Last week, we wondered whether or not Eva Mendes would walk the red carpet with Ryan Gosling. Ryan and Eva have a long-established policy of not walking red carpets together, but I really thought they would do it. Alas, I was wrong! The streak continues. Instead, Ryan took his sister, Mandi, and his mom, Donna, and her husband as his dates. While Eva didn’t walk the red carpet with her man, she was backstage at some point, cheering him on. Eva posted some pictures in Ryan’s dressing room, including one of her wearing the sparkly pink jacket from Ryan’s amaaazing performance of “I’m Just Ken,” which was literally everything I wanted it to be and so much more.
Eva Mendes kept it low-key at the 2024 Oscars — but still found a way to show up for longtime love Ryan Gosling.
Mendes, 50, opted to skip the red carpet at the Sunday, March 10, awards show, instead choosing to support Gosling, 43, from backstage. Prior to the ceremony, the actress took to Instagram to share a photo of herself outside Gosling’s dressing room, captioning the post, “Always by my man.”
After Gosling took the stage to sing his Barbie Oscar-nominated song, “I’m Just Ken,” Mendes posted a second behind-the-scenes Instagram snap where she donned the bright pink-studded suit jacket, black cowboy hat and matching sunnies that the actor wore during his performance.
“You took Ken all the way to the Oscars, RG,” she wrote alongside the event pic. “Now come home, we need to put the kids to bed.”
“I’m Just Ken” was up for Best Original Song at the 96th Academy Awards, ultimately losing out to another Barbie track, Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made for?” which was the film’s only win of the night.
Barbie received eight nominations in total, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Production Design and Best Costume Design.
Gosling also received a Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination for the role of Ken, a win that went to Robert Downey Jr. for Oppenheimer.
Sunday’s ceremony wraps up this year’s awards circuit for Gosling and his Barbie castmates. Despite the film’s global success — it brought in more than $1 billion at the box office — Mendes’ brother, Carlo Mendez, exclusively told Us Weekly that Gosling’s main focus will always be parenting his daughters, Esmeralda, 9, and Amada, 7.
You know, I have to admire the decade-plus commitment to not walking a red carpet together. It was nice to see that Eva was there to support Ryan regardless! The Instagrams were posted before the ceremony, and she’s not dressed like she’s at the Oscars, so my guess is that she was at a final dress rehearsal. I searched around but couldn’t find confirmation either way. And while it would have been amazing to get a new Eva red carpet fashion moment, the picture of her wearing the pink Ken jacket was awesome, too. It makes me wonder if Ryan got to take that sparkly jacket home, hehe.
Speaking of “I’m Just Ken,” a video is going around from Francesca Scorsese, who filmed her dad Martin reacting to the performance. It’s pretty damn delightful. Some of Ryans’ performances from the Mickey Mouse Club back in the day have also resurfaced. Vanity Fair has a great piece that talks about how the entire “I’m Just Ken” performance came together. Most of it was Ryan’s idea, including honoring Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” performance, the bit with the cameraman, and having Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, America Ferrara, and Emma Stone participate in the singalong. I love that so much.
Photos credit: SRS / Avalon, Al Seib ©A.M.P.A.S. / Avalon, Nick Agro / Avalon, Avalon.red / Avalon