Eva Mendes says 'I wasn't a great actress' and 'I wasn't in love with acting'; 'She's too ethnic' for many roles: 'It was so crazy'

Eva Mendes admitted in an interview with The Sunday Times that she “didn't fall in love with acting” so there's no real urgency to finish her 10-year run and count a break from it. The actor hasn't appeared in a feature film since a small supporting role in Ryan Gosling's 2014 directorial effort “Lost River,” though he did lend his voice to a 2021 episode of “Bluey” on ABC Kids.

“I never fell 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 moments when I worked with really great people.”

As far as Mendez sees it, his best acting work came when he starred opposite Gosling in the 2012 crime drama “The Place Beyond the Pines” or when he directed him in “Lost River.” He said: “He got something from me that was never accessible before.”

Mendes told “The View” in 2022 that he hopes to act again one day, though the project would have to be “special” and not include violence or sex. In his new interview with The Sunday Times, Mendes said that acting with Gosling would be an easy way to get him back on screen (“That's what I'd love to do”).

That Mendes isn't interested in any sexier roles isn't surprising since her 16-year acting career has often included roles that were one-dimensional beauty and eye candy. He admitted to the Sunday Times: “There were some pretty nasty roles.” There was a time in her career when she was either cast because of her looks or rejected because of her Cuban heritage.

“At first they'll just say — 'He's too ethnic for that, too ethnic for that,'” Mendes said. “It was so crazy. That was the constant note. Then, at some point, it went to, 'Oh, anthropomorphic is cool now,' or, 'Latina being cool.' It gave me energy because it would make me so crazy, and then I I got the fuel I needed.”

Mendes' last major role in a film was the 2012 drama “Girl in Progress” directed by Patricia Regan. The Lionsgate release grossed just under $3 million at the box office. In the same year, Mendes played supporting roles in the critical favorite “Place Beyond the Pines” and Leos Carax's ear stunner “Holy Motors.” Mendes' last live-action television role was a supporting turn in Larry David's 2013 HBO original movie “Clear History.”