Eva Fever: Eva Longoria

Glyn

Eva Longoria is an actress who received her big break in 2004 when she played Gabrielle Solis on the popular TV show “Desperate Housewives.” On “General Hospital” and “Beverly Hills 90210,” Longoria made her first TV debut in 2000, appearing in brief scenes.

The following year, the actress co-starred in “The Young and the Restless,” for which she was recognized with an American Latino Media Arts (ALMA) Award in 2002 for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama.

Longoria is currently regarded as one of the most significant and well-known individuals in American society. She rules Hollywood not just as an actress but also as a budding producer and director, shrewd entrepreneur, philanthropist, and social activist.

Eva Longoria on her academic success

Eva Longoria attended college prior to pursuing her career in Hollywood. She successfully completed her degree in three years while balancing her profession in the entertainment world.

“Oh my goodness, yes. That is finally over. I got my degree last May. I completed it in three years, which is an amazing feat – an amazing accomplishment for me! I had always wanted to go back and get my master’s degree. And the fact that I did it while I was on a hit show and running around the world. I look back and go, ‘What was I thinking?’ When I started it, I didn’t think it through, or I probably wouldn’t have done it. Everyone finds reasons not to go back to school. Once I founded my foundation about pursuing higher education, I wanted to be the example of no matter what, you can always go back to school. No matter how old, no matter how busy. I’m such an academic person anyway. I’m super curious about the world; I love learning new things, so it kind of fit in with my personality.”

The actress experienced the same difficulties in getting employment after graduation as any other recent graduate.

“I’m still unemployed. It was definitely something for myself and my own growth. A personal goal of mine. Not my parents’ dream. My own goal. For me to know, I could do it. To educate myself and become literate on a lot of topics that are relevant today, especially social issues. When I started my degree, it was because I wanted to know more about immigration history. But it evolved into something much broader and bigger, and my life’s work is going to be in education. So I did my thesis on education in the Latino community – and the huge achievement gap to lay the groundwork and have the academic research for my life’s work was my intention.”

Recent projects that Eva Longoria has undertaken

Films, television series, acting, directing, producing, non-profits, politics, and product endorsements are some of the most recent endeavors in which Eva Longoria has taken part. A significant amount of energy is required to handle each of these obligations; thus, Longoria always made the most of the day to manage them.

“You have more time than you think. Everyone thinks, ‘I don’t have enough time.’ There’s a lot of wasted time in your day that you don’t realize. I’ve always utilized my time in the car; I’ve always utilized plane rides to catch up on my reading and return emails. I’ve always taken advantage of every single hour of the 24-hour day.”

As a matter of fact, four films starring the actress are now in production or have already been completed. Frontera is the first one slated for release, and she shared what the film is all about.

“Frontera is a movie with Ed Harris and Michael Peña about border issues in Arizona. It kind of humanizes the issue by telling a small story about one family crossing the border and what happens when things go wrong. It humanizes what’s happening with people who want to come here to work, who get mixed up with the small percentage of bad guys trying to cross the border. It’s definitely a social movie, relevant to what’s happening now. A deep drama.”

Next on the list of her projects is her film “Any Day” with Sean Bean. She said: “We finished that a couple of months ago. That was really amazing to shoot. I’m a huge Sean Bean fan and I kind of freaked out about him being Ned Stark [his character in Game of Thrones]. I want to take different roles in different genres in different films with different actors and different directors. I get bored very quickly. Any Day was definitely something I hadn’t done before.”

Furthermore, the actress also has a horror film coming up, entitled “Visions,” saying, “That’s definitely a scary movie. I’ve never done a scary movie, and I’m not a scary-movie fan. I couldn’t even read the script. But it was a really good opportunity to work with some great people, and I thought, ‘Why not? It’ll be fun.’”

With all of these film projects, she also managed to grow her television production empire and stated that it was actually her day job aside from acting.

“That’s really my day job – my production company. It’s a nine-to-five job. I’m in the office all day long, making phone calls and in meetings, and making conference calls. I enjoy it a lot. I love the business side of making movies and television. I feel right at home.”

Despite the movies or TV shows that her production company would make, Longoria insisted that she wouldn’t be appearing in any of them while also confirming that she would undoubtedly return to television soon.

“Not yet. But I’m definitely going to return to television. I love the medium of television. I love going to the same place every day to work. I love diving into a character. I mean, I really miss Gabi [from Desperate Housewives]. I really miss the family that we created for eight years. So I’ll definitely be back. I love the idea of giving opportunities to women in the business, so most of the things I’m developing have female leads.”

What is Eva Longoria’s foundation all about?

As was already noted, Eva Longoria is not only an actress; she is also a philanthropist, social activist, and active in non-profits. She has a well-established foundation with a wide range of charitable goals that has grown over the years.

“It’s a pretty niche mission because I wanted to be specific and efficient with my impact. If you go to broad, you miss out. I started it because I was getting asked to help with a lot of different causes – tsunami relief in Japan and Aids in Africa. You really can’t create sustainable, effective change when you’re spread out so far as a philanthropist. So I wanted the foundation to focus on something specific in a very specific community. Education has played such a big part in my life, and I feel that it’s the one thing that can break the cycle of poverty in a very long-term way. I knew I wanted it to be in the Latino community. And within our Latino community, it’s really the women who need help, and that’s why it focuses on that.”

In order to explain why her foundation appeared to be particularly active in Texas, Longoria said that it has two arms [the education and entrepreneurial programs.]

“My foundation has two arms – the education program and the entrepreneurial program. In Texas, we started a pilot program to see what’s working, and we wanted to be able to track the changes we’re making. So we created this pilot program with Howard Buffett [Warren Buffett’s eldest son] and Latino women entrepreneurs, giving them the business tools and resources to open their own business, whether it’s educating them on business plans or back office or profit and loss. And then the capital to help them get started.”

When asked if she sees success from it already, she answered: “Absolutely. We’ve been able to track some amazing stories. These are tiny, tiny businesses we’re talking about. People who get $2,500 loans. A woman who needs a little money to buy material so she can make clothing at her house. It’s definitely changing the dynamic of women and how they’re going to take control of their own futures.”

Eva Longoria discusses her political views

Eva Longoria’s considerable participation in politics during the past two years, notably with President Obama’s re-election campaign, has generated a lot of speculation about her potential for running for office in the future. However, the actress has categorically denied such rumors.

“Definitely not. I’m not a fan of politicians; I’m a fan of the political process. I’m a big believer in our system of government. I think the most powerful place in the process is the citizen. Every major civil-rights thing we’ve had in the last century has been by civil disobedience, by a group of people who said this isn’t just and who experienced social injustice. Whether it’s women’s suffrage or the African American civil-rights movement, or the Chicano civil-rights movement, all of that came from injustice and people rising up and saying we want change. There’s never been one politician who said, ‘I’m going to head this up,’ and this isn’t right. You have to have a movement behind it. Policymaking disproportionally affects minorities, and that’s why I got involved in the last two campaigns, to make sure minority voices were heard and were counted.”

She also has no plans to get engaged in the forthcoming US presidential race.

“I don’t know. I’m really focused on helping our current president accomplish things. Before the inauguration, people were talking about the next election, but I think we need to focus on the president we have now and help him get those policies passed. We’re still trying to get immigration reformed passed. We’re still trying to get people signed up for the ACA [Affordable Care Act]. It’s unbelievable that we can change the Voting Rights Act. I’m definitely watching that, and if I feel the need to get involved, I will.”

She is one of the top leaders in the world at the moment, with around 7 million Twitter followers. So when asked if she writes each tweet alone or if she has “ghost writers” to help, she said that she writes each and every one.

“I obviously don’t answer every tweet. But I tweet; I do it all. It’s a very interesting process. Actually, the airplane pillow that Brookstone used to make – my favorite airplane pillow – I tweeted Brookstone, and I said, “Pleeeeeease make this pillow again!” And they reached out to me. That’s how many people retweeted my tweet to Brookstone, and they reached out to me and said, “We’d love to make it again.” [laughs] It’s definitely an effective tool to get messages out, specifically with my philanthropy and my activism.”

Recent events in the life of Eva Longoria

Obviously, a lot has transpired in Eva Longoria’s life over the past several months, from her acting to her charitable work to her semi-engagement in politics. With all of these, it may seem not very easy for her to find time to unwind, yet she manages her time just as well as she manages her obligations.

“I always mix business and pleasure. I went to Paris to shoot for L’Oréal, but of course, while I was there, I wanted to go to the Louvre. And I was in Mexico at a conference, but while I was there, I found time to go to the beach. I love cooking. I just flew in yesterday from Mexico City. I ran to two meetings and a conference call in the car – and another conference call while I was grocery shopping – so that I could relax and cook dinner for my family and friends. That to me is just so relaxing.”

She was chosen Woman of the Year by Maxim magazine, a distinction she thoroughly deserves given how busy the actress is with all she oversees and her obligations. Other than that, it seems that she is also seen as a sex symbol, but she said she didn’t think of herself in that way.

“I never thought of myself as a sex symbol. I just do the cover of magazines. I think it’s really unfair men or people in the world think you can’t be both – you can’t be a sex symbol and a serious businessperson. Who says I can’t be both? Who says I can’t do the cover of Maxim and run a production company? Women are complex. Women are beautiful and intellectual and spiritual and social and entrepreneurial. They’re everything. And I think I’m a great example of that.”

Just like how she’s busy with all of her endeavors, aside from finding time to unwind, it also seems hard to manage a relationship considering how busy she is, and true enough, she decided to keep some information about it under wraps.

“You can ask, but I won’t answer. But my social life is amazing. Lots of friends and things going on all the time. [laughs] I’m at a very happy place in my life right now, both personally and professionally.”

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