Before she stepped away from her career as an actor nearly a decade ago, Eva Mendes had starred in a wide range of movies – from award-winning films like Training Day to mainstream flicks like 2 Fast 2 Furious to art-house indies like Holy Motors.
Mendes’ last film was the 2014 fantasy thriller Lost River, a project very few saw that was directed by her longtime partner Ryan Gosling. Now, Mendes is opening up more about why she left the profession behind and hasn’t looked back.
“I got tired fighting for the good roles,” Mendes told Variety. “There just was a point where I thought, ‘I’m going to create my own opportunities and become a producer on things and create my own material,’ but it just didn’t feel worth it to me.”
She added: “I don’t really miss it.”
During her 16-year career, Mendes starred opposite several heavy hitters like Will Ferrell, Joaquin Phoenix, and Nicholas Cage. She said, however, that she rarely got the chance to play characters outside of her ethnicity.
“There are more opportunities for Latina actresses now, but when I bowed out 10 years ago, I wasn’t being offered things that weren’t specifically Latina,” she said. “It is exciting that things are different now, so who knows what I will do in the future. But right now, I’m keeping it in the home with my kids.”
In an earlier interview with The View, Mendes said she might be interested in returning to acting if she was offered a role she was interested in that was “nice and clean.”
Since her last film, Mendes has added one credit to her filmography. Last year, she voiced a yoga instructor character in one episode of the preschool animated TV series Bluey, which follows the adventures of a Blue Heeler puppy.