Eva Mendes is a formidable figure. After all, the 50-year-old actress has been a Hollywood elite for decades. She’s appeared in beloved films like Training Day, Hitch, and multiple installments of the Fast and Furious franchise, has served as a spokesperson for brands such as Cartier, and of course, is one half of a bonafide celebrity power couple with longtime partner Ryan Gosling.
But when I speak to her via phone, I forget all that. Our conversation quickly becomes two moms chatting about things like how to keep your house clean with little ones and the myth of “having it all.”
It’s clear that Mendes’s main priority right now is raising her two daughters—aged seven and nine—with Gosling. She’s taken a years-long break from acting to focus on her girls (which was not a decision that she made without a lot of discussion and thought, despite what you may have read, but more on that later), and they are omnipresent in her daily life. As we chat, one of them comes over to ask her a question, then seems to hesitate when seeing her mom is on the phone. But Mendes is quick to reassure her, asking her if she’s okay and telling her she never has to apologize for needing her mother. It’s an interaction that for me, as a newer mom of a toddler, is heartwarming and refreshing, and I tell her so.
But for Mendes, having her daughters present while conducting an interview to promote her latest business venture is what it’s all about. She’s a working mom who has pivoted in her career and is still building what that all looks like.
“I don’t have it figured out,” she tells me. “I don’t have balance. I have no idea what the word balance means. I feel like, and this is a very honest answer, every time I feel like I’m succeeding in one area or excelling, I feel like I’m lacking in the other, whatever that may be. I don’t know how to balance, and I don’t know if there is such a thing as balance for me. I think maybe I’ll have to be okay just kind of being imbalanced for a while. Maybe that part of it is figuring that out.”
Part of this new chapter? Sponges. Yes, sponges. Since stepping back from acting, Mendes has been working to collaborate on business ventures that she feels connected to and a passion for. When she learned about Skura Style, a woman-founded sponge brand, while deep-cleaning during the pandemic, she knew she had found a fit. The reason why is simple: She loves doing the dishes.
“I listen to my podcast, I do my dishes, I go to bed with a clean kitchen, and it’s nothing short of heaven to wake up to a clean sink and a clean kitchen and make my coffee,” she says. “It’s one of the little things in life that I just love.”
