Eva Mendes on why she might never return to acting

Eva Mendes has cast doubt over whether she will return to acting after taking time off to raise her children.

Speaking in a new interview, Mendes questioned whether it was a good time to “walk out” of the profession altogether.

When asked by Good Morning America‘s George Stephanopoulos if she would thinking of getting back in front of the camera she responded: “I don’t know. If there – you know – if there’s interesting roles.”

Aside from roles in Bluey, the children’s franchise, 50-year-old Mendes hasn’t appeared in a movie since she co-starred in the Ryan Gosling thriller Lost River, in 2014.

She met her husband Gosling before they both starred in the hit 2012 film The Place Beyond the Pines.

Speaking about those roles in the early 2010s, Mendes said: “I kinda felt like I did it, ya know? I was like, I just worked with Ryan Gosling, who’s, like, the best. And I had such a – I don’t know – 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 just Seinfeld it and just walk out.’ So, who knows?”

But Mendes has previously said she has felt “so lucky” to spend that time focusing on her two daughters, Esmerelda, 10, and Amada, eight, whom she shares with Gosling.

Mendes pictured in 2010 (Getty Images)
Mendes pictured in 2010 (Getty Images)

Mendes has been focusing her attention away from acting, having written her newly-released children’s picture book, Desi, Mami, and the Never-Ending Worries, which aims to de-stigmatise anxiety experienced by children.

“It’s a buddy story about this little girl and her brain,” the Hitch actor said. “And Desi has these never-ending worries – I have them as well – and she, she tries to work with her brain to kind of like, you know, make sure it’s not being a bully to her by sending all these negative thoughts her way and that it’s being like a BFF to her. And so it’s about that relationship.”

“I want to open up the dialogue and promote conversation,” Mendes said.

Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling at the ‘Place Beyond the Pines’ premier (Getty Images)
Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling at the ‘Place Beyond the Pines’ premier (Getty Images)

Speaking to the Today show earlier this year, Mendes discussed why she has taken a step back from acting to be more presenter at home.

“It was like a no-brainer. I’m so lucky, and I was like, if I could have this time with my children. Because acting takes you on location, it keeps you away,” she added.

Mendes acknowledged that she and her husband both have careers, noting that her work-from-home schedule allows Gosling to act.

“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,’” she explained. “He went and he did his job. He just happens to be really good at his job. And he did it and he came home.”