For years, Eva Mendes' strengths as an actress have gone under the radar with the thespian constantly misused in studio projects. However, the actress has started to turn her career around in the last year. Mendes received rave reviews for her turn in Leos Carax's "Holy Motors." She will continue to showcase her brilliant performance skills in the upcoming "The Place Beyond the Pines."
In the film, Mendes stars as Romina, a young woman who has had a child after a one-night stand with motorcycle stuntman Luke (Ryan Gosling). Luke, who works with a touring circus, returns a year later to find out about the child and sets out on a quest to win back Romina and his son. Luke's insistence creates a serious issue for Romina, as she is living with Kofi (Mahershala Ali), a hard working man that has promised to provide for her child Jason.
During a press junket in New York a few weeks ago, Mendes told Latinos Post and other media outlets that one of the major issues she had with approaching the role was in understanding why a woman would want to leave an honest man like Kofi for an unpredictable and unreliable one like Luke. In order to sort out Romina's psychology, Mendes revealed that she invited all the woman and mothers in her life to discuss the scenario at her home. During the course of the conversation she made an unusual discovery as most women concluded that "There's a primal pull to the biological father no matter how unfit he might be and you do everything you can to make it work."
(MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD)
The ensuing death of Luke wears down Romina and when the film fast-forwards 15 years, she is disheveled and broken down. Mendes revealed that in order to create the aging affect she chose to stay away from prosthetics and implemented her own techniques, including shaving down her eyebrows a bit. "I don't really recommend it for an everyday look. But when you want to change your face a bit and look a little insane it actually works," she explained.
Mendes also had a great deal of input on Romina's wardrobe, which included ripped jean shorts that she used to wear back in 1992. "I wanted her to be as raw as could be," she added. "This is a woman who is on survival mode and who's really bare bones."
Mendes revealed that a great deal of that liberty was attributed to Director Derek Cianfrance who she called "my dream director. I love how this man works. I can't get enough of it," she declared.
Mendes divulged that the relationship with Cianfrance got off to a tremendous start when she went to audition with him. Instead of a traditional process in which the actor simply performs a scene for the director, Mendes and Cianfrance took a drive through Los Angeles where the actress showed the director how her childhood paralleled the life of Romina. "[Cianfrance] wants as much personal [stuff] as you can infuse the character with," she stated.
As much as she enjoyed working with Cianfrance, Mendes noted that she hated filming the love scenes. In this film, she shares one such moment with Ryan Gosling. "Love scenes are terrible and I've really managed throughout career to skip through them," she revealed. Even she conceded to doing the scene in "Pines," Mendes disclosed that she has had directors cut out sex scenes in other films if she felt that they were gratuitous.
After "Pines," Mendes will be seen in the TV Movie "Clear History" which is directed by Greg Mottola. Mendes explained that the entire film was improvised and shot like "Curve your Enthusiasm."
"The Place Beyond the Pine" arrives in theaters on Friday, March 29, 2013.
Read what Ryan Gosling had to say about the film HERE.
Read Latinos Post's review of the film HERE.
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