Ryan Gosling Turns 44! All the Ways He and Eva Mendes Have Supported Each Other Over the Years

11/12/2024 05:03 PM

"The way my man looks at me is just … at times I'm like, oh my God," Eva Mendes said of Ryan Gosling in an October interview

Happy birthday, Ken — wait, no — Ryan Gosling!

Three-time Academy Award nominee Gosling marks his 44th birthday on Tuesday, Nov. 12, capping off a year in which he sang "I'm Just Ken" at the 96th Oscars in March and costarred with Emily Blunt in The Fall Guy.

Gosling, who shares daughters Esmeralda, 10, and Amada, 8, with his longtime partner Eva Mendes, tends to stay out of the spotlight when he is not pulling off impressive stunts or dancing his way through movies like Barbie and La La Land. Here are some insights into how Gosling and Mendes, 50, support each other more than 12 years after the couple first costarred in 2012's ThePlace Beyond the Pines.

First and foremost, Gosling maintains an exalted status as Mendes' biggest cheerleader; when the actor spoke with Extra in May about Mendes being featured in PEOPLE's 2024 Beautiful Issue, he said, "It should just be her in the issue, basically, but I understand they have to have other people in there."

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In that interview, Gosling also noted that Mendes' decision to step away from acting after 2014's Lost River — which Gosling wrote and directed — helps the couple balance their work commitments with parenting responsibilities. "She is with the girls, and when she works, I stay home with the girls too," he told Extra at the time. "I couldn't be here without her."

In Mendes' interview for PEOPLE's Beautiful Issue in May, she gave rare insight into the couple's home life when she said Gosling cooks and she cleans. "I'm not going to tell you that but in all the ways I need to be supported," she said, when asked how Gosling supports her. "He's got me in all the ways."

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Mendes complimented how Gosling boosts her sensuality and self-confidence while speaking with UK newspaper The Times on Oct. 17. "I feel really f------ sexy at times," she said at the time. "The way my man looks at me is just … at times I'm like, oh my God. That might not sit well with people, but so much of how I feel is a reflection of what he's giving me."

Related: Eva Mendes Is Embracing Aging — and a Bigger Phone Font Size: 'Paranoid People Can Read My Texts to Ryan' (Exclusive)

"There's so many things that can make me feel sexy and I'd say that I feel more sexy than not," she added in that interview. "I guess because I've never considered myself beautiful, but I've always felt very sexy."

Additionally, both Gosling and Mendes have noted that she puts in work as Gosling's acting coach for his onscreen roles in recent months. "He gets something out of me that's never been accessible before," Mendes told The Times of acting with Gosling in that same October interview. She also hinted in that piece that she would most likely return to the screen in order to work with the Drive star.

"That's the one thing I would love to do," she said.