Eva as Amada Juarez Credit: Columbia

She's that gorgeous, hot Latina that every guy dreams about but girls don't hate her 'cause she's beautiful. Eva Mendes is warm, self-deprecating, straightforward and you feel that she would make a great BFF. Eva was in 2 Fast 2 Furious, co-starred with Will Smith in Hitch, She was Nic Cage's gal in Ghost Rider and will be a femme lead in the upcoming superhero actioner The Spirit. Now you can catch a very dramatic Eva acting opposite volatile Joaquin Phoenix as a disco diva with a heart of gold in the crime thriller We Own the Night.

Eva, all sparkly in a retro-look three quarter-sleeved Marc Jacobs dress with a silver disc pattern, very high heels and some cute, flashy hoop earrings, met with us in Beverly Hills where we got the inside scoop on working with cute Joaquin, playing her first very serious dramatic role, being Latina in Hollywood and working to launch her own projects.

Warning: We Own the Night is R-rated for the usual; sex, language and violence.

TeenHollywood: How did you sign up for this project? It seems a bit different for you.