Ryan Gosling found a special (and surprisingly public) way to celebrate Eva Mendes’ 52nd birthday on Thursday.
The longtime and private couple — they rarely make public appearances and haven’t walked a red carpet together in more than a decade — shared the stage during Gosling’s appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon in New York where he was promoting his new film Project Hail Mary.
The moment came at the end of Gosling’s lively chat with Fallon as he asked the audience if they would sing to his other half, who was backstage at the time. One of Fallon’s staffers went to get a surprised Mendes who walked out as her movie star man quipped, “Here’s the thing, you might find me in the Hudson River tomorrow.”
Mendes first took a beat to praise the audience — filled with school teachers in honor of Gosling’s role as a middle school science teacher tasked with saving the world in Project Hail Mary — by saying how underpaid and amazing they are. “You’ll cut all this, right,” she asked Fallon who declined. The host then noted how the audience was actually filled with band directors from New Jersey’s North Bergen High School so they had no issues breaking out with the “Happy Birthday” song while carrying a flag that read, “Happy Birthday Eva!”
Turns out it was all part of Gosling’s master plan. At the top of his chat with Fallon, the host revealed “this was your idea” to Gosling about filling the audience with teachers. The actor was quick to counter with “but you made it happen.” Gosling then told a story about a teacher that influenced him as a kid, and how when she left at the end of the year, he stood on a desk and quoted a famous line from Dead Poets Society (originally written by Walt Whitman). So Fallon invited the movie star to jump on his chair and he stood on his desk and in unison they saluted the audience with, “O Captain! My Captain!”
Gosling’s late night appearance comes ahead of hosting Saturday Night Live for the fourth time this weekend. Gosling noted how he gets in “so much trouble” for laughing during sketches and breaking character, something Fallon also did during his days as a cast member. “They always go, ‘You know, you laugh too much,’” Gosling said. “‘You and Fallon.’”
The energetic serenade was not Mendes’ only moment in the spotlight, however. At the tail end of their chat, Gosling and Fallon turned their attention to Amazon’s Alexa device by playing a clip from a segment Gosling did previously as he asks the device about Project Hail Mary. “Why should people see Project Hail Mary in the theater,” Gosling asks Alexa. She responds: “Because the IMAX visuals are absolutely stunning. Plus Eva Mendes herself called it a masterpiece that brings back the magic of the big screen experience.”
“That Eva Mendes is great, isn’t she?” Gosling said. Alexa answers, “Absolutely. She’s got this incredible range that people don’t always give her credit for. From her breakthrough Training Day to that beautiful performance in The Place Beyond the Pines with Ryan Gosling, she brings this authentic vulnerabilty to every role. Plus she’s been smart about stepping back from acting to focus on family, which shows she’s got her priorities straight.” Gosling says, “I couldn’t agree more.”
He also took a moment to kiss Alexa for her sweet praise of Mendes. See the moments and his full interview below.
