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Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling had a “non-verbal agreement” that she would quit acting to stay home and take care of their children, two daughters born in 2014 and 2016 — Esmeralda, 9, and Amada, 7.
“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,’” Mendes said on the “Today” show on Tuesday. The Hitch star said it was an easy decision to put her career on hold for the sake of her daughters.
Mendes Has Been MIA on the Acting Scene for a While
In fact, Mendes hasn’t acted in a film since 2014’s fantasy-thriller film Lost River. Her last official role came in 2021 as the voice of a Yoga Instructor on the children’s television series Bluey.
“I’m so lucky,” she said, to “have this time with [her] children.” Mendes also clarified that she hasn’t ditched her career entirely, it has just moved to the rearview for the time being. “I still worked, I just didn’t act because acting takes you on locations, it takes you away,” she shared.
Mendes said she “pretty much stopped acting” after she and Gosling co-starred in The Place Beyond the Pines. She said of working with Gosling: “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 can be, and that means making his co-stars as best as they can be.”
“But unfortunately — or fortunately — there is only one Ryan!’ she added.
But Ryan Gosling Hasn’t
However, Gosling, whom she’s been dating since 2011, can’t seem to keep himself out of the limelight for too long. The 43-year-old recently played Sebastian Wilder in La La Land, Officer K in Blade Runner 2049, and Ken in Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster Barbie — a role for which he won countless Best Supporting Actor awards.
Gosling also revealed that their daughters attended the dress rehearsal for his on-stage of “I’m Just Ken” at the 2024 Oscars. “It was great,” Gosling said at the SXSW festival. “It was so fun because they came to the dress rehearsal the day before and so they were in the front row. They gave me some tips and some notes, all great notes.”
His daughters also played a crucial part in convincing him to take the role in Gerwig’s bold and philosophical fantasy-comedy because of their “disinterest” in Ken. “It was my girls’ interest in Barbie and disinterest in Ken that got me into this in the first place. It was beautiful to have them there at the end.”