Eva Mendes Explains Why Working With Partner Ryan Gosling Was a Career High

Eva Mendes is in no hurry to get back to acting, and she gave a shout-out to longtime partner Ryan Gosling as one of the reasons she isn’t itching to get back in front of the camera.

The actress appeared on Good Morning America on Tuesday, September 17, to promote her children’s book, Desi, Mami and the Never-Ending Worries. During her interview, coanchor George Stephanopoulos asked if Mendes, 50, was done with acting.

“I don’t know. If there’s interesting roles,” she said. “I left at a time where, 10 years ago, I kind of felt like I did it, you know? I just worked with Ryan Gosling. He’s, like, the best. 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. So, who knows?” (Mendes is referring to Seinfeld ending in 1998 at the height of its popularity.)

Mendes and Gosling, 43, started dating while working together on the 2013 film The Place Beyond the Pines. In 2014, they had their first child together, daughter Esmeralda Amada.

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes' Relationship Timeline

That same year, Mendes appeared in Lost River, a fantasy thriller that was Gosling’s directorial debut. She took a break from acting after that, concentrating on raising Esmeralda and younger daughter Amada Lee, born in 2016.

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes in ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’

Mendes only returned for a small role on animated kids show Bluey in 2021 and lent her voice to the franchise’s celebrity YouTube series, Bluey Book Reads.

Since she and Gosling started their family, Mendes has been candid about her decision to step away from acting.

“It was like, ‘OK, he’s going to work and I’m going to work — I’m just going to work here,’” she explained in an appearance on the Today show in March.

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes' Sweetest Quotes About Love and Family

She later elaborated in an interview with Glamour in April.

“There was actually obviously a lot of thought and conversation, especially on my end, of what I wanted to do with my life,” she said. “Acting takes you on location for months. But I still wanted to work. So I had to get creative about what that work was going to be.”

But don’t take her acting hiatus or public comments to mean she closed the door on acting for good. Mendes hinted in May that she and Gosling may appear on screen together again soon. While promoting Gosling’s film The Fall Guy in May via Instagram, Mendes responded to a fan comment asking when the couple would appear in a movie together again.

“Soon!! Lotsa amore to you!” she replied.