Eva Mendes as Sand Saref – The Spirit

The Spirit Movie Poster

Eva Mendes as Sand Saref The Spirit’s childhood sweetheart, who perennially seduces and marries wealthy men, has them killed, and uses their money to fund criminal exploits in a constant pursuit of a life of the highest luxury and influence over the criminal underworld. She is also a tragic anti-heroine, with her policeman father accidentally murdered, causing her to have a hatred of police and Central City, and break up with aspiring cop Denny Colt. The Spirit

An exclusive clip for The Spirit entitled “Common Criminal” courtesy of Black Film.

Adapted from the legendary graphic novels, Will Eisner’s The Spirit is a classic action-adventure-romance told by genre-twister Frank Miller (creator of 300 and Sin City). It is the story of a former rookie-cop who returns mysteriously from the dead as The Spirit (Gabriel Macht) to fight crime from the shadows of Central City. His arch-enemy, The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson) has a different mission: he’s going to wipe out Spirit’s beloved city as he pursues his own version of immortality. The Spirit tracks this cold-hearted killer from Central City’s rundown warehouses, to the damp catacombs, to the windswept waterfront … all the while facing a bevy of beautiful women who either want to seduce, love or kill our masked crusader. Surrounding him at every turn are Ellen Dolan, the whip-smart girl-next-door; Sand Saref (Eva Mendes), the jewel thief with dangerous curves; Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson), a punk secretary and frigid vixen; Plaster of Paris, a murderous French nightclub dancer; Lorelai, a phantom siren; and Morganstern, a sexy young cop. In the vein of Batman Begins and Sin City, The Spirit takes us on a sinister, gut-wrenching ride with a hero who is born, murdered and born again.

Eva Mendes was born in Miami, Florida to Cuban parents and was raised in Los Angeles by her mother after her parents’ divorce; Mendes has said that her mother “suffered so much to make my life OK” during her early years. Her father was a car salesman and her mother, also named Eva, is now an elementary school principal. She is the youngest of four children (she has two sisters and a brother). Eva Mendes was raised Roman Catholic and aspired to be a nun. As a child, Mendes was teased about her “buck teeth”.
Eva Mendes never saw herself as an actress while she was young and decided to pursue other interests. She attended Hoover High School in Glendale and later attended California State University, Northridge to study marketing, but dropped out after wanting to begin an acting career. She studied with Ivana Chubbuck.