INTERVIEW

Eva Longoria: from Desperate Housewife to political activist

Campaigning for the Democrats, speaking out on behalf of Latina women, directing — there’s no stopping the 48-year-old former Wisteria Lane resident

With Barack Obama in 2005; Longoria photographed at the Maybourne Beverly Hills, 2023
With Barack Obama in 2005; Longoria photographed at the Maybourne Beverly Hills, 2023
GETTY IMAGES; LEIGH KEILY FOR THE TIMES MAGAZINE
The Times

Eva Longoria says she is often stopped in the street by people who think she looks like someone famous. “They go, ‘Oh my God, do people say you look like Eva Longoria? You look exactly like her. It’s crazy!’ I go, ‘They say it all the time!’ But I never say, ‘Yes, I am her.’ ”

At times, she doesn’t feel like she is Eva Longoria, at least not the Eva Longoria that people have in their imaginations — largely based on her 8-year, 180-episode role as the fabulously fickle former model Gabrielle Solis in Desperate Housewives, the television series which became a worldwide hit. “I don’t live life as a celebrity. Being in the public eye is what I do; it’s not who