“Just came across this picture from a movie that was almost 20 years ago,” Eva Mendes wrote on May 6. The 47-year-old actress celebrated #ThrowBackThursday by sharing a still from what appears to be Once Upon A Time In Mexico (per E! News) to her Instagram. While many would look at this photo and see a glamorous young actress, Eva admitted there was a lot of turmoil going on behind those eyes. “I remember seeing this photo back then and thinking my face looked ‘weird’ and that my bone structure was odd …yadda yadda ..you know all those insecurities that a 26-year-old can have.”
“Meanwhile, 20 years later, and now I wish I still had that ‘weird’ face and odd ‘bone structure,’” the Holy Motors actress added. “Why’s my point? I’m not sure,” she added. “Maybe it’s if you hate a photo of yourself, wait 20 years, then you’ll love it. ‘Youth is wasted on the young’ -Oscar Wilde.”
This moment of honesty comes a few months after Eva clarified her feelings on plastic surgery. After an online commenter claimed that her recent social media silence was because “she had work done” and wasn’t “happy with it,” Eva responded by saying, “I’m posting less because I really want to be present for my family….as far as getting work done, I’ll do that whenever I please.” This like – “I’ll do that whenever I please” – got misconstrued as Eva saying she’s never had cosmetic surgery. This prompted Eva to respond to the response to her response.
“Kinda. Sorta. But not really,” she wrote. “Never ‘denied plastic surgery.’ All I did was reply to a specific comment on [social media]. Would never deny that stuff. I’m all for it. All. For It.” Eva also took umbrage with people saying she “clapped back” at the troll. “I don’t clap back. I try to connect/communicate. That’s all. Wanted to clear that up.”
Eva, who celebrated her 47th Birthday in March, has spent the year focusing on caring for her and Ryan Gosling’s kids – Esmeralda, 6, and Amada, 5 — during the pandemic. Shortly after she clarified her stance on going under the knife, she posted that she was in “full-on Mom mode,” which resulted in her graduating “from my man’s sweats to a robe.” Eva also said that her daughters “are getting my full-on attention. It’s challenging, for sure, but they need me now more than ever.”