Eva Mendes' Transformation Over The Years Is A Sight To See
Eva Mendes has experienced a Hollywood career that would be the envy of any actor. Beginning with her breakout role in "Training Day," Mendes has distinguished herself on the big screen, deftly shifting from comedy to drama, while also gaining fame for her provocative photoshoots for magazines such as Maxim. "I know I walk a fine line between being a respected actor and being what they call a sex symbol," she mused in an interview with W Magazine (via Fame Magazine). "It's a hard one to walk if you want to be known as a real, credible actor."
Mendes has not only walked that fine line, she's also married to fellow actor Ryan Gosling (something that wasn't confirmed until 2022), and mother of their two daughters. In addition, she's an entrepreneur whose varying business ventures run the gamut from bedding to makeup to kitchen sponges. To find out more about this intriguing celebrity, keep on reading and it will become clear that Eva Mendes' transformation over the years is a sight to see.
Eva Mendes was brought up in a 'loud, obnoxious Cuban family'
Eva Mendes was born in Miami, the youngest of four children to parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba. Interviewed by Marie Clarie, Mendes described her working-class clan as "a big, old, loud, obnoxious Cuban family." When she was still young, her family moved from Florida to Los Angeles, settling in the city's Silver Lake district.
Mendes' parents divorced when she was just 10. To make ends meet, her mother took an extra job on the weekends, working at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Mendes would often accompany her mom to work, and then stick around to watch a movie together in the famed cinema.
As the child of immigrants, Mendes certainly didn't grow up in the lap of luxury. "I was raised by parents who didn't have much," she recalled, admitting it wasn't uncommon for the phone or electricity in her mom's home to be cut off. However, they never went hungry, thanks to her father, who worked for a meat company. As she told W Magazine, she recalled her dad taking her with him on the job when she was just five. "I loved my dad so much and wanted to go to work with him," she explained, revealing that would sometimes mean a trip to the slaughterhouse — an experience that never really left her. "So now I don't eat anything from a slaughterhouse," she said.
Her big break came in a horror flick
After graduating high school, Eva Mendes attended Cal State Northridge, with no solid idea of what she would do with her future. She was still a college student when a photographer friend took some photos of her. Those head shots wound up in the hands of a talent manager, who placed her in contention for acting gigs in TV commercials.
"And I thought I would make some quick money over the summer but I never got a commercial and I was at auditions all the time, I was like 'this is terrible,' but he did end up sending me up for a film," she recalled in an interview with Cinema.com. She was incredulous, insisting there was no way that someone with her limited acting experience would manage to land a movie role, but she went ahead an auditioned anyway. "It was a terrible B-level thriller horror movie and I went up for it and I ended up getting it which was so crazy ..." she added.
That film was the 1998 horror sequel "Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror." While the movie was no Oscar winner, the experience gave Mendes the direction she'd been lacking. Bitten by the acting bug, she decided to quit school and pursue a career in showbiz.
She got serious about studying acting
Not only did "Children of the Corn V" unexpectedly propel Eva Mendes toward an acting career she'd never envisioned, it also made her realize she had a lot of work ahead of her. "If you want to experience some truly terrible acting on my part — basically a guide to what not to do on screen — I suggest you rush out and rent Children of the Corn V right away," she said (via Entertainment Weekly).
Realizing she was at square one as an actor, Mendes began studying with acting coach Ivana Chubbuck. "I believe Ivana's technique could be boiled down to, 'Take the pain in your life and find the most effective way to accomplish a goal with it,'" Mendes said of her teacher in a testimonial.
While studying her craft, Mendes landed a few small roles, including guest spots in such TV series as "V.I.P.," and "Urban Legends: Final Cut," and the made-for-TV movie "The Disciples." She then booked a small role in the Steven Seagal action flick "Exit Wounds." While the film should have been a feather in her cap, she received a shocking wakeup call at the premiere when she discovered for the first time that another actor had dubbed in her voice. "I was told, and I swear, this was a note from the producer, when I enquired after, that I didn't sound intelligent enough," she recalled during an appearance on "The Daily Show."
Training Day changed the game
When Eva Mendes landed a small part in the 1998 film "Training Day," the work she'd done with acting coach Ivana Chubbuck left her perfectly positioned to parlay a seemingly insignificant role into a career launching pad.
In the acclaimed crime drama, Mendes played the girlfriend of a corrupt cop, played to perfection by Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington. While she didn't have a lot of screen time, Mendes nonetheless made a big impression. "It was a very small role, there were two scenes, one had no dialogue, the other one only had about five lines," Chubbuck recalled. "And yet, it was a star-making turn for her. People began to know who Eva Mendes was." As Chubbuck suggested, Mendes took the old adage about their being no small roles, just small actors, and ran with it, imbuing her character with intention by understanding the characters' objectives.
Not only did Mendes' smoldering performance put her on Hollywood's radar, the experience of acting alongside thespians of the caliber of Washington and co-star Ethan Hawke proved to be revelatory for her. "I did a small role in 'Training Day' that was amazing for me, and really pivotal in my career," she told CinemaBlend, revealing she'd become so discouraged with the parts she was being offered until then that she was ready to pack it in as an actor. "Then I got to work with Denzel, and then it just happened ... That really sparked me and ignited me."
Commercial success and Hollywood stardom
The breakthrough that Eva Mendes experienced from "Training Day" was a launching pad to bigger and better roles in a head-spinning array of movies. These included "All About the Benjamins," "2 Fast 2 Furious" (and its blockbuster sequels), "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," "Hitch," "Ghost Rider," "We Own the Night," "The Other Guys," and even co-starring alongside "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star Larry David in the HBO comedy film "Clear History."
"Training Day" made Eva Mendes a movie star, something she'd never envisioned as a child but embraced wholeheartedly as an adult. She did, however, go through a period when she experienced a form of imposter syndrome, wondering why she deserved to suddenly become catapulted from obscurity to stardom. She did, she told the Toronto Star, eventually get past that. "Well I'm enjoying acting now, which is a big difference," she explained. "I think what was happening was I still didn't understand 'why me? Why am I getting this attention?'"
Yet despite her talent and drawing power at the box office, finding good, meaty roles continued to be a challenge. As she explained to CinemaBlend in a 2007 interview, what few solid roles there were for women wound up being scooped up by a rarified echelon of female actors. "Seriously, all the good stuff, and understandably so, goes to the Winslets and the Naomi Watts of the world, and the Cate Blanchetts," she griped. "There is just such a lack of female roles."
The reason she's never avoided nudity in movies
During the course of making all those movies, Eva Mendes has not shied away from displaying her killer physique. As she told the Toronto Star, staying in top shape did not come without a significant degree of work. "I work out five days a week and sometimes six or maybe I do a little hiking at the weekends," she told Cinema.com, but explained that she undertook all that exercise in order to eat whatever she wanted. "I just had a plate of French fries," she said. "So I'm constantly bargaining with myself and saying, 'Right you had a plate of French Fries, so you'll be adding 30 minutes to the treadmill!'"
When she agreed to appear nude in "Training Day," it was a decision she didn't take lightly. "I took a big risk. I went full-frontal — and back! Afterwards I was like, 'Did I do the right thing?'" she said in an interview with HuffPost. "But the reaction was very positive. And I realized that if you put yourself out there people will respond."
As Mendes told the Seattle Times, she's never had a problem with appearing naked in a film, as long as it's not gratuitous. "I think I have a much more European approach to nudity," she explained. "If it's relevant and not exploiting me, I'm okay with it."
She conquered substance abuse with a trip to rehab
In early 2008, TMZ reported that Eva Mendes checked herself into Cirque Lodge, a Utah rehab facility where Lindsay Lohan had undergone treatment. Fans were understandably shocked, as any issues regarding substance abuse were certainly not apparent in public. "Eva has been working hard for the past year and made a positive decision to take some much-needed time off to proactively attend to some personal issues that, while not critical, she felt deserved some outside professional support," her rep told the outlet, offering no other details.
Mendes commented about her stint in rehab during a somewhat contentious discussion with Interview magazine, in which she took aim at inaccurate reporting about her rehab. "There are so many lies out there regarding my recent trip to Cirque Lodge," she said. "But I don't care what people think. I just don't care. So I will neither confirm nor deny."
On the flip side, she also admitted she was gratified that many of the stories written about her were simply wrong — because if the truth came out, she'd have to conclude that someone she trusted was dishing to the tabloids. "It's a relief, in a way," she explained. "You want it to be a lie, because when it's true, that's when I'd be like, 'Oh, my God!' It's time to rethink who's in your circle, because stuff got out."
She designed her own home decor line and kitchen sponges
Eva Mendes' ambitions lay beyond acting, and even outside of Hollywood. An ardent entrepreneur, in 2008 Mendes launched Vida Bedding, a home decor line sold exclusively at Macy's outlets. The line was created and designed by Mendes herself, in collaboration with her business partner George Augusto — who was also her boyfriend at the time. "Vida is about easy luxury — the colors, fabrics and textures that I live and love, brought to life in a stylish, comfortable and affordable way," said Mendes in a statement announcing the new brand, which included a variety of sheets, comforters, pillowcases and more. "I'm excited to partner with one of the strongest names in the retail industry and to see my passion for design come to life," she added.
Mendes expanded the line into dinnerware with her Vida for Espana line, which featured dishes, bowls, coffee cups, and the like, all influenced by her trips to the Catalonia and Amalfi regions of Spain. "I love design," she told the Los Angeles Daily News.
She later branched out into a whole new area as co-owner of Skura Style, which produces kitchen sponges. Speaking with "Today," Mendes revealed that her foray into the sponge arena came about from her inability to find sponges that didn't retain odors. "I was like, 'there's gotta be something better out there,'" she said of her involvement with odor-free, antimicrobial sponges.
Her relationship with Ryan Gosling began on a movie set
While "Training Day" was the film that changed the path of Eva Mendes' Hollywood career, it was the feature "The Place Beyond the Pines" that completely transformed her private life. While working on the movie in 2011, Mendes fell in love with co-star Ryan Gosling. As Mendes told Oprah magazine, they were already friends when their relationship blossomed into something deeper. "We had known each other for a while already, so to work together was really exciting," she explained.
Over the years, the couple has maintained an intense privacy about their relationship, which has resulted in two daughters — Esmerelda, born in 2014, and Amada Lee, who arrived in 2016. As Mendes told Women's Health, becoming a mother wasn't something she'd really thought about until she and Gosling got together. "Ryan Gosling happened," she said. "I mean, falling in love with him. Then it made sense for me to have ... not kids, but his kids. It was very specific to him."
Neither Mendes nor Gosling comment much about their private life — in fact, nobody's really sure when they got married. She explained why she's so protective about her personal life a since-deleted Instagram post. "I don't talk about Ryan and all the wonderful things he does as a father because I keep that part private," she wrote, as reported by Metro. "It's not about being cagey or weird, it's just about staying private in a public space."
She decided to step away from acting
For all intents and purposes, Eva Mendes' Hollywood career ended in 2013, with the release of the HBO comedy film "Clear History." After that, Mendes slammed the brakes on what had been a wildly successful acting career (although she did take on a small role in the 2014 feature "Lost River," which marked the directorial debut of her longtime love, Ryan Gosling).
She's never looked back. Speaking with Variety in 2022 — about a decade after she'd stopped acting — Mendes revealed the circumstances behind her exit from Hollywood. "I got tired fighting for the good roles," she explained, insisting she didn't miss her former career at all. "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."
It was the arrival of the couple's children, she explained, that illuminated the lightbulb in her mind indicating she should step back from acting and focus on motherhood. "I thought, 'Oh, this is what I'm supposed to do right now,'" she said. Meanwhile, Mendes admitted she's seen an increase in opportunities for Latina actors during the decade she'd been out of action, and wasn't ruling out a return to the silver screen at some point. "But right now," she declared, "I'm keeping it in the home with my kids."
She launched a fashion line and delved into makeup
Eva Mendes may not have been acting, but she continued to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. In 2013 she ventured into fashion, with Women's Wear Daily reporting that she'd entered into a multi-year deal with clothing retailer New York & Co. According to Mendes, she envisioned a hands-on role in the collection, and would personally approve all designs. "I have a ton of ideas, but it's a bit early to discuss them," she said. "[The project] is taking up all my time, but in the best way possible."
In 2015, Mendes shifted from clothing to makeup with the launch of CIRCA, an affordable line of makeup retailing exclusively at Walgreens locations throughout the U.S. "Growing up, I was from a very lower-middle class family, and I really got all my makeup and products from drugstores," Mendes — who served as the brand's creative director — said at the launch event, as reported by Elle. "But the quality of the products just wasn't there."
As Mendes told the Los Angeles Times, it was while making movies that she came to realize that there was a dearth of makeup that blended with her skin's hue. "When I first started in films about 15 years ago, there weren't many makeup options for my skin tone," she said, and believed that CIRCA would address this void in the marketplace. "We wanted to make sure that in the complexion products, anyone could find their shade match," she added.
She revealed her 'non-verbal agreement' with Ryan Gosling about being a stay-at-home mom
When Eva Mendes discussed her decision to step back from acting in order to focus on motherhood, numerous headlines were generated declaring that she'd quit acting. She took to social media to counter that narrative. "I never quit acting," she wrote in an Instagram post. "I wanted to be home with my babies and fortunately my other business ventures allowed me to do that more than acting would."
In a 2024 appearance on the "Today" show, Mendes explained the organic way in which she came to become a stay-at-home mom. "I'm so lucky, and I was like, if I can have this time with my children — and I still work, I just didn't act," she said, explaining how an acting role constitutes a huge time commitment that typically forces an actor to spend months away from home, something she wasn't willing to do. "It was almost like a non-verbal agreement that it was like, 'Okay, he's gonna work, and I'm gonna work — I'm just gonna work here," she explained.