The actor on her love of fine wine, filming in Spain with Almodóvar icon Carmen Maura, her ‘cousin’ Meryl Streep and improving diversity in Hollywood
Actor, producer, director and activist Eva Longoria, 49, was born in Texas to Tejano parents. She’s best known for her role as Gabrielle Solis in hit 00s drama Desperate Housewives. Longoria has a charity, Eva’s Heroes, which supports young adults with developmental disabilities and a foundation that aims to improve the Latina education gap and Latino poverty. She now stars in Spanish- and English-language comedy thriller series Land of Women as a New York socialite on the run to her mother’s home town in rural Spain.
Land of Women is your first leading TV role for nearly a decade. What tempted you back?
I’ve been directing and needed something special to lure me out from behind the camera. A lot of TV is so depressing. It’s always the end of the world or some dystopian future where the government’s collapsed – and that’s a little too close to home. I wanted escapism and fun. Land of Women is adapted from this great novel by Sandra Barneda about three generations of women in the Spanish wine country. Nobody needed to twist my arm to shoot there. Female storytelling is so important. The fact that there are so many Latinos working on this project makes me proud, too.
