Yahoo Lifestyle Eva Mendes Says ‘I Wasn’t a Great Actress’ and ‘I Was Never In Love With Acting’; Got Told ‘She’s Too Ethnic’ For Many Roles: ‘It Was So Crazy’
Eva Mendes admitted in an interview with The Sunday Times that she was “never in love with acting,” so there’s no real urgency to ending her 10-years and counting break from it. The actor has not starred in a feature film since a small supporting role in partner Ryan Gosling‘s 2014 directorial effort “Lost River,” although she lent her voice on a 2021 episode of “Bluey” on ABC Kids.
“I was never in love with acting. I don’t mean this in a self-deprecating way, but I wasn’t a great actress,” Mendes said. “I had my moments when I worked with really great people.”
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As far as Mendez sees it, her best acting work came when she was starring opposite Gosling in 2012’s crime drama “The Place Beyond on the Pines” or when he was directing her in “Lost River.” She said: “He gets something out of me that’s never been accessible before.”
Mendes told “The View” in 2022 that she hopes to act again one day, although the project would have to be “special” and not include violence or sexuality. In her new interview with The Sunday Times, Mendes said acting with Gosling would be an easy way to get her back on screen (“That’s the one thing I would love to do”).
That Mendes is not interested in any sexualized roles does not come as a surprise as her 16-year acting career oftentimes included characters that were one-dimensional beauties and eye candy. She admitted to The Sunday Times: “There were some pretty shitty roles.” There was a time in her career when she was either getting cast because of her looks or getting rejected because of her Cuban heritage.
“That’s all they would say at the beginning — ‘she’s too ethnic for this, too ethnic for that,’ ” Mendes 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.”
Mendes’ last leading role in a movie was the 2012 drama “Girl in Progress,” directed by Patricia Riggen. The Lionsgate release only grossed $3 million at the box office. In that same year, Mendes played supporting roles in critical favorites “Place Beyond the Pines” and Leos Carax’s Cannes stunner “Holy Motors.” Mendes’ last live-action television role was a supporting turn in Larry David’s 2013 HBO original movie “Clear History.”
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