An Interview with Eva Longoria

Shooting has begun on the third season of 'Desperate Housewives' and, along with fellow suburban femmes fatales Teri Hatcher et al, Eva Longoria is gearing up for another year as one of the world's hottest women. She's even bagged a two-million dollar a year contract as a L'Oréal cover girl.

She also stars in the upcoming political thriller, 'The Sentinel', playing a US Secret Service agent tracking down Michael Douglas who has been framed as a would-be assassin. It's the kind of solid piece of acting which is part of Longoria's plan to let Housewives keep her a fixture in the public eye, while doing movies in the summer hiatus to boost her post-Wisteria Lane career.

Meanwhile, the 31-year-old Longoria and her 25-year-old beau Tony Parker remain one of LA's happiest couples and spend much of their time denying rumours that they're officially engaged or planning to have children in the near future.

Eva, you have a top-rated series that is also an international hit, you're in a high-profile film with Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland, and you've signed a major cosmetics 'spokesmodel' deal. Is this as good as it gets?
It's so strange to sit here and think about things like that when I can still remember getting fired from 'The Young and the Restless' and having people tell me that my career was all washed up. I never believed that, I never gave up on myself, and I always had faith that I would somehow, in some way, make my mark as an actress.

'Desperate Housewives' gave me that chance, and I'm enjoying the ride. But I'm still pushing as hard as I can to keep other avenues open, and 'The Sentinel' is the kind of film that's going to help build my career whenever Housewives comes to an end.

Is it true that the series producers keep threatening to kill off one of your characters this year if anyone gets out of line or throws tantrums on the set?
No. That's such nonsense. There are no tantrums on our set. We're all too professional to let that happen and a lot of people are just looking to exaggerate minor things and turn them into scandals because women are the stars of this series and automatically that means there are catfights going on - which there aren't.

In 'The Sentinel', you play a pretty tough female Secret Service agent. Apparently, you're a terrific shot on the practice range, were you a tough kid growing up?
I had to be tough because I looked very strange compared to my sisters who were all fair-skinned and tall and beautiful. I was constantly being picked on by my sisters and at school and I developed a pretty thick skin about my looks. I grew up with a chip on my shoulder from being considered very unattractive.

So I learned to make people laugh and had a pretty sharp mouth when it came to putting people in their place if I was getting teased. It was a matter of survival in high school. Then, in my last two years of school, I suddenly blossomed, filled out, and I had to adjust to guys craning their necks whenever I walked down the hall.

Did the sudden attention tempt you to torture guys as a way of taking revenge for suffering abuse when you were younger?
No. That was never part of my character. I was just happy to be getting a lot of attention. But I did make it a point to lord it over my sisters and other girls in my school who had teased me all my life. So I would go out with this really hot guy in my school and walk past the other girls and sort of say, 'Hey girls, go stuff yourselves,' or something to that effect.

Did you use your looks as a weapon later in life?
I'm still locked in the mindset that I'm not the kind of girl who gets that much attention! There are so many beautiful women in this business that I don't think I stand out that much. I'm short, I'm dark-skinned, and I don't fit the classic sex symbol mode. And I keep seeing myself on these sexiest women lists and it's kind of flattering, but I don't believe it in some way.

I don't mind that attention, of course, I'm a woman, after all, but I don't have that 'I'm so hot' kind of mentality. I can turn it on for work, or for my man, but I just don't think of myself that way.

So you don't find it empowering to be able to walk into any room and turn men on?
Oh, that does give you kind of a kick! But I'm not an attention junkie. Once in a while, if I have a hot outfit on, I don't mind getting noticed and being a bit tantalising. But Tony hates that. He's more old-fashioned and jealous that way and I love that!

What about being in public? Are you aware of your celebrity and being noticed all the time?
It's always a pleasant surprise to me to be recognised and have people come up to me. It took me a while to get to this point in my career and it hasn't really hit me that I'm getting to be well known. I pay more attention to what I wear in public, though, because you don't want to see paparazzi photos of yourself in some horrible pair of sweatpants. I'm not that self-conscious about my celebrity, though, and I don't ever want to get to that point because I have a lot of fun in life and I just want to live normally and not feel that I'm different from everyone else.

Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if you hadn't been fired from 'The Young and the Restless'? Do you think you would have stayed a soap opera star?
No. It was never my intention to stay on that show forever. I always wanted to move on to films or to prime-time TV series. I always had that as my goal. But in this business you can never let yourself feel trapped or depressed if want to get ahead. You never know what's around the corner for you. Eva Mendes and I once had this long conversation about fate. We both met each other doing auditions for 'Spanglish'. If I had gotten the role, I would not have been able to do Housewives and Eva, if she had won the part, would never have done 'Hitch', which was a huge success for her. And in the end 'Spanglish' was a flop. So who is to say what project is going to take your career to the next level. That's why I always believe that you should live in hope and follow your ambitions and dreams to wherever they take you. You should never give up if you want something badly enough.

You've earned a lot of attention for your body and looks. Does it place pressure on you to wear revealing clothes whenever you're in public?
No. I don't need to be constantly pushing the envelope that way. I wore the white bathing suit at the MTV awards and that got a lot of attention, maybe more than I wanted, because I didn't really think about how out there it would strike people. I love sexy outfits in general, although I think clothes have become so revealing and so provocative it's more a question of style that you have to be worried about. There's a fine line you have to walk between sexy and trashy and you never want to cross that.

Does Tony ever get annoyed with all the attention paid to you?
He can be a bit jealous if he sees guys being overly friendly with me and he has this kind of glare which can be pretty intimidating - plus he's a big guy and he has this way of walking and body language which lets other guys know that they're spending too much time with me!

Does he ever tease you about the 'sex teacher' interview you gave last year?
We had a big laugh about that. First, I never said that. I only meant to say that I had been in more relationships than Tony because I'm older and I didn't mean much more than that.

I was always impressed by the fact that Tony was so mature for his age and that he had learned to deal with his celebrity status as a basketball star even before I became known for doing 'Housewives'. There was never any case of either of us 'teaching' each other sex but we have had a lot of fun learning from each other in the best sense possible.

You've said Tony is pretty shy...
In public. In private, in small groups, he's pretty sure of himself. He also can be very charming.

Is it tough to be in a relationship with someone you obviously love very deeply yet are forced to spend a lot of time apart from?
It actually makes our relationship and our time together that much more intense. It's almost like being in a long-distance relationship, except we make it a point to spend almost every weekend together. And when we're together, we're always so glad to see each other that we never waste any time arguing or worrying about stupid things like you do if you're constantly at home with someone and things become very routine. This way I get to travel a lot to wherever he's on the road or getting to visit his family in France. It's a very sexy kind of thing to be with someone who's on the road a lot like Tony is.

What happens is you develop this tremendous sense of anticipation and longing for the other person in your life because you're forced to spend a lot of time apart. But this is by far the best relationship I've ever had with any man. Tony is just a great guy.

So are you engaged?
No. We're happy the way things are. We're enjoying our time together and not in a rush to plan our future in a precise way. The important thing is that we love each other deeply and it's almost like we don't want to change anything because everything is so good between us.

Do you see yourself having children with Tony?
Oh, sure. But there's no rush on that issue, either. I'm very busy with my career and when we decide to have children it's going to be when I'm ready to devote myself to my kids and prioritise my family over my career. I'm from a very traditional Latino family and children are almost a sacred trust. You don't let your nanny take care of your children in my philosophy. I want to be a very loving and caring mother and it would kill me if I would be on a film set for several months and couldn't spend as much time as I wanted with my children. I also would never put a movie ahead of my time with Tony or my children. So if I'm going to take that step, I would want to be really ready and committed to that chapter in my life.

When you were making 'The Sentinel', did you become friends with Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland?
I became pretty close to Michael because I got to know his wife Catherine and we all kind of bonded. For me, they're kind of my dream couple in terms of really having it together and being so happy together. Michael is such a legend in this business and he told me how it took him a while to figure out how to really enjoy his life and how he's so happy with his life today. That kind of wisdom is priceless and I feel that I'm on that path myself.