Alarm bells went off when Eva Mendes was MIA during Ryan Gosling’s big night at last month’s Oscars. Fans were confused and worried that something was up between the Hitch star and her husband.
It’s not the first time Mendes, 50, has missed her man receiving recognition for his work on the big screen. Yet, that’s just how the super-private celebrity couple like it. To Mendes, the actor, 43, does his best work at home, when he’s with her and their daughters Esmeralda, 9, and Amada, 7. It’s also where Mendes thrives.
On the US Today show, she said leaving her life as an actress behind to focus on being a mum was a “no brainer”.
“I’m so lucky,” she insisted. “If I can have this time with my children – and I still work, I just didn’t act, because acting takes you on locations, it takes you away,” she explained, 13 years after she and Gosling met on the set of their crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines. “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.’”
It’s an admission that should silence their critics.
It’s easy to forget that Gosling, too, stepped away from the industry – from 2018 to 2021 – to spend time with his girls. It also allowed Mendes time to explore the business realm. Now, she’s an owner of Skura Style, a cleaning products company.
Gosling himself has publicly acknowledged his wife’s sacrifices. When he was awarded the Best Actor gong at the 2017 Golden Globes for La La Land, he used his acceptance speech to pay tribute.
“I’d just like to try and thank one person properly, and to say that while I was singing and dancing and playing piano and having one of the best experiences I’ve ever had on a film, my lady was raising our daughter, pregnant with our second, and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer,” he said. “If she hadn’t taken all that on so that I could have this experience, it would surely be someone else up here other than me today. So, sweetheart, thank you. To my daughters, Amada and Esmerelda, I love you.”
In January, he turned his attention to Mendes again while accepting the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Gosling said making movies was always his dream, but landing his 2012 role opposite Mendes changed everything.
“I got to meet the girl of my dreams, Eva Mendes,” he told the crowd. “I have two dream children. I dreamed of one day making movies and now movies have made my life a dream.”
He continued, “So the way I see it, there’s no way I’ve contributed half as much to cinema as cinema has contributed to me.”
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