Celebrity Interview - Eva Longoria - Comments

Eva Longoria

Poster: 01/11/2005

Recently turned 30, Eva Longoria is the perfect character for soap operas. She was born in Texas, of Latin origin, though she doesn't speak a word of Spanish - and refined her skills as an actress in the series The Young and the Restless, which was on US TV screens long before she was born. Now she is one of the Desperate Housewives, unfaithful wife Gabrielle Solis, and pleased with her role as a "trophy woman" in the comedy which (in Spain) can be seen on TVE-1 and Fox (Digital+). A love affair with an under-age gardener provides her with the passion she can't find in her marriage with Carlos. And Carlos provides her with the money that maintains her high-maintenance lifestyle. In this exclusive interview she speaks to Diario El Pais's Javier del Pino (translation by Pamela Sauca Hunt)

What is the difference between Desperate Housewives and a conventional soap opera?
I can't really compare them, as Desperate Housewives is a different product. It's "dramedia", half drama, half comedy; it's a thriller, it's mystery. And there is no comparison between the intelligence of these scripts and those of any other series.

Your character is controversial because she maintains a relationship with a minor and she has married for money. In such a conservative society like that in the US, has ABC TV put the producers under any pressure for your character to be less daring?
No, and I'm very surprised that they haven't. At the beginning I thought they would soon eliminate the character, but it has become one of the most popular, partly because it's favoured by the female audience. A lot of women find themselves in the same situation: a marriage without love, a relationship without passion...

But do you think this is a normal profile: a Hispanic woman, young and attractive, married for money?
I believe this is the first series which describes a positive image for the Hispanic community. At last we are the rich ones in the neighbourhood, and we have a white gardener. In the series, my husband and I are people with style. Nobody looks at us badly; we are not the racial minority. Up till now, Hispanics who appeared on TV were cleaning ladies or gardeners.

Do you think the Wisteria Lane model, the street where the Desperate Housewives live, is recognisable in other countries, like Spain?
I don't know about Spain, but in the UK the series is doing really well, mainly because black comedy was born there. We are very interested to see how it works in Spain and Germany, as in these countries values are very different from those in the United States. Perhaps my character will be a problem for them, but we only want to make people laugh and think.

Don't tell me you think Spain is a more conservative country than the US...
No, the Americans are really too conservative. They have complained about some of the storylines in the series, but in television, nowadays, there is much more violence than sex. I prefer there to be more sex, because it's no harm to anybody, and see one of my colleagues naked than Bruce Willis shooting about.

Are you worried, as actors and actresses, that increasingly there are fewer fiction series and more reality shows?
That's one of the reasons our series has worked out so well: people are beginning to get tired of so much reality. The audience wants entertaining and intelligent products.

Contracts have been signed for seven years. Do you know what is going to happen with the characters?
We don't know anything until we read the script every week. On that day, we are afraid our character may be shot down.

Comments

There are currently no comments for this entry.

Back to top