Eva Mendes on Working With Husband Ryan Gosling for First Time: “Never Experienced Anything Like That”

Eva Mendes is taking a trip down memory lane, all the way back to working with her now-husband Ryan Gosling for the first time.

During an interview on the Today show Tuesday, the actress and businesswoman opened up about initially meeting the Oscar-nominated actor while filming their 2012 movie The Place Beyond the Pines.

“I’ve never experienced anything like that,” Mendes recalled. “The way he works, his commitment to his craft, how he wants to make everything as best as it can be — and that means making his co-stars as best as they can be.”

She added, “Unfortunately — or fortunately — there’s only one Ryan, so I pretty much stopped acting after that.”

Since then, the pair have continued to keep their relationship out of the spotlight, finding subtle ways to show their support for each other, such as Mendes’ sweet Instagram post following Gosling’s dazzling “I’m Just Ken” Oscars performance.

Elsewhere in her latest interview, Mendes also shared that taking a step back from her more than a decade-long acting career to focus on raising their two daughters, Esmeralda Amada, 9, and Amada Lee, 7, was not a difficult decision.

“It was like a no-brainer. I’m so lucky, and I was like, if I could have this time with my children — and I still work, I just didn’t act, because acting takes you on location,” she said. “It takes you away. It was almost just like a non-verbal agreement that it was like, ‘OK, he’s [Gosling] going to work and I’m going to work. I’m just going to work here.'”