|
Eva Mendes on We Own the Night
By Fred Topel | Image property of Columbia Pictures.
We Own the Night is dominated by big male actors. Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg and Robert Duvall headline the film. Eva Mendes is the only female lead, as the girlfriend of Phoenix's character, but it may be her most demonstrative performance to date.
Mendes on We Own the Night
"I feel like this is my coming out film in a weird way," said Mendes. "My other dramatic film was Training Day which was a coming out. Before Training Day I was auditioning for a couple years. I was like, 'This sucks.' I was studying religiously and I still do, studying acting. But I was not convinced that it was what I wanted to do. Then I did Training Day and even though it was only two scenes, Denzel, that connection, it just happened and I was like, 'Wow, I love this. This is what I want to do.' That actually kind of put me on the map in the industry. This, I've done a lot of great films since then. I've worked with people like Will Smith and Denzel again and Nicolas Cage. I'm so proud of what I've done but this film is kind of like second phase coming out because I got to really dig my teeth into a dramatic role with the heavyweights like Duvall, Joaquin and Mark Wahlberg."
At first, Mendes was reluctant to join the male-driven cast. "I actually said no to this film at first because I'm stupid and because I told James, 'I don't want to just be the girlfriend in this.' I work really hard to not be the girlfriend, because I think once you fall into that girlfriend category, it's hard to break out of. Honestly, it's just not that interesting, so I need places for her to go and I need some depth. Yeah, there's a lot of rehearsal process of me, James and Joaquin. A lot, which I love, I'm so thankful for that because I love rehearsing. We would just get together for days, for 10, 12 hours. It was really great. It was awesome because once you get to set, you have all that. I just love being overprepared. There's nothing like being overly prepared because then you can take anything, especially working at that level."
We Own the Night
We Own the Night
We Own the Night
The film opens with a love scene between Mendes and Phoenix. Mendes acts her heart out to make it seem naturally sexy, but there was nothing natural about it on the set. "I'm not going to lie. It was nerve wracking. James was actually really great because he put it at the end of the movie. It was literally our last day of shooting so Joaquin and I had all those other scenes that were very intimate and emotional and stuff with our characters. So we had that history. Our characters had that history so that was great. But nerve wracking, but you do it. I remember that morning I was stalling quite a bit because I was scared. But you've just got to take it like a man. I don't know what that means but you're just got to do it. I don't know what else to say but they're not easy."
Ultimately, the love scene sets up the relationships where Mendes' character stands by her man in the hardest times. And you see her booby. "I think it just really set the tone for the relationship. My main concern was portraying it as a character and making sure that it was hot, because these people have a great sexual connection, but they only have a great sexual connection because their souls connect. It wasn't just like oh, this trashy girl in the back of the club. It was actually coming from a real connection and it was love-based. That was my only thing. I was like, 'We've got to make sure that it's love based.'"
We Own the Night opens to theatres
on October 12th.
For more interviews, the trailer, poster and more movie info, go to the We Own the Night Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Columbia Pictures.
Contact
© 2004 Minds Eye One, All Rights Reserved
The Can Magazine™ is a trademark of Minds Eye One
All movie titles, movie icons, movie stills/clips/trailers/other media... are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of stated holders
CanMag.Com banners contain movie/gaming icons that were created by individual holders
|
|
|
Add to Heffee!
