Eva Mendes says she had 'non-verbal agreement' with Ryan Gosling to be a stay-at-home mom
Eva Mendes is opening up about the "no-brainer" decision she made to put her acting career on hold since becoming a mother.
The "Hitch" star, 50, hasn't acted in over a decade since meeting her longtime partner Ryan Gosling while filming the 2012 movie "The Place Beyond the Pines."
"It was like a no-brainer," she said on a segment on "Today" Wednesday "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, because acting takes you on locations, it takes you away."
Mendes and Gosling, 43, are parents to daughters Esmeralda Amada, 9, and Amada Lee, 7.
"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,’" Mendes continued.
The actress added that although the notion of "stay-at-home mom" makes it seem as though mothers are only tending to the household, "There’s not much staying at home, by the way. You do a lot of driving, every day. I’m going here to pickups, this, that."
Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt talk Sunday's 'epic' 'I'm Just Ken' Oscars performance
Gosling has had a busy schedule following the success of his role as Ken in Greta Gerwig's "Barbie," which earned him an Oscars nomination. To cap off the end of awards season, he delivered a mesmerizing performance of the Oscar-nominated song "I'm Just Ken" at the Academy Awards earlier this month.
Following his performance, Mendes took to Instagram with a message to Gosling: "You took Ken all the way to the Oscar’s, RG. Now come home, we need to put the kids to bed."
"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," she said on "Today" of that social media post. "Because that’s what it’s about. You go, you do your job the best you can and then you come home."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Eva Mendes shares how she, Ryan Gosling made stay-at-home mom choice