Eva Mendes on Why She Took a Break From Acting to Be a Full-Time Mom While Ryan Gosling Works

For Eva Mendes, making the decision to be a stay-at-home mom for her two kids was rather easy.

“It was like a no-brainer,” she said during an appearance on Today on Tuesday, March 26. “[I was like], I’m so lucky if I could have this time with my children.”

Eva, 50, shares daughters Esmeralda and Amada with partner Ryan Gosling. After welcoming her two kids, the Hitch actress decided to that taking a step back from her acting career was a good call. She last appeared in the film Lost River in 2014.

“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 said of the decision. “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.”

Ryan, 43, recently scored an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his role of Ken in Barbie. At the 96th Academy Awards earlier this month, he took the stage to perform the Oscar-nominated hit “I’m Just Ken.” In addition to wowing the crowd with his vocal chops, Eva happily watched backstage.

“You took Ken all the way to the Oscars, RG,” she captioned an Instagram post in Ryan’s dressing room backstage. “Now come home, we need to put the kids to bed.”

When asked about her post shared on the night of the Oscars, Eva had a simple response.

“That’s what it’s about — you go, you do your job the best you can, and then you come home,” the mom of two said during the segment.

The We Own the Night actress has been in awe of Ryan’s work ethic since they began dating in 2011 after costarring in The Place Beyond the Pines.

“I’ve never experienced anything like that,” she gushed. “The way he works, his commitment to his craft, how he wants to make everything as best as it can be, and that means making his costars as best as they can be. But unfortunately, or fortunately, there’s only one Ryan, so you know, I pretty much stopped acting after that.”

Though she hasn’t been acting recently, Eva is gearing up for the release of an exciting project — her debut children’s book, Desi, Mami, and the Never-Ending Worries, in September.

“Inspired by our own nightly events with my daughters, Desi and Mami learn from each other on facing our monsters — whether under our bed or in our head,” she told People in February.