Ryan Gosling Won't Take 'Dark' Roles to Benefit Eva Mendes and Kids

Ryan Gosling will no longer take on psychologically twisted roles for the benefit of longtime partner Eva Mendes and their two daughters.

“I don’t really take roles that are going to put me in some kind of dark place,” Gosling, 43, told the Wall Street Journal in a new interview published Thursday, May 2. “This moment is what I feel like trying to read the room at home and feel like what is going to be best for all of us. The decisions I make, I make them with Eva and we make them with our family in mind first.”

The actor went on to tell the outlet that his and Emma Stone‘s 2016 musical, La La Land, was the “first” film that kickstarted his career shift.

“It was just sort of like, ‘Oh, this will be fun for them, too, because even though they’re not coming to set, we’re practicing piano every day or we’re dancing or we’re singing,’” he explained. “Their interest in Barbie and their disinterest in Ken was an inspiration. I thought, they were already making little movies about their Barbies on the iPad when it happened, so the fact that I was going off to work to make one too, we just felt like we were aligned.”

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Gosling – who stars opposite Emily Blunt in the action/comedy movie The Fall Guy, in theaters Friday, May 3 – also explained to WSJ how his mentality on making movies changed from the earlier days of his career.

“I think for so long I was just trying to pay the bills and work,” he said. “It’s only recently that I feel like I realized that I have this opportunity to actually make the kind of films that made me love movies.”

Though Gosling walked the red carpet solo at the Fall Guy premiere earlier this week, he couldn’t help but gush about Mendes, 50, and their daughters on his big night.

“She is with the girls, and when she works, I stay home with the girls, too. I couldn’t be here without her,” Gosling told Extra at the event. (The couple, who have been together since 2011, share daughters Esmeralda, 9, and Amada, 8.)

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Gosling went on to reveal that in addition to being his longtime love and holding down the fort when he’s working, Mendes has “become the best acting coach I have ever had,” adding, “It’s endless how much she helps me.”

As his “acting coach,” Gosling said there was one request Mendes had when it came to filming dangerous stunts for The Fall Guy. “Don’t do fire,” he told Extra. “It was a request from my kids, too: ‘Do a stunt movie, but don’t get set on fire.’”