Eva Mendes reveals why she stopped acting after having children with Ryan Gosling

Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling share two daughters together

Eva Mendes has spoken out about why she stopped acting.

During an episode of Today, which aired on 26 March, Mendes spoke candidly about her longtime relationship with Gosling, whom she met shortly before they both starred in the hit 2012 film, The Place Beyond the Pines. According to the actor, after she and Gosling welcomed their two daughters – Esmeralda, nine, and Amada, seven – she knew it was the right decision to take a step back from Hollywood.

“It was like a no-brainer. I’m so lucky, and I was like, ‘If I could have this time with my children,’” she said, before noting that she still works, she just “didn’t act” anymore.

“Because acting takes you on location, it keeps you away,” the Hitch star added.

Mendes acknowledged that she and her husband both have careers, noting that her work-from-home schedule allows Gosling to act.

“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.”

She continued to discuss Gosling’s work strategy, with a reference to how she shared a post on Instagram telling him to “come home” and help “put the kids to bed”, after he attended and performed at the 2024 Oscars earlier this month.

“Because that’s what it’s about, you go, you do your job, the best you can, and then you come home,” Mendes reiterated while discussing her Instagram post after the Oscars.

This isn’t the first time that Mendes has opened up about her nearly 10-year absence from the entertainment industry. During an appearance on The View in June 2022, she first acknowledged that she still has a career that doesn’t consist of acting.

“I was still working; I just wasn’t acting ‘cause, as you know, acting can take up a lot of time,” Mendes said, adding: “So I took some time off from film.”

At the time, she noted that while she was open to returning to acting, there are certain projects that she would avoid since she was now a mother of two.

“I have such a shortlist of what I will do. Like, before kids, I was kinda up for anything, you know, if it was a fun project,” The Other Guys star explained. “But now I won’t do violence. I don’t want to do sexuality. The list is short.”

During her recent appearance on Today, Mendes reflected on first working with Gosling in 2011 and gushed over his skills as an actor.

“I have never experienced anything like that. The way he works, his commitment to his craft, how he wants to make everything as best as it could be, and that means making his co-stars as best as they could be,” she said. “But, unfortunately, or fortunately, there is only one Ryan. So I pretty much stopped just acting after that.”

In addition to her and the La La Land star’s careers, Mendes also opened up about their home lives. During an interview with Today.com, she discussed her children’s bedtime routine, noting that one of her daughters told her that “‘Nighttime Mama’ is kind of different”.

“‘Well, Nighttime Mama, you just have to chill your life down at night,’” she said, recalling what her daughter told her. “I was dying because I was like, ‘I do have to chill my life down at night.’”

Mendes also described some of the challenges she faces before her children’s nighttime routine, which she said takes around two hours.

“You want to get all the things done and lined up so they’re in bed at that time, so that you can have a life, but also so they can get their hours of sleep,” she explained.