When Eva Longoria looks back on her time in the lead role Desperate Housewives, admits that at the time she did not see the role as an opportunity to start Latin American actors. In an exclusive clip obtained by PEOPLE from the upcoming prime time slot Latinos in Hollywood: We own our destiny, Longoria, 49, admitted that she did not understand that her portrait of Gabrielle Solis on Desperate Housewives helped move the needle forward for Latinx representation in Hollywood.
“I didn’t know it was a big deal,” she says. “People kept telling me, ‘This is a big deal.’ I was a Mexican girl with a white gardener.”
Longoria’s humility belies her remarkable achievement as Gabrielle. Not only did she deliver a “complex,” “nuanced” and “layered” performance, as host Jack Rico points out in the primetime slot, she was also the highest-grossing TV actress at the time. “She was breaking through ceilings and there was nothing that could stop her,” adds Rico.
Eva Longoria looked back on 20 years Desperate Housewives and Jokes, ‘I haven’t aged!’
Eva Longoria in Hollywood, California in March 2024.
Emma McIntyre/Getty
Desperate Housewives, which ran for eight seasons from 2004 to 2012, not only catapulted Longoria to stardom, but also proved to be an excellent training ground for the aspiring director and producer.
“I always had the desire to be behind the camera, and I used it Desperate Housewives as my film school,” she continues.
The show “changed everything” for Longoria, she admitted during an appearance on the Today with Hoda and Jenna in June.
“It was the decade of my life and it was the number 1 show in the world, so I just remember the first time I went to London. I had never been to London before, and there was a large crowd of people outside the hotel. And I said, ‘God, who’s here? Is Bono here? Someone important must be here!’ And the driver said, ‘You…’ And I said, ‘No, someone like that, big. Like a big deal!”
“And he didn’t understand that I didn’t understand,” the actress continued. “The global reach of that show, at a time when there was no streaming.”
Everything about Eva Longoria’s parents, mom Ella Mireles and dad Enrique Longoria Jr.
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Jesse Metcalfe and Eva Longoria in ‘Desperate Housewives’.
Craig Sjodin/Disney General Entertainment via Getty
In the years that followed, Longoria put her honed directing, producing and acting skills to good use. In 2023, she directed a docudrama Flamin’ Hot. In the same year she hosted a CNN documentary Eva Longoria: In Search of Mexicoo She recently executive produced and starred in the Spanish-language Apple TV+ limited series The land of women.
Although The land of women required Longoria to tackle Castilian Spanish, it proved a welcome challenge.
“I was like my brain hurt at the end of the day. But it was a pleasure – she said AP in July. “I love exploring new characters through language or accents.”
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Latinos in Hollywood: We own our destiny premiering at 8:00 PM ET on Friday, October 11 on ABC and airing the following day on Hulu.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education