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After Eva Longoria finished filming Desperate Housewives in 2012, she didn't know what was next. She didn't have any trouble booking roles anymore, but that wasn't what she wanted. What she really wanted to do was direct.
“That last year of Desperate Housewives,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “I remember getting every single show offered to me to star in … to star in … to star in …”
“I was like, ‘I can’t breathe,’” said Eva Longoria. “I had PTSD from 24 episodes a year.” The show shooting schedule ran for roughly 11 months of the year, an exhausting amount of time. “I got [offered] everything and I turned everything down.”
It was time for Longoria's break into the producing and directing realm. But she ran into a bit of trouble as an actor-turned-director. “The industry’s definitely wary of an actor coming in [to direct],” she said. “For me, it was about overcoming that. It wasn’t sexism or racism. It was like, ‘Here comes a dumb actor.’”
As for when she first moved to L.A. 25 years ago, she auditioned for the Latina roles and be told she was too white and vice versa. “I ended up playing a lot of Italians,” she said.
But Longoria says she wasn’t discouraged by the lack of roles available for Latinas. “It wasn’t as big of a conversation as it is now. The word ‘diversity’ gets thrown around so much today. Back then, there were really no efforts or programs or initiatives,” Longoria said. “I had Roselyn Sánchez. When I came to Hollywood, she was starring with the Rock; she was starring in Rush Hour. I felt like, ‘Oh, I see somebody who looks like me.’”
Now she seeks to emulate Sanchez. An activist in her own right, Longoria said, “That was the goal and the purpose of getting behind the camera, creating more opportunity for my community.”
