well, and Keira Knightley who I am obsessed with. We’re all the other people. You get to see it from all sides, which is very interesting.
AM : Kind of like Closer?
EM : In the vein of that.
AM : Is it weird working with someone for the second time, like Nick Cage?
EM : You want to hear something funny? Well, maybe it’s not that funny. I am the queen of working with men twice in a row. I’ve worked with Nick twice in a row, I just wrapped a movie called the Other Guys with Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. It’s about two cops, and I play Will Ferrell’s wife who's a doctor and a dancer for the Knicks -- it’s hysterical. I’m this crazy woman. And that was my second time working with Mark Wahlberg. I worked twice witrh Denzel. I thought about it the other day: What is this doubling up? It makes it more enjoyable because you have history.
AM : I read somewhere that you prefer to read lies about yourself in the tabloids rather than the truth.
EM : This is the thing: When people write lies about you, and you know that they are lies, that means that they don’t know the truth, so that’s OK with me. If something true came out, I would have to check my circle to see who’s talking and possibly make an apology phone call to my parents! (laughs)
AM : Was it hard to play a drug addict when you yourself only smoked a cigarette for the first time at age 28?
EM : My acting coach breaks down what happens to people’s bodies when they do drugs, and what happens is: Let’s take drinking because it’s the easiest one and we all know what it’s like. She breaks down what happens physiologically to you. There’s a certain inflammation of the tongue that happens. Some people are eye people, and that’s when they get double vision, and some people take it in their knees. She breaks it down from the inside out. The one thing I never want to do is act drunk or act high. You don’t do it from a mental kind of place because then you’re just acting. We start internally with what’s going on with the body, and there are some breathing exercises too. It’s pretty cool. Sometimes when you’re done, you really feel so out of it.
AM : It was lovely speaking with you, Eva.
EM : I love you guys over there. Please say hi to everyone!
source: askmen.com