Mendes was born on March 5, 1974, in Miami, Florida, to Cuban parents Eva Pérez Suárez and Juan Carlos Méndez and was raised by her mother in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Silver Lake[2][3][4] after her parents' divorce.[5] Her mother worked at Mann's Chinese Theatre[6] and later for an aerospace company, and her father ran a meat distribution business.[7] Mendes had an older brother Juan Carlos Méndez Jr. (1963–2016), who died from throat cancer, and a younger brother, Carlo (born 1978).[8] She attended Hoover High School in Glendale[9] and later studied marketing at California State University, Northridge, but left college to pursue acting under Ivana Chubbuck.[10]
Acting career
Beginnings and breakthrough (1998–2001)
Mendes started her acting career after a talent manager saw her photograph in a friend's portfolio.[11] Her first film role was as part of a group of young people who become lost in middle America in the direct-to-video horror film Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror. Mendes was disappointed in her performance and soon hired an acting coach.[12] She subsequently took on the roles of a bridesmaid in the comedy A Night at the Roxbury (1998) with Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan, a housekeeper in the fantasy family film My Brother the Pig (1999) with Scarlett Johansson, and an ill-fated film student in the slasher film Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000).
Mendes appeared in the Steven Seagal action thriller Exit Wounds (2001), which made over US$73 million worldwide.[13] According to Mendes, her voice was dubbed in the editing after a producer told her she "didn't sound intelligent enough".[14] Her breakthrough came later in 2001 with her performance as the mistress of a corrupt cop in Antoine Fuqua's crime thriller Training Day alongside Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke.[15] She described her role as pivotal in her career, motivating her to keep going as an actress after she had become bored doing "terrible, cheesy horrible films."[16]Training Day was a box office hit, grossing US$104.5 million.[17]
Worldwide exposure (2002–2009)
Mendes at the 66th Venice Film Festival
Her role in Training Day led to larger film parts and Mendes soon established herself as a Hollywood actress. While her sole film release in 2002 was the crime comedy All About the Benjamins, in which she played the girlfriend of a con artist, Mendes had roles in four studio feature films released throughout 2003. 2 Fast 2 Furious teamed her with Paul Walker and Tyrese Gibson while portraying a United States Customs Service agent working undercover for a notorious Argentine drug lord. The film gave Mendes much wider exposure, grossing over US$236 million globally.[18] The Western action film Once Upon a Time in Mexico saw her star as the daughter of a Mexican drug lord, alongside Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek. While reviews for the film were mixed, it made US$98.1 million.[19]
Mendes reunited with Denzel Washington for the thriller Out of Time, in which she played the soon-to-be ex-wife of a well-respected chief of police. The film was a moderate commercial success,[20] and Roger Ebert, in his review for the film, described Mendes' role as a "curiously forgiving character, who feels little rancor for the straying [husband] and apparently still likes him; maybe there would have been more suspense if she were furious with him".[21] Her last 2003 film was the comedy Stuck on You, with Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear, in which she played an aspiring actress.[11]
She starred as the love interest of a professional dating consultant (Will Smith), in her next film, Hitch (2005), USA Today described it as "her best screen role to date",[22] 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."[23]Hitch made US$368.1 million in its global theatrical run.[24] In 2005, Mendes also starred in the little-seen films The Wendell Baker Story and Guilty Hearts.
In the romantic comedy Trust the Man (2006), Mendes starred with David Duchovny, Billy Crudup, Julianne Moore, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, playing what The A.V. Club described as a "vapid sexpot".[25] The much criticized Ghost Rider (2007), based on the Marvel Comics character, featured Mendes as the love interest of the titular character (Nicolas Cage). The film fared well commercially, opening atop at the North American box office, with earnings of more than US$45 million; it eventually made over US$228 million worldwide.[26] She starred opposite Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg in the thriller We Own the Night (also 2007), as 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.[27] 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 took on the role of a perfume salesgirl in Saks Fifth Avenue in the all-female comedy The Women, opposite Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, and Jada Pinkett Smith.[28] Though a commercial success, The Women was panned by critics, with Mendes earning a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for her performance. She also played the femme fatale Sand Saref in 2008's The Spirit, based on the newspaper comic strip of the same name by Will Eisner. It received lackluster reviews from critics, who deemed it melodramatic, unoriginal, and sexist.[29] Her only 2009 film release was the crime drama Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which reunited her with Nicolas Cage,[30] playing a prostitute, and again, his love interest. While the film found a limited audience in theaters, it garnered acclaim, appearing on many top ten lists of the year.[31]
Mendes reunited with previous collaborators Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg for the action comedy The Other Guys (2010), in which she portrayed the wife of a mild-mannered forensic NYPD accountant (Ferrell).[32] It was a commercial success, grossing US$170.4 million globally.[33] In 2010, she also played the co-worker and the love interest of a committed man in Massy Tadjedin's romantic drama Last Night, alongside Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington.[34] While she was initially reluctant to star, worrying that the character would "lack originality" and was "too seductive", she agreed to play the role after meeting with Tadjedin; she said: "It was great to connect with a female director and talk about this woman and not objectify her as the other woman but give her a real true life and make her honest ... Thank God I did."[35][36]
In 2011, Mendes appeared in an uncredited cameo in Fast Five, reprising her role from 2 Fast 2 Furious. In 2012, she starred in the dramedy Girl in Progress, as a single mom raising her fourteen-year-old daughter, and in the art fantasy drama Holy Motors, as Kay M, a role originally written for Kate Moss. While Girl in Progress earned Mendes an ALMA Award nomination for Favorite Movie Actress, she described Holy Motors as "the coolest, most creative thing I've ever done".[37]
In 2013, Mendes appeared in the HBO comedy film Clear History as a formerly heavy-set woman,[41] and in 2014, she starred as a cabaret show performer in Ryan Gosling's directorial debut Lost River, which competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival.[42][43][44] Thereafter, she retired from the film industry. Speaking of her retirement in 2022, Mendes said:
"I got tired fighting for the good roles. There just was a point where I thought, ‘I’m going to create my own opportunities and become a producer on things and create my own material,’ but it just didn’t feel worth it to me. There are more opportunities for Latina actresses now (in 2022), but when I bowed out 10 years ago I wasn’t being offered things that weren’t specifically Latina. It is exciting that things are different now, so who knows what I will do in the future. But right now, I’m keeping it in the home with my kids."[45]
Mendes has a line of bed linens and dinnerware that is sold at Macy's.[58][59] In February 2013, she partnered with New York & Co. to launch her own fashion line, Eva by Eva Mendes.[60] She is also the creative director of the makeup brand CIRCA Beauty, which launched exclusively at Walgreens in 2015.[61][62][63]
Singing
In 2010, Mendes sang "Pimps Don't Cry", a song featured in The Other Guys,[64] and also performed a duet with CeeLo Green with the same song.[65] In 2011, she recorded a version of "The Windmills of Your Mind".[66] She also featured in the single "Miami" sung by Will Smith which was released in 1998.
Public image
Mendes in 2011
Many media outlets have cited her as one of the world's most beautiful Latin women, and she has been often considered a sex symbol. She once embraced that status, saying it was "partially self-created ... I think at times I play up my sexiness. And there's times where I don't",[67] though she does not let it interfere with her film work: "I like it when it doesn't limit my career. It's a part of my life, but on a secondary plane".[68] Nevertheless, her professional trajectory throughout the 2000s tended to gravitate towards parts that relied heavily on her looks.[37] She has not appeared in a film since 2014.
Mendes ranked 54th, 12th, 7th, 7th, and 11th in Maxim magazine's Hot 100 issue in 2002, 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2010 respectively,[69][70] and appeared several times on the cover.[71] She also ranked 80th, 23rd and 44th in FHM magazine's "100 Sexiest Women in the World" supplement in 2004, 2005, 2006.[citation needed] She was voted number four in the 2008 edition, and number one in the 2009 edition, of AskMen.com's Top 99 Most Desirable Women.[72]People also named her one of 2011's Most Beautiful at Every Age.[73]
Personal life
Mendes began dating music producer George Augusto in 2002.[74] They broke up in 2011.[75]
In 2008, she entered the Cirque Lodge Rehabilitation Centre in Utah to address a dependency problem related to drugs and alcohol.[76][77]
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