Eva Mendes says she would come out of retirement for Ryan Gosling

There’s only one actor who could convince Eva Mendes to return to screens — and she just so happens to be married to him.

Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling.

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The actress turned entrepreneur, who retired from her film career in 2014, recently told the U.K.’s Sunday Times that she would gladly make her return if she could act alongside her husband, Ryan Gosling, again.

“I was never in love with acting,” Mendes admitted to the outlet. “I don’t mean this in a self-deprecating way, but I wasn’t a great actress. I had my moments when I worked with really great people.”

Mendes not only confirmed that her husband is among those greats, but noted that their two films together still hold a special place in her heart. “He gets something out of me that’s never been accessible before,” she shared.

While Mendes has no regret about leaving the profession behind, she hinted that sharing the screen with Gosling could certainly motivate a change of heart. “That’s the one thing I would love to do,” she said.

Mendes and Gosling first crossed paths while filming The Place Beyond the Pines in 2011, and the two began dating after the film wrapped. Her next and final role would be in Gosling’s directorial debut, Lost River. The typically private couple went on to wed in secret and now share daughters Esmerelda, 10, and Amada, 8.

Prior to stepping away from acting, Mendes appeared in such films as Training Day, Hitch, and recurred in the Fast and Furious franchise. But for every blockbuster that she landed, there was a frustrating rejection or less than thrilling gig.

“There were some pretty s—-y roles,” the actress told the Times, noting that she was often overlooked due to her Cuban heritage. “That’s all they would say at the beginning — ‘She’s too ethnic for this, too ethnic for that.’ It was so crazy. That was the constant note. Then, at some point, it switched to ‘Oh, ethnic is cool now’ or ‘Being Latina is cool.’ It gave me energy because it would make me so mad and then I’d get that fuel that I needed.”

Mendes now focuses her energy on raising her daughters, who are homeschooled, in addition to other business ventures. The actress has designed clothes for New York & Company, modeled for Estée Lauder, and serves as a co-owner and spokesperson for Skura Style, a sponge business.  Her latest project was penning the personal picture book, Desi, Mami, and the Never-Ending Worries.

“I still have the same level of ambition as I had before,” Mendes said. “It just has shifted.”

The past decade has seen Mendes talk openly about her decision to hit pause on acting, in which she often reiterates that she has no regrets and loves her gig as a stay-at-home-mom.

“It was like a no-brainer,” Mendes said of the decision earlier this year. “I’m so lucky, and I was like, if I can have this time with my children — and I’ve still worked, I just didn’t act, because acting takes you on locations, it takes you away.”

In a September interview, she added that she felt especially satisfied with her career after such a successful collaboration with Gosling. “I just worked with Ryan Gosling, who’s, like, the best. And I had such a — I don’t know — it was such a high off my career to work with him and what we created together that I was like, ‘This is a good time to just Seinfeld it and just walk out.’”