26 S MAGAZINE ★ 11 AUGUST 2019
“I love Desperate
Housewives.
I miss playing
Gaby and I miss
being her”
play the mum’ [but] I was known as this sexy
character for so long on Desperate Housewives
that, sometimes, that’s all people know me as,
so to be multidimensional is really a lot of fun.”
These days, Eva says, she tends to be
recognised more by how she sounds rather
than for what she looks like. “I definitely get
approached a lot when people hear me. I’ll be
in a store and somebody will turn around and
go, ‘Oh, my God, your voice. Are you Eva
Longoria?’ Before they see me it’s my voice
that they recognise. It’s funny, because
I don’t think I sound any particular way.”
When she landed Desperate Housewives in
2004 after a handful of earlier telly roles,
including Beverly Hills 90210, Eva’s trademark
cackle and humour contributed to making a
universal favourite of her sexpot character
Gabrielle Solis. A year before the show
wrapped in 2012, she was reportedly TV’s
highest-paid actress, earning a cool £250,000
per episode.
Five years on, she admits there’s a Gaby-
shaped hole in her heart. “I love the show andI miss Gaby, I miss playing her, I miss being
her and I would welcome it,” replies Eva when
asked about rumours of a 2020 Desperate
Housewives reboot. “It’s just a rumour.
Nobody’s approached me about it but I would
love it. It’s such a great idea to continue the
story of these women.”
Another powerful story belongs to her
own family. Eva and her three older sisters,
including Elizabeth, who was born with a
mental disability, were raised on a Texas ranch
by their Mexican-American parents Enrique and
Ella, who received regular community support
to help them with Elizabeth’s condition.
To teach their offspring the importance of
“giving back”, Enrique and Ella encouraged the
girls to be charitable from a young age. The
siblings “constantly volunteered” and the
philanthropic seed sown then continues to
bloom in Eva.
As well as running her own foundation,
she is an ambassador for the Global Gift