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Mendes accepts 'Hispanic role'
02/01/2007 11:30 - (SA)
Hong Kong - Actress Eva Mendes says she first resisted a part in an upcoming movie also featuring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix and Robert Duvall because it was too stereotypical, but finally relented when the director agreed to adjust her role.
The Cuban-American actress said in an interview in the January issue of Prestige Hong Kong magazine that she rejected the role in We Own the Night for six months before agreeing to it.
"I really wanted to work with those people, but on paper my character was a very stereotypical girlfriend role - Puerto Rican with a little attitude," Mendes was quoted as saying.
"Even though it is a great script, at first I was like, I can't do it. There is no point," she said.
Mendes said director James Gray changed her mind by modifying her character.
"He said he promised we would collaborate and he wanted me for the part. He saw something in me he wanted and said absolutely he did not want me to be the stereotypical part, he wanted me to be vulnerable," she said.
The actress said she benefited greatly from the role, saying, "it helped me grow so much as an actress."
Mendes also denied reports that Hollywood's Hispanic actresses are all close friends.
She said she's met Eva Longoria and Jessica Alba but doesn't spend much time with them, adding, however, she's "good friends" with Penelope Cruz.
Mendes, whose parents emigrated to the US before the Cuban revolution that put Fidel Castro in power on January 1 1959, said she wants to visit Cuba.
"I do want to go back but I haven't been mature enough. But I feel I'm finally getting to that place where I can handle it. I have to be mentally prepared for it. It is heavy," she was quoted as saying.
- AP
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South Africa
