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One of Hollywood’s busiest actresses, Eva Mendes, may not have gone into acting if she’d gone after her original childhood ambition.
However, after hearing the harsh realities of this profession from her sister, she decided to pursue acting instead.
When she was younger, what did she want to do with her life, and what led her to the world of acting, where she has achieved such phenomenal success?
Why Eva Mendes Wanted To Become A Nun
Despite moral outrage over her semi-naked billboard commercials, Eva Mendes, a Hollywood beauty, revealed that she always wanted to be a nun.
Mendes said she ditched plans to join a convent in order to pursue acting because she wanted to provide a home for her mother.
She explained to Digital Spy, “We didn’t grow up with a lot of money, so I would always tell my mom, ‘Mommy, I am going to buy you a big house when I grow up, and a car.’”
When Mendes was younger, she says she was a “prude” and thought life in a convent would be ideal for her, but her sister dissuaded her by telling her the harsh realities of life in the religious order.
The 49-year-old actress revealed she ultimately opted against it because of the low pay.
“And my sister said to me one day when I was ten, ‘How are you going to buy mom all these things? You are going to be a nun, and nuns don’t get paid.’ I said, ‘What?’ and that was it. My convent dreams were over.”
The actress claimed she was excited to “give back” after she became famous. Decades later, that hope would come true. Mendes’ family was middle-class at the time, with financial problems hovering over them.
“We grew up, not in a poor, poor family, but lower-middle class, a lot of bills, and my mother was always stressing about money and stuff. And I would promise her, ‘Mum, I’m gonna buy you a house and pay all your bills one day,'” Mendes said.
In 2002, Mendes fulfilled the promise she had made to her mother, who had raised her alone after her parents divorced and bought her a new home. She called this a “proud moment” in her life.
The actress, who is of Cuban descent, is passionate about doing good in her hometown.
She concluded, stating, “I feel I have so much to be thankful for, and it means nothing if I can’t give back. I do it within my own family, and I do it with certain charities, particularly the Art of the Elysium, which helps children in hospital heal themselves through art therapy.”
Given that she hasn’t publicly confirmed her marriage with Ryan Gosling yet, this funny childhood career path isn’t fully gone.
Eva Mendes Dropped Out Of University To Become An Actor
Eva Mendes attended California State University, Northridge to major in marketing. Her career path, however, shifted when a talent agency saw images taken of her by a neighbor.
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A talent agent noticed her and pushed her to pursue a job in show business because of her evident abilities. After much deliberation, she decided to forego her college education and pursue a career in entertainment instead.
Her first picture was “Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror,” and she was underwhelmed with her own performance. She put in a lot of time and effort to perfect her acting chops, and she acted in several low-budget films to establish herself.
This actress did not have an easy road, but her perseverance paid off. Her acting career took off with her breakthrough role in the film “Training Day,” for which she gained widespread acclaim.
Mendes made the decision to change her approach to acting in 2009. Later, she elaborated, “I started feeling extremely empty and unsatisfied with the work that I was putting out there. So I made a change to do what I actually want to do.”
It wasn’t a visit to the convent, that’s for sure.
Mendes checked herself into a rehabilitation center. It was reported at the time by her reps that she “made a positive decision to take some much-needed time off to proactively attend to some personal issues that, while not critical, she felt deserved some outside professional support.”
Mendes has been silent on the specific kind of medical attention she sought. This is indicative of her ongoing efforts to maintain a wall between her personal life and the public eye.
Did Eva Mendes Quit Acting?
Eva Mendes, best known for her roles as Sara in 2005’s “Hitch” and Dr. Sheila Gamble in 2010’s “The Other Guys,” reflected on how the entertainment industry had evolved when she first began submitting her audition reels for parts. Her professional acting career is on pause for the time being.
“I got tired of fighting for the good roles,” Mendes said to NBC News. “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.”
Mendes and her husband, Ryan Gosling, are the joyful parents of two children, Esmeralda and Amada. She reflected on her home life and expressed happiness at the fact that her family comes first.
Parenting, she told Hoda Kotb in May 2022, is the “most creative thing” she’s ever done, and she enjoys the time she gets to spend with her children. In fact, she’s so invested in spending time with her kids that both Mendes and Gosling refuse to hire a nanny.
“I really took it back to when I was little,” Mendes said on TODAY. “My mom was able to be there for me at home until I was about 8 or 9, and those memories for me, that just formed who I was, those years with her.”
“And so I just felt lucky enough. I’m like, ‘Damn, I really want this time with them.’ And then now, you know, I’m obsessed,” she said.
Despite the disappointment of her admirers, Mendes has stated that she has no intention of giving up acting completely. Perhaps she will come back. No, she won’t be coming back as a nun, that much is certain.
