Eva Mendes on Stepping Away From Acting: ‘I Wasn’t a Great Actress’

Eva Mendes is finally getting candid about her decision to step back from acting.

“I was never in love with acting,” Mendes, 50, revealed in a Thursday, October 17, interview with London’s The Sunday Times. “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.”

Mendes noted that she’s proudest of the two films — 2012’s The Place Beyond the Pines and 2014’s Lost River — that she did with husband Ryan Gosling.

“He gets something out of me that’s never been accessible before,” Mendes gushed, adding that she would “love to do” another film with Gosling, 43.

In September, the actress emphasized how working with Gosling was a career high for her.

“He’s, like, the best,” she gushed on Good Morning America. “It was such a high of my career to work with him and what we created together that I was like, this is a good time to Seinfeld it and just walk out.”

Mendes began acting in the ’90s and went on to star in several successful films including 2001’s Training Day, 2003’s 2 Fast 2 Furious, 2005’s Hitch, 2007’s We Own the Night, 2010’s Last Night and 2010’s The Other Guys.

Mendes last film role was in Gosling’s directorial debut Lost River in 2014, the same year they welcomed their first child, daughter Esmeralda. (The twosome also share daughter Amada, born in 2016.)

Mendes has previously been open about her decision to step away from acting after she and Gosling decided to start a family.

“All those years are just so formative,” she told People in May. “I wanted to be there for all of it.”

Although Mendes hasn’t been acting, she still helps coach Gosling occasionally who has continued to star in numerous films including 2023’s Barbie, which earned him an Oscar nomination.

“I would just simplify everything,” Mendes shared to The Times on Thursday, referencing advice she gave to Gosling while filming Barbie. “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.”

Gosling, for his part, recently shared that Mendes had “become the best acting coach” he’d ever had.

“It’s endless how much she helps me,” he gushed to Extra in May, noting that there was one request that Mendes had for him when it came to filming dangerous stunts for his 2024 film The Fall Guy. “Don’t do fire. It was a request from my kids, too: ‘Do a stunt movie, but don’t get set on fire.’”