Eva Mendes opened about her relationship with her mother, Eva Perez Suarez, and poked fun at how similar they are to each other.
The 48-year-old actor took to Instagram this week to share a video of herself imitating her mother and explaining how she “sees everything through [her] eyes”. In the video, she could be seen walking around her home and reciting some of things her mother says in Spanish, which were translated to English via Google Translate.
“She says things like: ‘Oh look how beautiful this is. But why is the table so close? You can’t even walk here ,’” Mendes explained. “‘Oh, I almost killed myself here, and why do you have that there?’”
Mendes then laughed about her mother’s behaviour, explaining: “It’s a total compliment-complaint, compliment-complaint. She’s amazing at it and she’s always here with me.”
In the caption, the Hitch star asked her fans if they understood where she was coming from.
“Can you relate?! Is this a Cuban Mami thing or a universal Mami thing? She’s complaining but she likes it,” she wrote in the caption, which was translated from Spanish to English. “I [love] my Mommy!”
Fans in the comments agreed with the actor and shared that their parents have the same habits as Mendes’ mother.
“Yes! I speak in my mom’s voice in my head, all the time too…it’s a mom thing,” one wrote, while another said: “It must be a Cuban thing!! My mom was like that.”
A third person wrote: “Backhanded compliments [have] been coming in since the 99 and the 2000s!”
During an episode of Today with Hoda & Jenna in May, Mendes emotionally opened up about how her mother was struggling with her health.
“She’s not doing too well right now, so, means a lot to me,” Mendes responded at the time, after Kotb wished Suarez a Happy’s Mother’s Day. “She’s a survivor in every way, thank you.”
Although Mendes hasn’t given any further details about her mother’s health, she did share a rare selfie of them together on Instagram in September. In the caption, she wrote: “Hanging with the coolest of the cools…My hero.”
Mendes also shared a birthday tribute to her mother on Instagram in October, writing: “No post could ever come close to expressing what I feel for you, so I’ll keep it light….I love you! Besitos ! Love, Mimi.”
During her interview on Today, she explained why her relationship with her mother encouraged her to take a step back from acting and focus on her family. Mendes and her longtime partner, Ryan Gosling, share two daughters, Esmeralda, eight, and Amada, six.
“I really took it back to when I was little,” she said. “My mom was able to be there for me at home until I was about eight or nine and those memories for me, that just formed who I was, those years with her.”
