S MAGAZINE ★ 11 AUGUST 2019 25
INTERVIEW
“I’m so ner vous
about the world
in which we live.
It’s a difficult time
every where”
in which she co-stars alongside Kerry
Washington.
Eva is even more driven now than she was
15 years ago when she first stepped on to
Wisteria Lane, the fictional street of Desperate
Housewives. “I’m starting to hit my stride and
really just beginning to tap into my creative
potential,” she reveals.
The work-hungry star barely stopped for
breath to have her son. Just before her due
date she was tying up loose ends on Grand
Hotel and two months after he was born the
family relocated to Australia’s Gold Coast to
film her latest movie, Dora And The Lost City
Of Gold, a live-action remake of the popular
Nickelodeon children’s cartoon, in which she
plays Elena, Dora’s mother.
New motherhood is daunting enough, so
upping sticks to Oz for six weeks with a tiny
baby was presumably scary on another level?
Not so. “I had to do this movie,” insists Eva.
“Dora was such a huge icon in our household
and I grew up with her so it was such animportant film to do at this moment in time. It
was my first time playing a mum while being
a mum, so that was really special. I definitely
approached the role in a different way. All of
a sudden I was like, ‘Oh my God, I would never
let my child do that.’”
In between shooting scenes in the Australian
rainforest and jungle, Eva had plenty of free
time to dedicate to settling into her new role
as a mother. “It was such a great experience
to be in Australia with my newborn son,
breast-feeding. We had a lot of free time to
walk and be and everybody was so
accommodating. It was paradise working on
this film as a new mum.”
Eva agrees that actresses can often become
typecast after having had children.“Yes,
I definitely think things change with the roles
that you’re offered,” she says. “You’re just
seen in a different way. It goes the other way
as well. There were a lot of roles that I didn’t
play because I wasn’t a mum. I was like, ‘I can