Eva Mendes speaks in French to her dog.

The 38-year-old actress worries people will think she is "pretentious" when she communicates with her beloved pooch Hugo, who is a Belgian Malinois breed, in the European language but she insists he can't understand English commands.

Eva - who was born in Miami to Cuban parents and raised in Los Angeles - said: "He's Belgian and all his commands are in French. I go hiking and I sound incredibly pretentious because I'm not French but I'm yelling in French. He is the love of my life." 

The 'Hitch' actress loves throwing herself into her work but refuses to discuss what her future plans are because she feels it "devalues" her work.

She told website WWD: "I feel like when you share those things, you devalue them in a way, especially in an industry where everyone's talking about the next project. I prefer to talk about the concrete." 

Eva can next be seen starring in 'See If I Care' alongside Patricia Arquette and admits she loves playing "flawed" characters.

Speaking of the film, she said: "I play a struggling mom who is a total mess-up. I'm constantly in search of playing flawed characters. I prefer playing them - everyone is flawed, everyone is human."