Eva Mendes hints she’ll only return to acting if it’s with husband Ryan Gosling

The couple starred together in ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ and ‘Lost River’

Eva Mendes has reflected on her decision to step away from acting, and hinted she’d only want to return to the screen if it was alongside her husband Ryan Gosling.

Mendes and Gosling first met when they played a couple in Derek Cianfrance’s 2012 crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines. They appeared together again in the 2014 fantasy thriller Lost River, which was written and directed by Gosling.

Mendes hasn’t starred in a film since then, although she has done vocal work in the children’s series Bluey.

Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling madea rare public outing together this summer at the Paris 2024 Olympics (NBC)

In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Mendes said: “I was never in love with acting. I don’t mean this in a self-deprecating way, but I wasn’t a great actress. I had my moments when I worked with really great people.”

She added that her two films with Gosling are the work she’s proudest of, explaining: “He gets something out of me that’s never been accessible before.”

Mendes went on to say that she felt she was often typecast throughout her 16-year acting career, and would likely only return to acting if Gosling were involved. “That’s the one thing I would love to do,” she said.

Ryan Gosling (and baby) with Eva Mendes in ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ (AP Photo/Focus Features)

Last month, Mendes told Good Morning America‘s George Stephanopoulos that she was undecided about getting back in front of the camera. “I don’t know,” she said. “If there – you know – if there’s interesting roles.”

Since moving away from acting, Mendes has written a children’s picture book, Desi, Mami, and the Never-Ending Worries, which aims to de-stigmatise anxiety experienced by children.

“It’s a buddy story about this little girl and her brain,” the Hitch actor said. “And Desi has these never-ending worries – I have them as well – and she, she tries to work with her brain to kind of like, you know, make sure it’s not being a bully to her by sending all these negative thoughts her way and that it’s being like a BFF to her. And so it’s about that relationship.”

Ryan Gosling wore a T-shirt promoting Eva Mendes’ children's book during press tour (YouTube / This Morning)

“I want to open up the dialogue and promote conversation,” Mendes added.

Mendes has also previously said she has felt “so lucky” to spend more time focusing on her two daughters, Esmerelda, 10, and Amada, eight, whom she shares with Gosling.

“It was like a no-brainer. I’m so lucky, and I was like, if I could have this time with my children. Because acting takes you on location, it keeps you away,” she said.

“It was almost just like a non-verbal agreement that it was like, ‘OK, he’s going to work and I’m going to work. I’m just going to work here,’” she explained. “He went and he did his job. He just happens to be really good at his job. And he did it and he came home.”