<p id=”par-1_52″>When <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/marvel/”>Marvel</a> superhero Ghost Rider got his own movie, <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/eva-mendes-kids-unimpressed-performance-hitch.html/”><em>Hitch </em>star Eva Mendes</a> was tapped to play his love interest. But she realized she didn’t look all that similar to her character in the comics. Hoping to give fans what they wanted, however, Mendes found one way to resemble her Marvel counterpart.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-eva-mendes-made-the-fun-stuff-grow-to-play-roxanne-simpson-in-ghost-rider”>Eva Mendes made the ‘fun stuff’ grow to play Roxanne Simpson in ‘Ghost Rider’</h2>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/ghost-rider-eva-mendes.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”Eva Mendes posing at New York And Company Spring 2014 Collection while wearing a black and white spotted dress.” class=”wp-image-3745511″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Eva Mendes | Michael Tran/FilmMagic</figcaption></figure>
<p id=”par-2_88″><em>Ghost Rider </em>was Mendes’ first and so far only movie in the superhero genre. She starred alongside <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/nicolas-cages-stage-name-comes-from-both-marvel-superhero-composer.html/”>comic book fan Nicolas Cage</a>, who played the daredevil turned supernatural vigilante Ghost Rider in the feature. Mendes asserted that she was drawn to the project both because of Cage and the film’s director Mark Steven Johnson. Although she was familiar with comic book lore, it was her interaction with Johnson that sold her on the project. Still, Mendes hoped Johnson was at least open to her requests for her character.</p>
<p id=”par-3_63″>“So we kind of had that from the start, and we had this agreement,” Mendes told <a href=”https://collider.com/frosty-interviews-eva-mendes-at-the-ghost-rider-hollywood-cemetery-event/”>Collider</a>. “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 struggle.’ Obviously, I play a reporter as well and so I wasn’t just some little girl, but Mark is amazing.”</p>
<p id=”par-4_28″>At the time, Mendes was also very mindful about her character’s fans. When she researched the source material, Mendes noticed that she and Roxanne weren’t exactly physical matches.</p>
<figure class=”wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio” id=”emb-2″><div class=”wp-block-embed__wrapper”>
<iframe title=”Ghost Rider – How a Stuntman Asks for a Date Scene (3/10) | Movieclips” width=”925″ height=”520″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/tyyPSnHcthg?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>
<p id=”par-5_48″>“I looked back and Roxanne Simpson is obviously very different from me. I was like, ‘So, she’s blonde and Caucasian, blue eyed, 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,” she said.</p>
<p id=”par-6_20″>But there were a few physical features that Mendes was willing to change to look more like Marvel comics’ Roxanne.</p>
<p id=”par-7_88″>“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,” Mendes said. “She had massive boobage and hips, and I was like, ‘Okay, why don’t I not watch what I eat so 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.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-how-eva-mendes-ended-up-changing-the-script-to-ghost-rider”>How Eva Mendes ended up changing the script to ‘Ghost Rider’</h2>
<figure class=”wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio” id=”emb-3″><div class=”wp-block-embed__wrapper”>
<iframe title=”‘Ghost Rider’ | Unscripted | Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes” width=”925″ height=”520″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/d7dQNbgUqk8?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>
<div class=”related-article related-article–simple”>
<span class=”related-article-flag”>Related</span>
<p class=”related-article__title”>
<a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/ryan-gosling-eva-mendes-kids-keeping-together-tough-move-source-says.html/”>
Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes’ Kids Are ‘Keeping Them Together’ After Tough Move, Source Says </a>
</p>
</div>
<p id=”par-8_26″>Mendes was satisfied with <em>Ghost Rider</em>’s interpretation of Roxanne to an extent. Admittedly, <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/eva-mendes-almost-killed-will-ferrell-guys-prop-mix.html/”><em>The Other Guys </em>actor</a> revealed that her role still maintained certain damsel-in-distress qualities.</p>
<p id=”par-9_121″>“She kind of is which there is something kind of sexy about, but that’s not all she is,” Mendes said. “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 kind of a little heartbreaking little story.”</p>
<p id=”par-10_39″>Mendes also helped change the film’s script a bit to accommodate her tastes. There’s a scene where Mendes gets to be somewhat of an action hero on her own, which wasn’t in the original script when she read it.</p>
<p id=”par-11_37″>“Mark added that for me,” she once said according to <a href=”https://www.blackfilm.com/20070209/features/cagemendes.shtml”>Black Film</a>. “He probably just felt bad because I had major superhero envy the entire shoot. I was like, ‘I want my head to be on fire.’”</p>