Eva Longoria: Not So Desperate Housewife

Just two years ago, Texas-born Eva Longoria was a little-known actress whose biggest claim to fame was a role on The Young & the Restless. But getting cast as materialistic philanderer Gabrielle Solis on ABCs breakout hit Desperate Housewives turned the former model into an overnight sensation, leading to magazine covers, endorsement deals and tabloid tales about her relationship with NBA star Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs. Recently Longoria made the leap to the big screen as a gun-toting Secret Service agent in The Sentinel, in which she stars opposite Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland. The smart, savvy sexpot recently sat down with reporters in Los Angeles to discuss sex, guns and her b-ball boyfriend.

When the opportunity came for you to star in your first movie, what criteria were you looking for?
I really wanted to pick something opposite of Desperate Housewives. I get to play a lot of colors with Gabrielle-- she's really funny and dramatic and big-- so it was really hard to pick a script that actually challenged me in a way that Desperate Housewives didn't. When I read The Sentinel I thought it was really clever, it keeps you on the edge of your seat, and it has Michael Douglas, Keifer Sutherland and Kim Basinger. And this character is a lot closer to who I am as a person.

How so?
I grew up a tomboy, so the action and athleticism of the role is more me. I've been shooting guns since I was five with my dad; we used to go target shooting all the time, so for me it was easy to do. I could really relate to Jill a lot more than I would ever relate to Gabrielle.

Were you required to do any kind of research?
Yeah, you have to be very specific because you want the audience to believe you. So they sent us documentaries on the Secret Service before we started, which was really fascinating. [We learned] where it originated and what the purpose is, then we went to training with Secret Service retirees and did tactical training, classroom training and firearms training.

Do you ever look at what you do for a living and think it's all a little weird?
Yeah, I think that every day. That's why I don't take anything seriously critics, reviews, paparazzi, the public... I'm like, you guys, we're not curing cancer. We're acting! [Laughter]. It's a simple process, so I always think that what we do is silly. We're playing make-believe every day and getting paid.

Is that why you wanted to be an actress?
I think I just love pretending to be something else. It's fun to put yourself in someone else's shoes and make up all the choices that you think this person would make in these circumstances. It's a game, so I love the fact that I play. It's just like my boyfriend, Tony. I think what he does is silly, too. He plays basketball as a form of entertainment, so he's basically playing a game.

But why does a kid from Texas want to be an actor in the first place?
It just happened, but not until after college. I didn't come here until I was 23, and even then I was like, I think I'm going to try the acting thing. It wasn't a childhood dream. I didn't long for it. We didn't grow up with movies, because we couldn't really afford it. We grew up with network TV, watching Three's Company and The Jeffersons. I didn't grow up looking at movie stars and going, I want to be that! The role models in my life were my mom, my aunts, my sisters... the actual people in my life.

How involved are you in the Latino community? Are your roots important to you?
Absolutely. It defines what I do, how I do it, how I present myself and who I am. All my charity work is Latin-oriented because I didn't have a Latin role model growing up, so I want to expose myself to those children who can see themselves in me and aspire to be successful like me.

Was Gabrielle originally meant to be a Latino character?
Yeah. Marc Cherry grew up with a guy named Gabriel Solis, who lived down the street from him. They had the biggest house on the block and were richer than him, but he never noticed there was a difference between them. So he knew he wanted a Latin family on the show that was the same as everybody else on the block, and whose ethnicity never is really in question.

Desperate Housewives has done wonders for women in general on television. Is that one of the gratifying things about it?
Absolutely. Here's a show with four female leads when, as a woman, you're always the girlfriend or wife or partner of the guy that's the lead. So this proves that women can carry a show, and it also raises the expiration date to show that women over 40 can still be fun and sexy and entertaining.

Were you surprised the show became a hit?
Yeah, absolutely! I was probably the most surprised because I was just really naive. Teri, Nicolette, Felicity and Marcia had all experienced hit shows. Marcia kept telling me, Get ready, it's going to be big! And I'm like, Ready for what? What are you talking about?! Then it hit, and I'm like, Oh my God, THIS is what you're talking about! It was great, though. Our first year, and even our second year, I couldn't keep up with all the good news.

What about the craziness that brings to your life?
I consider myself really blessed to have the show, and I'm also lucky to have a great family and great friends around me who are very grounding. Tony is really grounding as well. So for me, I think the craziness comes when you start to believe your own hype and get caught up in all of the superficiality of our business. Felicity gave me the best advice: It's all about the work. Just always make it about the work and good things will come. That's what we've been doing.

How are you picking scripts now?
I would love to do a romantic comedy, just because that's the kind of movie I love. But probably 80% of the scripts I get are dramatic.

Why, because Gabrielle is so sexually comic?
I think that's why. I think people see something else in me. I haven't been pigeonholed at all. I've gotten very few sexy offers, to the point where I'm getting annoyed, going, Hey, where's the sexy stuff?! I'm not adamant about going against sexy. I'm going with sexy as long as I can do it, because women have an expiration date in this business. But I'm really lucky that I haven't seen a pattern of scripts. I've seen a big range of things that are pretty exciting. I'm having a really difficult time picking a script to do this summer because there are so many good ones.

Do you see Desperate Housewives going all seven years?
Well, we haven't slowed down. Critics say, Ratings slump for Desperate Housewives! But we're getting like 25 million [viewers]? Even if we slowed down by half, it's still a highly rated show. If we were only getting 14 million a week, that's still better than 90% of the shows on television. So I don't think we're going anywhere soon. I keep hoping we'll go seven years, and that's it.

Will motherhood slow Gabrielle down?
No, I think it brings a lot of opportunities for more comedic things. She's still going to be Gabrielle. She still ain't gonna change diapers.

What about the show makes it such a popular sensation?
I think it's the first show that actually exercises the voice of the modern woman. It's not Leave it to Beaver, it's not The Brady Bunch, and it's not The Cosby Show. It really reflects the current status of women in today's society. You can be married, be divorced, have children, not have children, go to work, stay home... You have so many choices and, because of that, I think women identify with one or all of the four women. I think that's truly the success of the show, and I think it's universally successful because every country deals with those issues.

Is it difficult to deal with all the interest in your private life?
It's hard to protect yourself from the media because, if you don't give them what they want, they're still going to make it up anyway. I did a wonderful article in Allure about The Sentinel, then they talked about personal stuff. [We were] talking about Tony and me, and I said, I'm the experienced one. I'm the one that's been married, divorced, engaged and broken up, so I'm the experienced one in the relationship. He's been in one serious relationship. But it got torn apart by tabloids saying I was the sex teacher and Tony's only been with one person sexually. I was like, Where do you get that from?! You got that from this beautiful article? So you can't win. I dated somebody before Tony that I was very private about, so they were like, Trouble in Paradise: Eva Doesn't Speak. With Tony I've been open about it, saying, We're great. We're in love. Theyre like, 'Trouble in Paradise: Eva Speaks Out. You cannot win.

What's the weirdest rumor you read?
There was one time a magazine wrote that Eva Longoria was seen fleeing Frederick's of Hollywood in purple panties and bra. She yelled at the valet to pull her silver BMW around-- I don't drive a silver BMW-- because her golden retriever, Razzles-- I don't have a golden retriever-- was going into emergency surgery. And she ran out as the people chased her, got in the car, threw money in the street and peeled out. First of all, Frederick's doesn't have a valet, nor have I ever been to Frederick's of Hollywood.

So what is the fascination?
I think it's the bounty that's put upon us for pictures and gossip because of the demand with all the new magazines. I don't understand how they stay afloat, but then I'll see somebody reading it and think, Well, there's the demand. The Internet is insane. If it's printed on one site, it must be factual. It's getting worse.