RYAN'S Untold Story

Starting a family with Eva Mendes changed everything for Barbie star Ryan Gosling

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When Ryan Gosling auditioned to play Noah in The Notebook more than 20 years ago, he got some humbling feedback. Director Nick Cassavetes "straight up told me," Ryan later admitted, that "[I had] no natural leading man qualities." But that, the filmmaker explained, "is why I want you to be my leading man," a surprised Ryan recalled. The gamble paid off: The former Mickey Mouse Club child actor's performance in the 2004 romance turned him into a mainstream movie star and his fame exploded. Roles in lauded movies like Half Nelson which earned Ryan his first Oscar nom - Lars and the Real Girl, Drive and Crazy, Stupid, Love followed.

Despite his incredibly successful career, though, Ryan, 42, wasn't happy. A decade ago, he announced he was - stepping away from Hollywood to regroup. "I've lost perspective on what I'm doing," he said at the time. "I think it's good for me to take a break." After working nonstop for years, "Ryan realized he hadn't taken time to focus on his own life," reveals a source, "and admitted to his family that he'd been feeling lost for a long time." Today, the Barbie and La La Land star is flourishing which the source says Ryan credits to that much-needed break, therapy, and the family that he and former The Place Beyond the Pines costar Eva Mendes have created. "I never knew that life could be this fun," he's raved of welcoming their daughters, Esmeralda, 8, and Amada, 7, "and this great." 

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