Mendes also touched on making a return to acting, and what roles she wouldn't do.
Eva Mendes didn't mind shifting her life after having kids. The actress admitted during a new interview with Nova 96.9's Fitzy & Wippa that she "never wanted babies" until she fell in love with Ryan Gosling. The private couple are parents to daughters Esmeralda Amada, 6, and Amada Lee, 4.
Mendes began by explaining that she would "never want to send the wrong message to young women" about putting one's career on hold, adding that it's "not an either-or situation."
"I was lucky enough to work my bum off for 20 years," Mendes continued. "I never wanted babies before until I fell in love with Ryan, and it kind of worked out to where I was 40 and having my first baby. I think I was 42 for the second one, so it worked out in that way that I had a career and then I changed my focus to my family."
Mendes -- whose last project was 2014's Lost River, directed by Gosling -- said that she's "thinking of definitely going back" to acting, now that her daughters are getting older. However, she has a new outlook on the roles that she will take.
"I feel like it’s time…The list is getting shorter and shorter of stuff that I'd do," she explained. "I don’t want to do anything violent. I don't want to do something risqué. I think the only thing that’s left is Disney. You don't want to perpetuate certain stereotypes."
"I just need Ryan Gosling to direct another film, and then hire me," she quipped.
Mendes first touched on the possibility of returning in front of the cameras during an interview earlier this month, where she said her ambition to act was "coming back."
"I applaud and look up to those women who can do it all, but I'm not one of them," she explained. "Thankfully, I have a choice not to work and I realize how fortunate I am that it's even a choice. I've been so happy to be able to incubate with my babies, but now they are four and six, I'm starting to feel like my ambition is coming back."
Mendes also told ET earlier this year, that she'd definitely consider a Disney role for her daughters.
"I'm basically like, 'Disney, I'm all yours, Disney,'" she said, explaining that she's more "extreme" about the roles she takes on as a mom.
For more on Mendes, see below.
RELATED CONTENT:
