Eva Mendes talks about acting and how tough it was to get good roles

Eva Mendes is happy with her life right now. The retired actress is now focused on different entrepreneurial opportunities and on being a mother of two. When speaking about acting, she simply said, “I don’t miss it.”

In an interview with Variety, Mendes was honest about her decision to quit acting 10 years ago, and how difficult it was to be a Latina in the industry. “I got tired fighting for the good roles,” she said. “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.”

While she did say that things were changing and that there are better opportunities for Latinas, she’s happy where she is right now. “There are more opportunities for Latina actresses now, but when I bowed out 10 years ago I wasn’t being offered things that weren’t specifically Latina,” she said. “It is exciting that things are different now, so who knows what I will do in the future. But right now, I’m keeping it in the home with my kids.” Mendes has two daughters with Ryan Gosling, Esmeralda Amada and Amada Lee.

In terms of business opportunities, Mendes remains involved in a variety of projects that she’s personally invested in. She’s now the co-owner of Skura Style, a kitchen cleaning company, and talked a bit about why she was happy with her new business and why cleaning matters to her, including her memories of her mother cleaning their family apartment.

“She would put on Cuban music and I would smell the Pine Sol. It wouldn’t say clean for long, but those couple of days would make me feel better and we were all in a better mood. It started then and I bring it into my house today. I have two little girls, and that kitchen sink is always full. I don’t know if I’ve made myself love it, but to me it is meditative to wash the dishes and to feel the suds. I have a dishwasher, but I hardly every use it,” she said.

Mendes’ last film was “Lost River,” which came out in 2014. It was written and directed by Gosling.