Eva Mendes Once Felt ‘We Own the Night’ Gave Her Indie Cred
Eva Mendes once opened up about what it was really like shooting the 2007 indie drama film ‘We Own the Night’.
Celebrity
Eva Mendes believed she became a different type of actor after starring in her first indie picture ‘We Own the Night’.
by Antonio Stallings
Published on January 14, 2025
Actor Eva Mendes became an A-lister thanks to projects like 2 Fast 2 Furious and Hitch. But she also featured in a couple of smaller projects as well. There was one independent film in particular that gave Mendes some serious credibility as an indie star.
Eva Mendes | Richard Lewis/WireImageMendes worked alongside filmmaker James Gray and Joaquin Phoenix for the first time in We Own the Night. Although she starred in a variety of movies, Mendes never had a prominent role in an indie before. Ironically, she initially turned down the film because the part she was offered lacked depth.
“I said to him, ‘You know I love this, but it’s a bit too ‘victimy’ for me. I’m kind of prancing around wearing cute clothes.’ But he was so adamant and said, ‘I promise you that I will make this better. Once I get you and Joaquin in and we work on developing the characters.’ And I said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’” Mendes once said according to Black Film.
However, she asserted that Gray wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“But then he came back to me a year later, and I thought: ‘This dude…there’s got to be something special about him if he’s pursuing me a year later.’ So I said yes, not totally convinced that I was making the right choice. I have to tell you though, hands down, that it’s my favorite experience. My deepest experience in my acting career. I’m thankful to him now,” she said.
The result of which was the first step towards her indie career.
“Now that was the film that gave me street cred, serious indie cred. And here I am,” she said in a resurfaced interview with Stylist.
Whereas her old work like Children of the Corn made her feel like a terrible actor, Mendes thought Gray’s film brought the best out of her.
Mendes might’ve made more money in bigger films. But she credited We Own the Night for showing audiences what she was capable of. She even felt it was a better showcase for her acting than Training Day, the film that stopped her from quitting acting.
“I’ve never worked at this level before,” she said about the movie according to Female. “Even though I’ve worked with amazing people I’ve never worked on something like this. I did a drama once. The first kind of thing that broke me out was Training Day, but I only had two scenes in that. Not to minimize that but it was on so much of a lesser scale. The movie wasn’t but my scenes were. I barely spoke in that one, even though it got me a lot of attention. I’ve never been pushed and challenged like this on a daily basis before.”
Mendes also hoped that We Own the Night would eventually afford her the opportunity to do the kind of art her contemporaries were known for.
“I hope that it allows people to think about me in ways that they haven’t been able to before. And I hope that I get more dramatic opportunities. Not just dramatic, I would love to do another romantic comedy. I’d love to do a musical. I love the whole gamut. But I want to be considered for things that Kate Winslet considered for – absolutely. I’m so in love with her. She is so amazing. I think she’s spectacular,” she said.
Speaking with Cinema, Mendes further gushed that the film helped her rediscover her love of acting.
“I was doing rehearsals with Joaquin and James and I was feeling something I’d never felt before and I don’t know, maybe it’s because it’s a drama and I found what I love, I’ve found my niche. We were rehearsing and it felt really good, maybe it was because there wasn’t a camera,” she said.
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