While looking back on his relationship with Eva, Ryan explained that the moment he knew he wanted to be a dad came as soon as "Eva said she was pregnant."
"I would never want to go back, you know?" he told GQ. "I’m glad I didn’t have control over my destiny in that way, because it was so much better than I ever had dreamed for myself."
But upon further reflection about becoming a dad for the first time, Ryan admitted he had actually been thinking about it the whole time they were filming The Place Beyond the Pines.
"I mean, it’s true that I wasn’t thinking about kids before I met her, but after I met Eva, I realized that I just didn’t want to have kids without her," Ryan explained.
He continued, "And there were moments on The Place Beyond the Pines where we were pretending to be a family, and I didn’t really want it to be pretend anymore."
Ryan said filming made him realize that it "would be a life I would be really lucky to have."
He also went on to share that it was that life with his family that influenced his decision to take a step back from Hollywood after filming La La Land and Blade Runner 2049.
Eva had just welcomed their second child, and Ryan realized he "wanted to spend as much time as I could with them."
And while he ultimately decided to return to acting four years later, he still is sure to put his family first.
