Eva Mendes Says She Quit Acting Over ‘Latina’ Typecasting
UNEXCITING
Eva Mendes says she got tired of being offered the same roles that played up her ethnicity and sexuality. The mom-of-two, 48, spoke out about her unofficial retirement outside a brunch of her new cleaning product company Skura Style this week. “I don’t really miss it,” she told Variety. “I got tired fighting for the good roles.” She continued: “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.” Mendes, who was born in Miami to Cuban parents, got her breakthrough as Denzel Washington’s mistress in 2001’s Training Day. Her last live action job was a supporting role in her husband Ryan Gosling’s critically panned directorial debut Lost River. She now says she’s happy “keeping it in the home with my kids.” During an appearance on The View in May, Mendes said she might return for a “fun” project but, “I don’t want to do violence. I don’t want to do sexuality.”