The us hot celebrity actress on movie "spirit"

Eva Mendes figured she was going to get fired from "The Spirit" before filming even began - once she noticed the prolonged underwater action scene in the script.

The 34-year-old Mendes was forced to divulge a secret she'd harbored for years: She can't swim.

She need not have worried. The movie (opening Christmas Day), after all, is a stylized comic book film where a CGI green screen was a stand-in for a brackish lake.

Eva Mendes

"Cut to me harnessed up 30 feet in the air, with wind machines blowing on me," said Mendes. "I felt ridiculous and I thought, 'How is this going to look?' But it looked great."

Looking great is something that comes naturally to Mendes, though she's frankly sick of getting roles that call for her to be little more than eye candy.

Eva Mendes

But the actress and Calvin Klein model (you'll remember her writhing on a bed, covered only by a sheet) has no problem baring her soul - and in this movie, her curvaceous backside - if the part is worth it.

That's why she leaped at the chance to play Sand Seref, a femme fatale whose tragic past propels her to become a jewel thief. And writer-director Frank Miller leaped at the chance to cast her.

Eva Mendes

"She has as classical beauty as I've ever encountered," said Miller. "And she could be from 10th century Athens or the '20s or the '40s. Her beauty is that eternal."

The film stars strong-jawed Bronx-born actor Gabriel Macht in the starring role, along with Samuel L. Jackson.

Eva Mendes

"One of the things that I'm proud of [about] this film, of the female characters that Frank has chosen to put out there," said Mendes, "is we're all empowered. We're all sexy and strong, there's no damsel-in-distress syndrome.

"And in a lot of comic book films that I even like and enjoy, there's always the weak female character that's just an accessory." Ethan Sacks

Eva Mendes