Ryan Gosling says he knew he wanted a family from Eva Mendes after they played a pretend family on screen

Ryan Gosling is giving a rare peak into his family life. The actor revealed that when he met his now partner Eva Mendes he almost immediately knew he wanted a family with her.

The two met while on set for the 2012 film ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ where they played a couple with a young child together. Since then, the couple now has two daughters together.

“I wasn’t thinking about kids before I met her, but after I met Eva, I realized that I just didn’t want to have kids without her,” he shares with GQ.

A life he would be lucky to have

“And there were moments on ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ where we were pretending to be a family, and I didn’t really want it to be pretend anymore,” he continues. “I realized that this would be a life I would be really lucky to have.”

The ‘La La Land’ actor explained why she took a four-year break from actor, explaining that the decision came after Mendes had their second child in 2016.

He says, “I wanted to spend as much time as I could with” his two daughters, Amada Lee, 7, and Esmeralda Amada, 8. He explained that his break from working also helped him establish clear boundaries between his personal life and career.

“I treat it more like work now, and not like it’s, you know, therapy,” Gosling tells GQ. “It’s a job, and I think in a way that allows me to be better at it because there’s less interference.”

Keeping the family together

Last year, Mendes spoke to The Daily Telegraph about her decision to homeschool their children while the couple travels for work.

“I don’t do the homeschooling myself because I’ve tried that and it’s not one of my strengths,” she told the publication.

The actress added that she has a “strong belief” that you should “try to always keep a family together, no matter what you’re doing.”

“Especially when the children are small,” she continued.

“We’re lucky enough to have someone we travel with that can continue their education at this point, and what we do is we try to incorporate the city we’re in as much as possible,” Mendes added, noting that her kids have picked up “Aussie twangs” as the family recently spent some time in Australia.