Eva Mendes

Eva de la Caridad Mendez ; born March 5, 1974, known professionally as Eva Mendes, is an American actress. Her acting career began in the late 1990s with a series of roles in films such as Children of the Corn Fields of Terror and Urban Legends: Final Cut.
Mendes's performance in Training Day marked a turning point in her career and led to roles in commercially successful films such as 2 Fast 2 Furious and Hitch . She starred in Ghost Rider and The Spirit , both film adaptations of comics, and ventured into more dramatic territory with We Own the Night , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , Last Night , and The Place Beyond the Pines . Her other films include Out of Time , The Women , The Other Guys , and Girl in Progress .


Mendes has appeared in several music videos for artists like Will Smith and has also been an ambassador for brands, including Calvin Klein, Cartier, Reebok, Pantene shampoo, Morgan, and Peek Cloppenburg. She has designed for New York Company and is the creative director of CIRCA Beauty, a makeup line sold at Walgreens. She has been in a relationship with Canadian actor Ryan Gosling since 2011, and they have two daughters.


Mendes was born on March 5, 1974, in Miami, Florida, to Cuban parents Eva Pérez Suárez and Juan Carlos Méndez. She was raised by her mother in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Silver Lake, following her parents' divorce. Her mother worked at Mann's Chinese Theatre and later for an aerospace company, while her father ran a meat distribution business. Mendes had one older brother, Juan Carlos Méndez Jr. , who succumbed to throat cancer. She also has an older sister, Janet, and a younger paternal half-brother, Carlos Alberto Carlo Mendez. Mendes attended Hoover High School in Glendale, and later pursued marketing at California State University, Northridge. However, she left college to focus on acting under the guidance of Ivana Chubbuck.

Her role in Training Day led to more significant film opportunities, solidifying Mendes' position as a Hollywood actress. In 2002, her sole film release was the crime comedy All About the Benjamins, where she portrayed the girlfriend of a con artist. The year 2003 proved to be prolific for Mendes, with roles in four studio feature films. 2 Fast 2 Furious, alongside Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson, showcased her as a United States Customs Service agent working undercover, and the film gained widespread exposure, grossing over 236 million globally. Once Upon a Time in Mexico, a Western action film co-starring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, featured Mendes as the daughter of a Mexican drug lord, achieving a box office success of 98.1 million.


Reuniting with Denzel Washington in the thriller Out of Time, Mendes played the soon-to-be ex-wife of a respected chief of police. The film achieved moderate commercial success, and Roger Ebert, in his review, noted Mendes' role as a curiously forgiving character, who feels little rancor for the straying and apparently still likes him; maybe there would have been more suspense if she were furious with him. In the comedy Stuck on You, released in the same year, alongside Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear, Mendes portrayed an aspiring actress.


Her next notable role was as the love interest of a professional dating consultant (Will Smith) in the romantic comedy Hitch . USA Today described it as her best screen role to date , and Detroit Free Press remarked: Smith and Mendes are terrific together. He brings her game up so high you'd think she has had as many good parts as Smith." Hitch grossed 368.1 million globally during its theatrical run. In 2005, Mendes also appeared in the lesser-known films The Wendell Baker Story and Guilty Hearts.


In the romantic comedy Trust the Man , Mendes starred alongside David Duchovny, Billy Crudup, Julianne Moore, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, playing a role described by The A.V. Club as a "vapid sexpot". The much-criticized Ghost Rider , based on the Marvel Comics character, featured Mendes as the love interest of the titular character . Despite mixed reviews, the film performed well commercially, opening at the top of the North American box office with earnings of over 45 million and eventually making more than 228 million worldwide. She also starred opposite Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg in the thriller We Own the Night , playing the girlfriend of an NYPD captain's brother. Critic Peter Travers found the film to be "defiantly, refreshingly unhip" and noted that sizzle comes naturally from Mendes. In 2007, she also starred in the films Live! and Cleaner, both of which went unnoticed by audiences, and made an uncredited cameo appearance in the comedy Knocked Up.


In 2008, Mendes played the role of a perfume salesgirl in Saks Fifth Avenue in the all-female comedy The Women, alongside Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, and Jada Pinkett Smith.Despite commercial success, The Women received criticism from critics, and Mendes earned a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for her performance. She also portrayed the femme fatale Sand Saref in 2008's The Spirit, based on the newspaper comic strip of the same name by Will Eisner. The film received lackluster reviews, with critics deeming it melodramatic, unoriginal, and sexist. Her only film release in 2009 was the crime drama Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, where she reunited with Nicolas Cage, playing a prostitute and once again his love interest. While the film found a limited audience in theaters, it garnered critical acclaim and appeared on many top ten lists of the year.

References

1.  Benitz, Samantha (March 5, 2019). "See Birthday Girl Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling's Cutest Pics Together!". Life & Style. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
2. ^ "Eva Mendes: She's a lover, not a fighter".
3. ^ "Eva Wants You!".
4. ^ "With a New Will Ferrell Film, Eva Mendes Is Showing Off Her Funny Bone".
5. ^ Morgan, Sal (February 19, 2007). "Viva Eva – one gutsy, cool gal". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved February 18, 2007.