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Eva Mendes on Her Daughters' Reaction to Her Bluey Role vs. Ryan Gosling in Barbie
Mendes and Jimmy Fallon bonded over Bluey – the one acting credit that did "impress" her kids — and teased her secret book dedication message to Gosling.
Eva Mendes visited The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on September 18 to talk about her new children's book, Desi, Mami, and the Never-Ending Worries — and Jimmy Fallon tried to get her to explain the book's mysterious dedication to her partner, Ryan Gosling.
"It says, 'S.L. Foreva,'" Fallon said. "Can we find out what 'S.L. foreva' means?"
"No!" laughed Mendes. Like Gosling, she chooses to keep their family life largely private, though she opened up about life with their daughters in the interview.
"Does he know what it means?" Fallon probed.
"Yeah, Jimmy. He knows what it means," Mendes said.
With two actors in the family, Fallon asked Mendes — who is semi-retired from acting to raise her two daughters with Gosling — if their kids, Esmeralda Amada (born in 2014) and Amada Lee (born in 2016), have seen her movies.
"No. They haven't," Mendes said. "But they don't really...they don't care." She said that she attempted to show them a scene from Hitch in which she falls into the Hudson River, and they were "not impressed at all."
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"One of my girls was scared, and I'm like, 'Ooh, opportunity to show off." And I played it for them and I was like, 'This is Mama facing her fear'." Underwhelmed, she said their reaction was, "Oh, cool, Mama. Okay, Can we go outside?'"
Eva Mendes was on Bluey but nothing compares to Ryan Gosling's Ken
Mendes and Gosling's daughters are much more jazzed on their dad's Oscar-nominated role as Ken in 2023's Barbie movie.
"That was beautiful, because the girls were such a huge part of that. They were such a huge part of him saying yes," Mendes shared. Gosling had previously shared that story with Fallon during a July 2022 Tonight Show visit. "There's like 30 Barbies sitting in the house, and there's one Ken. So, you know, he was like, 'There's something here.'"
Mendes did act in one role that's particularly exciting to kids of a certain age and their parents: She did a voice on an episode of Bluey, the Australian animated series about a family of cartoon dogs.
"Now, that impressed them," Mendes cheered (she voiced a yoga instructor in the 2021 episode). "It's so deep, right?"
"I watch it without the kids sometimes," Fallon said, before the two commiserated over the divisive recent episode in which Bluey's family might have to move (if you know, you know).
"Don't look at me! I'm gonna start crying," Fallon joked.
Eva Mendes' kids had "a lot of notes" on her book
Mendes says her kids inspired her to write her children's book, which deals with managing feelings.
"They have anxiety, as I do," Mendes shared. "I think I thought anxiety was normal, because I grew up in a very Cuban, aggressive, loud — lovingly aggressive, loud household."
"Everything was yelling! So that does something to your nervous system, I guess," Mendes continued. "So I'm just super anxious, and I think my children are inheriting that, which is like, 'ohhh!'"
She told Fallon that her kids had "a lot of notes as I was writing it, so I was worried that it wasn't gonna hit home," she said (a Hitch moment all over again). But then, two weeks ago, she saw 10-year-old Esmerelda "sitting in the hallway reading my book," and it made her want to bawl.
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Mendes didn't give in to her urge to "secretly film" the moment, "but I filmed it with my heart, Jimmy."
Watch Eva Mendes' full Tonight Show interview — in which she also talks about her favorite of Gosling's April 13 SNL sketches, and describes what it's like when Gosling hangs out with her father — above, and watch The Tonight Show weeknights at 11:35/10:35c, streaming next day on Peacock.
