The Spirit interview

Comic book fans will need no introduction to The Spirit. Created by the legendary Will Eisner in the 1940s, The Spirit is part indestructible superhero, part detective, involved in a constant battle with super-villain The Octopus –and regularly surrounded by beautiful women.

Now The Spirit has been made into a full length feature film from Frank "300 / Sin City" Miller, starring relative newcomer Gabriel Macht as the titular hero, Samuel L Jackson as his nemesis and Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes. And it’s the latter three we’re in a London hotel room to see.

Mendes endears herself to the male reporters in seconds, stopping mid-sentence to announce, with a self-deprecating smile, that “wow, this dress is quite tight.” And it is. Mind you, it’s an appropriate look for someone playing Sand Saref, possibly the most fatal of femme fatales.

“It was kind of a no-brainer to me to be part of Frank Miller’s world,” explains Eva. “When else am I going to be able to play a woman who’s been married 14 times and pretty much killed all her husbands?”

She grins. “I don’t know if there’s something strange about me but that turns me on in a weird way...”

The Frank Miller connection also appealed to Scarlett Johansson as did the chance to work with Samuel L Jackson.

“I’ve always been a huge fan of Sam’s,” she reveals, “I love Sam, and I just wanted to meet Frank. I loved Sin City and 300 and I thought he would be an interesting… character. And he certainly was.”

Frank was also, as Scarlett and Samuel are quick to point out, a very supportive director who was open to the cast’s suggestions.

“Sam and I shared a hair and make-up trailer,” reveals Scarlett, “and amongst the eye-liner and other things we shared ideas and we’d come to the set, show it to Frank and Frank would say ‘yeah, I like that.’ He really was just so collaborative and supportive and enthusiastic about all of the ideas that we had.”