Eva Longoria: ‘Juggling isn’t hard for me as it is for some people’

It is always a pleasure to talk to Eva Longoria, because of her innate enthusiasm. She might still be best known for her role in Desperate Housewives, but she wears many hats today, such as actor, writer, producer, director and activist. She is right now busy with developing scripts for projects that she is directing and producing.

 You are originally from a family that did not have much money. What has the journey from then to now been like? Did you have to learn a different kind of etiquette?

Well, I actually did take etiquette classes because I was in beauty pageants in college. And so, it runs through a whole gamut. It’s not the old fashioned, how do you sit; how do you eat with what fork at the table. But it was a lot of training in speaking and communicating, how do you communicate with people in a way that pulls them into a conversation and get your point across without angering people? I did etiquette training and one of the most interesting and useful parts about it that I liked was the communications part because it taught you to have a platform. Like what do you believe in, fundamentally believe in, politically, religiously, spiritually, or community? And how do you answer questions based on your value system? And I think that it is a good exercise for everybody. It’s a way to take an emotional inventory. An inventory of your values like, ‘Am I doing things in my life to forward living the life I think that I should be living?’ Whether it’s honest or compassionate or kind of giving back, or whatever values you hold are the steps you are doing every day reinforcing and supporting that? And that is what I got out of etiquette classes, more than how do you sip champagne from a flute?

How do you manage being a working professional and a mother to a young son? Do you have enough hours in a day?

One thing I feel is that you have more time in the day than you think, so I don’t waste any of it. I’m a very, very efficient person. And I got that from my mother, I mean she did so much. I always feel that I’m not doing enough, because I compare myself to what my mother did and how she did it. And I’m like ‘Oh, gosh I got to do more,’ so for me it’s about prioritising and scheduling, and sometimes those priorities change. My family is my first priority, but the rest changes. So, right now we are in the middle of rewrites for Flamin’ Hot that I am directing at Searchlight and 24-7 that I am directing at Universal. And they’re like, ‘You are directing two films,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not because they are in rewrites.’ So they are on the back burner until the scripts come in. So now I’m developing a number of television shows through my production company, so there’s a priority because one script is due in the next few days, so we are focusing on that one. And then, okay, we got to pitch another one next week, so, okay let’s focus on that. It is a matter of prioritizing, and juggling isn’t hard for me as it is for some people.

What about your son and time with him?

It’s funny because motherhood has actually made me more committed to my schedule, because Santi is on such a schedule. He gets up at the same time every morning, we have breakfast at the same time every day. And because his day is so structured, I’m able to manage my time even better because I plan everything around him. I do my calls during his nap time, meeting during his swim time, but I never do any work when it’s bedtime, bath time, book time. I’m always the first to wake him up and the last to put him down. And so, just doing that and scheduling, taking the time, and understanding and taking an emotional inventory of your life and then prioritising and taking it from there will help you to manage your day efficiently.

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