Eva Mendes was born in Houston, Texas on March 5, 1978. He parents are both Cubans, and contributed to an interesting childhood that saw Eva move to Miami and then Los Angeles, when she was still a young girl.

A fiercely independent actress who refuses to be pressed into a conventional mode or typecast, Eva Mendez was studying marketing in the late ‘90s when an agent stumbled across her photo while perusing Mendez’s neighbor’s portfolio. Eva Mendes kicked off her acting career in an Aerosmith music video. The 28-year-old resident of Los Angeles hadn’t considered acting as a career until two and a half years ago, and has never taken an acting class. As the classic Hollywood story goes, she was discovered because her neighbor, a photographer, had her photo in his portfolio and it caught the eye of an agent.

Dropping out of college soon after being randomly discovered by an agent, Mendez appeared in a few made-for-television productions and hammed it up with Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan in A Night at the Roxbury. She appeared in Exit Wounds, before being cast in a prominent role in Urban Legends: Final Cut.

It was soon after that Mendes had a career breakthrough co-starring with Denzel Washington in Training Day (and with Ethan Hawke). Since then, she's been a busy, sexy actress in a half-a-dozen movies, including 2 Fast 2 Furious (with Paul Walker), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (with Antonio Banderas and Johnny Depp) and Out of Time (also with Denzel Washington) and Stuck on You (with Matt Damon). She is now co-starring in Ghost Rider, which is the new superhero film based on the fictional Marvel Comics character, Ghost Rider. The film is directed by Mark Steven Johnson and stars Nicolas Cage as the Ghost Rider.

Mendes is also writing a children’s book, “Crazy Leggs Beshee.” Inspired by her nieces and nephews, and she hopes to introduce vocabulary, art, history and values through a medium kids understand.

Delaware County Magazine spoke to Eva during the Ghost Rider movie press junket.

Delaware County Magazine: How did Ghost Rider come your way?

Eva Mendes: This was something that was great and I’ve been wanting to work with Nicolas [Cage] for a while now. I do that. I kind of like look around and think about who I want to work with next as far as my wish list of actors, and Nicolas has been on that for awhile. So when I heard that this project was with him, I met with Mark [Steven Johnson]. I had obviously known Mark’s work and then I was like, ‘Okay, this is me.’ Then Mark and I met and I just fell in love with him. We totally get each other’s sense of humor.

We met at this restaurant and we were very polite to each other like you should be when you first meet someone and we look at the menu, and the first thing on the menu said Peekytoe Crab, and just the fact that he got it when I went, ‘What the hell is Peekytoe Crab?’ He looked at me and we had a twenty-minute laugh fest and I was like, ‘I don't care what this movie turns out to be. I want to do it with you.’ So we kind of had that from the start, and we had this agreement. I said, ‘I’m dying to work with you now and Nic, but don’t make me just the chick in the movie. Give her some obstacle, some kind of struggle.’ I play a tough reporter as well, so I wasn’t just some little girl who screams and runs or something, but Mark is amazing as a director.

DCM: So she’s not just a damsel in distress?

Mendes: She kind of is, but there is something kind of sexy about it, but that’s not all she is. There is something kind of sweet and innocent that we wanted to keep about that, but she wasn’t a victim. It’s kind of hard to see that in terms of how are you not a victim if you’re a damsel in distress. So we kind of played with that a bit. You always feel like she’s going to be okay without him, but that’s the thing – she’s going to be just okay without him. She’s not going to be great, just okay. She’s going to be so much better with him. So it was a little heart-breaking little story.

DCM: You’ve gone to a couple of Comic-Con’s as well now to hype Ghost Rider?

Mendes: Yes, I have.

DCM: Have you discovered your inner geek?

Mendes: I discovered that in the seventh grade. Are you kidding me? Totally! I love it when people are that passionate about something. I love seeing the people who dress their kids up. I think that it’s really cool.

DCM: You also see the thirty-year-olds dressed up.

Mendes: I know, I know! But when they look like a whole little family unit walking around as aliens, I think it’s so cute. It’s kind of like Halloween for grown-ups and Halloween is my favorite holiday. I go nuts for Halloween. So it’s kind of a way for adults to express themselves like kids again.

DCM: So are we going to see you dress up at the next Comic-Con?

Mendes: You know what, that’d be interesting. I think I will. I was a taco for Halloween. Talk about not having qualms about anything. I wore a taco suit that had lettuce going out that way. My head came out of the shell.

DCM: That’s quite a visual I’m thinking of! [Laughter] Ghost Rider also seems to have a strong Beauty and the Beast theme through it. How is it different from other films that portray that theme?

Mendes: Yeah. It’s just better! [Laughing] That’s it. It’s just better. No. How is it different? I think that because visually it’s so strong and so captivating and it’s such a pleasure for your eyes, and then to have that and then have a real romantic story going on as well – I think that’s hard to find with most movies today. I think that’s one of the reasons that Spider-Man did so well. We saw these out of control visuals and we’d never seen some of them ever before, and in Ghost Rider, you haven’t seen some of the effects before, but there’s a really strong love story in it as well. Everything that Johnny Blaze [Ghost Rider] did was for my character, and this movie is very much like that.

DCM: Is there real danger for her, not just with the bad guys, but with Johnny Blaze himself?

Mendes: Absolutely, that’s the thing. It’s kind of like you sleep with the devil. You know the saying. I don’t want to have to say it. It’s just kind of like that, and I think that a lot of women, and men too, but I can’t speak for you guys – we all have problems in our relationships. There are obstacles and this is kind of a major obstacle. Usually you have to just overcome them. This one is like, ‘How do you overcome this?’ It’s a tough one.

DCM: Have you always been a fan of biker guys, and are you a biker chick?

Mendes: No. I'm not a biker chick, but I’d love to play one [Laughs]. I like an edge with my guys. So if it’s a bike, then great. I think it’d be fun to date one, but it wouldn’t be fun to settle down with one because then I would be a worried wreck every night with, ‘Call me as soon as you get there!’ It’s so dangerous. So the dating aspect of a biker guy is a fun idea.

DCM: Do you like the “bad boy” image? A lot of women seem to be attracted to it...

Mendes: No. I like good boys that are sometimes bad. I got that down. I know exactly what I like. I’ve always known. I really do at the end of the day like a sweet, good, strong man, but I do like a little edge.

DCM: What are your favorite comic books?

Mendes: Ghost Rider! You know what, I really don’t know. I would just say more comic book characters because I’m not that familiar with comic books. So I would say Ghost Rider, and I just love the idea of Spider-Man, which is funny because I'm totally scared of spiders, but I think that it’d be cool if one of them bit me and then no one could ever touch me again, and I could be like, ‘I rule the world!’ Is that weird? Am I weird? So, yeah, I just like the themes, I love good versus evil. I obviously love good prevailing over evil. So this is really exciting to me.

DCM: [Laughter] Did you go back and look at the Ghost Rider comics?

Mendes: I did actually. I looked back and Roxanne Simpson is obviously very different from me. I was like, ‘So…she’s blonde and Caucasian, blue-eyed, and not me.’ But I hope that the comic book fans don’t reject that. I hope that they accept me for another version of Roxanne. So what I did realize what I could do was that – I swear this is so silly of me, but hopefully it works – I realized she was very, very voluptuous in all the comic books. She had massive boobage and hips, and I was like, ‘Okay, why don’t I not watch what I eat as much and let the fun stuff grow.’ So I let the fun stuff grow because at least that way I could give them the voluptuous part. Hopefully they won’t be disappointed. [Laughing]

DCM: Well, comic artwork is sometimes over drawn since it is catered more to male readers than female ones. What about working with the FX, were there times when you working opposite nothing or a tennis ball on a stick?

Mendes: Totally. You know what...at first you just feel like an idiot to be honest. You feel like a moron because there is nothing there, and you’re like, ‘Okay, what do I do.’ That’s where acting class comes in and I study religiously with my coach and that’s where that comes into play. I have to go into myself even more so than before. Having Nicolas in front of me is fantastic, and I get to work off of so much, but when you’re there on your own you’re like, ‘Boy, I need to bring out some issues.’

You kind of bring out certain things that you’re really scared of and that you’re really dealing with. So you have to go really deep. It’s cool, but it’s difficult. I definitely like working with actors, but this is part of the job. What’s really exciting is when you see it all together and you go, ‘Oh, my God…that is so great! It’s so cool. It’s a burning beast in front of me and I’m getting taken away.’ So it all comes together in the end.

DCM: Going back to the voluptuous thing, was it fun to relax and not worry about the Hollywood shape?

Mendes: It was so awesome, dude. It’s not like I let myself go. It wasn’t like I was gaining weight for a role like I was stuffing my face or something. It was more just like, ‘Yeah. I’ll have that second serving. I’m tired. I’m not going to the gym today.’

DCM: Did you feel sexier?

Mendes: I actually did believe it or not because my bajungas were bigger. That’s the technical term, but yeah, it was really nice. It was like, ‘Wow, this is cool.’ It helped me to get into character. Let’s say that. The Cuban side of me came out. It’s the side of me that’s dying to come out, it’s like, ‘Let me out! Come on, please.’ I’m like, ‘No! You stay in there you Cuban lady.’

DCM: Aside from your physical transformation you play a reporter in the movie…Did you model your character on any real reporters?

Mendes: I wouldn’t call it a physical transformation. I love the way you put it though. I did a little bit of research, but you actually see me in two scenes being a field reporter. The first scene I have is when I first see Johnny Blaze for the first time in twelve years or something. So that was kind of like everything going out the window because I kept trying to hold it together and keep professional. But the man you love is right in front of you and you’re talking to him in an interview for the first time. So the years of any journalism and the experience in field reporting didn’t really pay off in that moment.

So you don’t really see that too much. The only thing that I was really worried about was my voice because I’m very up and down and up and down. I can sometimes get whinny, which I really hate. So I was careful when I did those couple of scenes to keep my voice very strong and not to go up and down. Honestly though there wasn’t that much focus on that. So we were more concentrating on playing the human part of her because the second time we see her in that situation she’s again – it’s after he stands her up. So it’s more emotional and I play more than just this woman who is totally in love and frustrated. She’s like, ‘Why has this happened to me again? Why can’t I be with the guy that I love?’

DCM: How is Mark [Steven Johnson] as an action director compared to [Robert] Rodriguez and [John] Singleton?

Mendes: Oh, my God, they’re all kind of similar especially in the sense that they’re all little boys, which is really cool to see. It’s fun to see these grown men become little boys and play around. But Mark, he and I are so similar. He would say something and I would just get it. He wouldn’t come up to me and I would get it. We were just so on the same wavelength.

DCM: Would you come back for a sequel? What do you hope happens with Ghost Rider? What are your aspirations for it?

Mendes: With these guys? Absolutely! I hope it’s a successful film. I think it’s really good and the special effects are incredible since they really took their time doing them to make sure they looked great. I think it will be great superhero film and be right up there with all the others that have been done.