10 Things You Didn’t Know About Eva Mendes

Eva Mendes, born Eva de la Caridad Mendez, is an American actress, model, and business woman who loves pizza, dogs, and, of course, Ryan Gosling.

She was born in Miami, Florida.

Miami welcomed Eva Mendes into the world on March 5, 1974.

She met her BAE (Ryan Gosling) on the set of The Place Beyond The Pines

In 2011, Mendes began dating Gosling. They now have two daughters, Esmeralda Amada and Amanda Lee. Fun fact – she’s only been on a motorcycle once, which was when Gosling’s character gave her a ride home.

She’s apparently very supportive of therapy.

“I think if you can go, if you have the means to go and you find the right person…” Mendes told Vulture. “I love it. And I think [therapy] has such a bad rep, too. I’m actually a painfully, painfully private person, but I’ve mentioned that in my interviews and stuff before because I just kind of would like to try to kill the stigma of it, you know? I think it’s such a positive thing, if you find the right person.”

She was bullied as a child

“I was a gawky, skinny girl with big teeth and that made me an easy target. I had two bullies and they tortured me all through junior high school. At the time I couldn’t understand why they kept taunting me. Only later could I see that I was showing them my fear and that’s what they were pouncing on. I’m sure those experiences explain why I’ve been so anxiety-ridden in my adult life,” Mendes told The Daily Mail.

Before she was an actress, she was a music video babe

Before Mendes landed a spot on the big screen, she starred in a few music videos. In 1996, she starred in the Pet Shop Boys’ music video for “Se a vida é (That’s the Way Life Is).” Just one year later, Mendes appeared in Aerosmith’s music video for “Hole in My Soul.” Then in 1998, she was in Will Smith’s video for “Miami,” and in 2004, she was in The Strokes’ music video for “The End Has No End.”

She was listed on Ask Men’s “Top 99 Most Desirable Women” list, twice

Mendes was voted number four in the 2008 edition, and number one in the 2009 edition, of AskMen.com’s “Top 99 Most Desirable Women.”

When she was younger, she wanted to be a nun

“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,'” Mendes told BANG Showbiz. “And my sister said to me one day when I was 10, ‘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.”

She’s a child of divorce

When Eva was 10 years old, her parents divorced and her mother moved Eva, along with her two brothers (Juan Carolos and Carlo) and her sister (Janet) to the Los Angeles suburb, Glendale.

She’s “obsessed” with cemeteries

“I’ve always had a fascination with them [cemeteries],” Mendes told The Daily Mail. “I don’t hang out at those places, but I do feel very peaceful walking through some ancient cemetery full of beautiful tombstones. Some of the ones we have in LA just don’t have that ancient quality about them. For a cemetery to touch me, it has to have history. My all-time favorite cemetery is Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, where Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are buried. That’s one of my favorite places on Earth.”

Her dog’s name is Hugo and he’s a trained attack dog

“He’s my security, but he’s also my companion, so he goes with me everywhere,” Mendes told Vulture. Gosling’s dog, George, is a mutt. “He’s a one-of-a-kind,” Mendes said. “There’s only one of him.”

[Featured Image by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Reebok]