If her role in The Spirit is any indication, Eva Mendes must’ve really liked playing dress-up as a little girl. Somehow though, I don’t think it was to play the part of a princess.

“The fun part for me was definitely putting on the glamour and wearing the clothes,” claimed the Cuban-American beauty recently while promoting the film. “(But) the core of this woman was pain.”

Portraying sexy thief Sand Saref in The Spirit took more than just being glamorous. Mendes (Ghost Rider, Hitch) cites her character’s origin, pointing out that Saref may have an unparalleled passion for diamonds, but like the jewel itself, her character has a rocky past.

“Once I found that foundation, then it made me realize where she was coming from so I could go big and I could be as ridiculous as I wanted to be whether it was in hairstyle or action or in wardrobe.”

Based on a popular wartime comic strip by Will Eisner, The Spirit is not only about a powerful masked crime-fighter but he’s surrounded by a company of irresistibly strong femme fatales. 

As co-star Scarlett Johansson once put it, “Eisner was writing these great female characters at a time when people put women in a domesticated kind of box.”

“What I loved about this was just that my character was created in the 1940’s so I had this real dame-broad kind of appeal,” said Mendes.  “She was just so over the top and fantastical and she has some of the best lines in the movie —‘Shut up and bleed’ being one of my favorites.”

While she definitely has some of the catchiest dialogue in the flick, she’s also arguably its sexiest character. 

In one eye-catching scene, she’s able to avoid arrest when she drops her robe — shocking The Spirit and moviegoers with a revealing backside.

“The point is my character uses everything she has as a woman to get what she wants,” admitted Mendes.

“If there were no brains behind the body I would have major qualms with it. This girl’s kick ass in every way and she’s such a smart dame that part of getting what she wants is turning up the sex.”