Eva Mendes Gets Anti-Sexy for ‘Last Night’
With her exotic looks and bombshell body, Eva Mendes has convincingly played many a seductress. But for her turn in Last Night, which had its Tribeca Film Festival premiere on April 25, the actress said she went the opposite route.
“For this character, the reason I love it so much, is I sat down with the director Massy [Tadjedin] and we decided to go anti-type,” Mendes said at the Cinema Society and American Express-hosted screening of the film. In it, Mendes plays Laura, a coworker of Sam Worthington’s character Michael, who gives Michael’s wife Joanna (played by Keira Knightly) reason to be jealous when they take a business trip together.
But just because Mendes may be poised for husband-stealing, she says it’s not overt sex appeal that does it. “There are many scenes where I’m not wearing any makeup, and my hair is very boring in a low bun,” Mendes said. “And we didn’t go secretary sexy—because that’s super va-va-sexy. We just went working girl, [in the] office—non-sexy.”
That drabbed-down office girl was quite far from Mendes’ premiere style; the actress sported a scarlet Gucci dress with matching red lips and polished, movie-star waves. Equally glam was the premiere’s after-party at Avenue, which brought out the likes of Courtney Love, Rachel Roy, Gina Gershon, and Liev Schriber.
“You should never have to play sexy,” Mendes continued. “I wanted to take the vixen out of this character—because on paper, she’s a seductress. I had a lot of fun taking the sexiness out of her. She’s a real person.”
In related news, check out Mendes's campaign video for a European department store.