Eva Mendes Revealed Why She Stopped Acting In Order To Focus On Her Daughters

While Ryan’s career has continued to soar in the past decade of parenthood, Eva has appeared in just two films since 2012: the TV movie Clear History in 2013 and Ryan’s 2014 directorial debut, Lost River. In 2021, she also voiced a character on the children’s animated show Bluey.

In a new interview with Today, Eva opened up about the “no-brainer” decision she and Ryan made years ago, resulting in her pausing her career to focus on their daughters and other work projects.

“It was like a no-brainer,” she told Today in an interview that aired on Tuesday. “I’m so lucky, and I was like, ‘If I can have this time with my children…’ and I still worked. I just didn’t act, because acting takes you on locations, [and] it takes you away.”

“It was almost just like a non-verbal agreement that it was, OK, he’s going to work and I’m going to work. I’m just going to work here,” she continued.

This is far from the first time Eva, known for starring in films like Training Day, Hitch, and The Other Guys, has revealed why she largely stepped away from acting. In 2022, she told Variety that she “got tired of fighting for the good roles” and noted that she “wasn’t being offered things that weren’t specifically Latina.”

Eva told the publication that she considered producing and creating her own projects. However, after she and Ryan became parents, Eva realized, “Oh, this is what I’m supposed to do right now.”

One of those projects is Skura Style, a line of cleaning products. According to a press release from 2022, Eva joined the company, which was launched in 2018, as a co-owner. “My love of cleaning comes from my mother,” she told Today. “My earliest memories are memories of me as a kid waking up on the weekend to the clean smell of a house.”