ADAMANT EVE RAPPER BRINGS HER OWN STYLE TO 'BARBERSHOP 2'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

Though rapper turned multimedia star Eve has a reputation for being as tough as her ``Barbershop'' character Terri, in person the petite blond performer with the paw-print tattooed decolletage is as sweet as she can be.

``I've definitely been through calming myself down,'' admits the 25- year-old Philadelphian, whose full name is Eve Jeffers. ``Terri's feisty, I can be feisty. Especially when my first album came out. ... There are certain things you don't know, certain things you just do. But as you get older, you say, 'OK, I need to bring it down a little bit.' ''

Besides, at this stage Eve needs all her energy just to keep up with her professional commitments. Not only is she back in the new ``Barbershop 2: Back in Business'' - which topped the box-office charts when it opened last weekend - she plays a key role in ``The Woodsman,'' a controversial indie feature that recently won great acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival. There's also another movie, ``The Cookout,'' in the works, as well as a new, Dr. Dre-produced album she plans to record in the summer.

And her self-titled sitcom is UPN's highest-rated series. And she has her own clothing line.

``It's hard,'' admits Eve, who got her show-biz start as the only female member of the Ruff Ryders hip-hop collective. ``There are days when I'm like, 'Oh God, I'm ready to run away.' But I have an idea in my head of the kind of life that I want and the things that I need in my life. And I have to keep working, but I have a great team of people. I could never do it by myself.''

Doing it with what is essentially a boys' club, like the ``Barbershop'' crew, just comes naturally anyway.

``It's cool,'' Eve says. ``Ever since I was little, I've been one of those girls who's been a tomboy and always around guys, and I like it. That's what I like about Terri. She's in this shop with all these guys, but it doesn't matter. She can hold her own, and she doesn't care.''

Acting came about with an invitation to be in the first ``Barbershop.'' Eve, who takes lessons in the craft, has shown an impressively wide range in the few years that she's been practicing. In ``Woodsman,'' for example, she trades in her usual comic spitfire persona for a woman who discovers that the new guy at work is a paroled child molester.

Still, she says of acting, ``Coming from music, it's an adjustment. The early mornings are an adjustment, and especially now that I'm acting on a TV show, the monotony of going to the same place, seeing the same people every single day, that was an adjustment for me, too. But as far as acting goes for me overall, I love acting. I love it because it's just a different artistic outlet. It takes me away from my music, but it makes me excited to go back to my music. So, I like the different worlds.''

According to some, though, her main potential lies on the big screen.

``Eve is destined to be a movie star,'' says ``Back in Business'' director Kevin Rodney Sullivan. ``The camera doesn't take your picture, it reads your soul, and she's got movie-star soul. She's somebody we want to watch. And directing her is like watching a flower blooming over and over again. Every day she comes in with some new little thing, but you know something spectacular is going to happen. I have great expectations for her.

``And I really grew to like her personally,'' he adds.

See? She must really be nice. But don't mistake that for a dial-down of feisty ambition.

``I want a movie production company,'' Eve says. ``I'd like to maybe get into writing if I could concentrate on that long enough. And I want to be a mother and a wife. So, there are lots of things that I want to do.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Besides music and movies, Eve's career plate also includes her UPN sitcom and a clothing line.

Chris Pizzello/WireImage.com

(2) Both on and off the set, the 25-year-old Eve is accustomed to hanging with the boys, who include ``Barbershop 2'' co-star Sean Patrick Thomas.