Eva Mendes Admits She Was 'Never in Love with Acting: 'I Wasn't a Great Actress' Before Stepping Away from It
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10/21/2024 10:29 AM
Eva Mendes has not acted in a movie since 2014's 'Lost River,' which her longtime partner Ryan Gosling wrote and directed
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Eva MendesMore than a decade after Eva Mendes last appeared onscreen, she's admitting she never felt a major passion for acting.
In a recent interview with U.K.'s The Times Mendes, 50, who lives in London with her partner Ryan Gosling and their two daughters, said she "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, while noting that she is most proud of the two movies she made with Gosling, 43. The pair costarred in 2012's The Place Beyond the Pines and she appeared in Gosling's 2014 directorial debut Lost River, her last film project.
"He gets something out of me that's never been accessible before," she told the outlet.
Mendes began acting in the 1990s and is credited with a role on ER in 1998, as well as two music videos, as her first onscreen appearances. Prior to The Place Beyond the Pines, she appeared in movies like A Night at the Roxbury, Training Day, Ghost Rider and The Other Guys, as well as two Fast and Furious movies.
In recent years, Mendes has made appearances as a voice actor on the children's animated series Bluey, though she has not yet returned to acting for the big (or small) screen.
Related: Eva Mendes 'Never Considered' Herself Beautiful but Says Ryan Gosling Makes Her Feel Sexy
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Eva Mendes on Sept. 18, 2024Mendes recalled that she was dealt "some pretty s----- roles" early in her career when she was typecast as a "one-dimensional beauty," as the outlet put it, and that her Cuban heritage was always at the forefront of casting decisions.
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"That's all they would say at the beginning — 'she's too ethnic for this, too ethnic for that,' " she said. "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."
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Eva Mendes on Sept. 13, 2018According to the outlet, Mendes would most likely return to acting if it were for a project that also starred her longtime partner. "That's the one thing I would love to do," she said, noting that she will sometimes serve as Gosling's acting coach on movies like Barbie.
"I would just simplify everything. 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," she said of giving input on his now-iconic Barbie performance. "I'd remind him, as he's literally walking out the door, 'Make Barbie notice you, make Barbie fall in love with you.' "
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