SCHENECTADY -- Move over, Ryan Gosling. This is Eva Mendes' city now.
As filming for "The Place Beyond the Pines" shifted Tuesday to a predominantly Hispanic section of Hamilton Hill, female and male fans alike cheered, shouted encouragement in Spanish, snapped cellphone photos and pleaded for autographs from the sultry Cuban-American actress and model.
"Eva! Eva!" Brenda Colon shouted to the star, who smoked a cigarette and swigged bottled water between takes on the porch of a pine-shrouded house on Watt Street. Filmmakers rented it for a pivotal scene in which Gosling's character confronts Mendes over the matter of her baby's paternity.
Mendes looked radiant in a crushed blue velour dress, straw-colored platform sandals and a partially upswept hairdo. Footwear made the 5-foot-6-inch actress look more like a 6-footer. Makeup and hair people shielded her from rain and sun with an umbrella.
The scene depicted Gosling riding up on his motocross dirt bike, walking up the steps to the house and having a confrontation at the front door as Mendes clutched her baby, while another woman and a man stood inside the house.
According to IMDb.com, the movie website, Gosling portrays a motorcycle stunt rider who turns to robbing banks to support an out-of-wedlock son, which leads to a run-in with the film's other star, Bradley Cooper, a cop who becomes a politician.
In Tuesday's scene, after exchanging words on the porch, Mendes walked away from Gosling with the baby and got into a red Bronco II with the man driving. Gosling was left to brood on the porch before getting back on his motorcycle and following.
With rippling biceps, a bleached blond haircut and tattooed arms, Gosling, has been the object of screaming female fans' obsession in scenes shot in Scotia and Niskayuna. This time, the women were all about Mendes.
"Oh, my God! She's so pretty," said Elisa Rojas. "She's really sweet and nice when she talks to us."
"And her Spanish is very good," Colon said.
The women from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba huddled in Sandra Martinez' apartment in Steinmetz Homes, no more than 100 feet from the actors doing multiple takes of the scene.
The women discussed their favorite Mendes films.
"I loved her in Training Day," Rojas said.
They leaned out the window and tried to get Mendes' attention between takes.
Mendes yelled back across the street in Spanish. She promised that she'd take snapshots and sign autographs when she finished.
"You've got to realize she's working," a production assistant told them.
When the cameras rolled, the women moved back from the window, ducking behind furniture and trying to stay out of the shot.
"I never believed something this could happen in this area," Martinez said.
Upstairs, her daughter Lymari Martinez, a sophomore at Schenectady High School, had a good vantage point.
"It's pretty exciting," the daughter said. "I never thought I'd watch them making a movie right here."
"This is cool. I wish they'd make more movies here," said her friend, Ashley Nichols, also a Schenectady High sophomore.
Glenda Quisada, a neighbor, showed off her video of the scene. Neighbor Jay Cruz kept his cellphone camera going, shaking his head at the magic of Hollywood.
"This is Schenectady, of all places," he said. "They're in Schenectady. I can't believe it. That's crazy."
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