Eva Mendes Opens Up About Her Decision to Leave Hollywood: Would Ryan Gosling Bring Her Back?

A Career of Fifty Flavors

With nearly a decade having passed since she largely stepped away from Hollywood, Eva Mendes is sharing her thoughts on her decision to leave the industry, and the one star who could potentially bring her back to the big screen.

Mendez, now 50, is best known for her roles in Oscar-winning drama Training Day, romantic comedy Hitch, and action-comedy The Other Guys. Speaking with the UK Times, she revealed, “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.”

Tying Stereotypes

Mendez’s Cuban American identity often led to being typecast in one-dimensional characters. “There were some pretty shitty roles,” she recalled. “That’s all they would say at the beginning—’she’s too ethnic for this, too ethnic for that.’ It was so crazy. That was the constant note. Then, at some point, it switched to, ‘Oh, ethnic is cool now’ or, ‘Being Latina is cool.’ It gave me energy because it would make me so mad and then I’d get that fuel that I needed.”

Landing in Love and Motherhood

While working on 2012’s crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines, Mendes met her costar, Ryan Gosling, with whom she later welcomed two daughters—10-year-old Esmeralda and eight-year-old Amada. Mendes’s final onscreen role (aside from a voice-acting credit on a 2021 episode of kids program Bluey) came as a supporting player in Gosling’s 2014 directorial debut, Lost River. When asked about professionally reuniting with her real-life partner, Mendes said, “That’s the one thing I would love to do. He gets something out of me that’s never been accessible before.”

A Growing Family and New Pursuits

Back in March, Mendes revealed to Today that leaving acting “was like a no-brainer,” adding, “I’m so lucky if I could have this time with my children. Acting takes you on location. It takes you away.” Instead, she has devoted herself to projects in the fashion and beauty spaces, and recently wrote a children’s book. She’s also advised Gosling on his acting career, offering insight into Barbie, the 2023 film that earned him an Oscar nomination. “I would just simplify everything,” Mendes said. “I’m like, ‘Just make Barbie notice you, that’s what Ken is all about.’ So then there was this desperation. He really loved that.”

Eva’s Coaching Style

For his part, Gosling has said that he cherry-picks roles with the input of Mendes. “I don’t really take roles that are going to put me in some kind of dark place,” he told The Wall Street Journal in May, adding that he selects roles by “trying to read the room at home and feel like what is going to be best for all of us…. The decisions I make, I make them with Eva, and we make them with our family in mind first.”

Conclusion:
Eva Mendes has left Hollywood and is focusing on her personal life, family, and other projects. Her experiences have shaped her perspectives on identity, stereotypes, and the importance of family.

FAQs:
– What motivated Eva Mendes to leave Hollywood?
– She wasn’t in love with acting and wanted to prioritize her family and personal life.
– How does she feel about her acting career?
– She doesn’t consider herself a great actress and has mixed feelings about her experience.
– Is she open to returning to acting?
– She’s open to it, especially if her partner, Ryan Gosling, could be involved.