‘From the lens of a woman’: Eva Longoria on Hollywood, beauty standards and why age is irrelevant
Fresh from her role in Victoria Beckham’s new documentary, the former Desperate Housewives star has rejected Hollywood’s obsession with age.
EXCLUSIVE: Eva Longoria is no stranger to the glamour of Hollywood but her take on ageing seems like a rebellion against it.
As she sits down with Stellar, Longoria – who turned 50 in March – has a refreshing perspective on being a woman in the spotlight: “I love ageing,” she says.
When asked if she feels the pressure to conform to rigid beauty standards, Longoria reflects: “I don’t really deal with that. I don’t really feel that for me, personally”.
“I get like society puts these shelf lives on women and what they consider to be beautiful or young or attractive,” Longoria says, speaking from Paris.
“With ageing comes wisdom and maturity and experience … and the more years I’m on this earth means the more years of experiences I’ve had.”
For Longoria, her age is a badge of honour and proof of a life lived. “For me, I really look at it that way more than ageing,” she says.
Born in Texas, Longoria has spent more than two decades in Hollywood since her breakthrough role as Gabrielle Solis in Desperate Housewives which catapulted her to fame (in Longoria’s words the show “exploded globally”).
Since the series ended in 2012, Longoria has built her career not only in front of the camera, but behind the scenes.
She works extensively as a TV and movie producer and even owns a stake in Mexican soccer team, Necaxa – the subject of a docuseries of the same name.
“I wanted to create my own opportunities and opportunities for others, especially women and especially for the Latino community,” Longoria says.
“We need to tap into different wells of stories and be innovative.
“I think my community has so many stories to tell and that’s really the main reason I got behind the camera: to create those opportunities and not just sit back and wait for them.
“As a producer, you’re in charge of hiring. I’m always hiring with the lens of being a woman and the lens of being Latina.”
‘OH MY GOD, HOURS!’
At the time of this interview, Longoria was in Paris for Fashion Week. There, she sat front row for her BFF Victoria Beckham’s runway show - and shot scenes for Beckham’s new Netflix series.
In the eponymous three-part documentary Victoria Beckham, Longoria speaks about the early days of their friendship and what it meant to be a “WAG” (at the time they met, Longoria was married to NBA player Tony Parker).
“I didn’t know what a ‘WAG’ was,” Longoria recalled. “I remember seeing in a press clipping that I was a WAG and I was like, ‘What the f*** is that?’”
Longoria also walked in a Paris Fashion Week show herself: L’Oreal’s Le Défilé, where she shared the catwalk with supermodel Kendall Jenner, Cara Delevingne, Jane Fonda and Australian Matildas star, Mary Fowler.
“You see such a rainbow of what beauty means. It’s such a beautiful display of diversity,” Longoria says, of the runway held at Hotel de Ville in Paris (Longoria has been an ambassador for L’Oreal Paris since 2005).
As for her pre-red carpet beauty routine – and how long it takes to get ready?
“Oh my god, hours, hours!,” Longoria says. “You know why? There’s so much skin prep.
“We do eye cream, we let that sit, with eye patches, we put on a face mask, the skin prep is really key to a red carpet look.
“Making sure the makeup lays really nicely over the skin, so probably two hours? And that’s dedicating hair time and makeup time separately.”
‘WE STILL NEED MORE CHANGE’
During her two decade-long career, Longoria has had a front-row seat to Hollywood and the pressures women have faced in its glare.
She admits more needs to be done to open doors for women – and cultural representation – on screens. “It definitely has changed but not fast enough and not big enough. We still need way more change.
“There’s more opportunities for women to write and direct which is where the real storytelling starts.
“I think people look at Hollywood and go, ‘I’m going to be an actor!’ But really, the power is behind the camera.
“That’s where you create the stories and that’s where the roles get created. And not just any role – not the ‘girlfriend of’, not the ‘wife of’, but really, from the perspective of a woman. “From the lens of a woman.”
Read more from Stellar in The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), The Sunday Mail (Queensland) and Sunday Mail (SA), or click here.
Originally published as ‘From the lens of a woman’: Eva Longoria on Hollywood, beauty standards and why age is irrelevant
