Eva Longoria at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. on November 15, 2007.

Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria Parker spoke with MediaBlvd Magazine about the New Line Cinema romantic comedy.

MediaBlvd Magazine> Are you anything like the control freak aspect of your character, or is that nothing like you?

Eva Longoria> It’s definitely me in my career and my business, or with my restaurant, or whatever I’m doing. I’m a control freak. I want to know what’s going on, what the process is, what the timeline is, what the next step is. But, when it comes to my personal life, I’m the opposite. I don’t have a care in the world. Tony is more that person. Tony plans dinner, Tony plans our vacations, Tony buys our cars, Tony does our house stuff. He’ll say, “This is what we’re doing today. This is what we’re doing tomorrow. This is what we’re doing next week.” He’s a big planner, and I’m not, in my personal life. I definitely wasn’t like that at my wedding. I was stress free the day of our wedding.

MediaBlvd> What’s your take on ghosts and psychics?  Do you believe in that stuff?

Eva> I’m definitely a believer in spirits, especially angels. I feel we all have people taking care of us, whether it’s someone you know in the past or just a guardian angel that God has sent you. I’ve definitely felt guided in my life by some angels.

MediaBlvd> So who do you think is guiding you in your life?

Eva> I had an aunt pass away and she had a very strong personality. She was a very strong, independent female, and I always feel her energy around. Sometimes I can hear her telling me things to do or not to do, or that she’s proud of me. She was such a strong presence in life. I did have a psychic make-up artist, who was doing someone else’s make-up, come up to me once and say, “I’m sorry, but this woman will not leave me alone. She’s really strong and she just wants me to tell you that she’s so proud of you.” She was telling me what my aunt was saying, but it was funny the way she described her personality. The make-up artist said, “I’m sorry, but I keep hearing this woman and she won’t leave until I come talk to you.” It was funny.  

MediaBlvd> How was it to do the levitation?

Eva> It’s such a pain in the butt to shoot those days because of the wiring. I was like, “I’m only raising four feet off the ground and I think I’ll be fine.” But, it’s such a process doing those scenes. They have to digitally erase the wires, so you can’t really change positions. My arms had to stay out and I couldn’t really do anything. It’s a little limiting, and you’re acting, but when you see it, it looks great.

MediaBlvd> Was it hard to walk the fine line of having this character be likeable, but not?

Eva> Yeah. I just didn’t want her to come off as not justified in her anger. We only had that one scene at the beginning of the movie with Paul and I, for the audience to see our relationship. In that one scene, you have to see that he really adores me. The big thing was about why he would love me so much if I was a bad person and you never got to see the relationship. So, there was that one scene, so you could see how much I loved him and he loved me, and how great I was and that we were really great together, which is why he was so sad that I was gone. That scene showed that she loves him a lot and that’s why she’s kind of bitter and hasn’t moved on. It was a fine balance to justify it and, particularly, for me to bridge Gabrielle and how she’s more egotistical and conceited. Kate is more on a mission to protect Henry. 

MediaBlvd> Did you do a lot of improv on this?

Eva> Yeah that was the great thing about Jeff Lowell. This is his directorial debut, but he’s also a writer. He was way more open to playing with dialogue than most directors who are like, “This is the Bible.” Once the writer turns it over, you can’t deviate. And, because Jeff was the writer, he was way more open to it, with the blocking and everything. He was so pleasant to work with.

MediaBlvd> If you had some of Kate’s fun abilities and powers, what would you be doing with them, if you weren’t protecting people and guiding them?

Eva> If I passed away, I would totally haunt Tony. I would definitely stay around, sabotaging anything. I told him, “You’re not moving on until I move on.” I don’t know what I would do. I’d scare people.  I love scaring people. I always hide behind a door, and then jump out and scare my girlfriends. We love scaring each other.  I think scaring people is the funniest thing ever. I would definitely use my powers to make voices.  

MediaBlvd> Do you have input into the way you look for any given role?

Eva> I dyed my hair lighter and blonde for Over Her Dead Body because I wanted Kate to look different than Gabrielle. She was more conservative with a type A personality. We also wanted her to be in white as opposed to black. White is angelic. It’s hard to keep white clean.

MediaBlvd> What was it like to do this while you were doing Desperate Housewives, and commuting back and forth from Universal to Long Beach?   

Eva> The great thing about that was that Tony was here, so that was nice.  I love the medium of television. I love that it’s fast and that we do 14 pages a day. You’re barely in your trailer. You have time to eat and go back on set. It’s so fast that we’re basically doing a movie a week. So, on my days that I was doing the movie, it was like vacation.  We would shoot two pages a day, and I would watch a movie in my trailer. Tony was there, and we could go and eat dinner, then come back and they would still not be ready. So, it was nice to venture out and do another character, to have a different cast and to play off a different director. It was bliss for me. It was so fun.  

MediaBlvd> Have you seen the Spanish version of Desperate Housewives?

Eva> I have not. I’ve heard about it, but haven’t seen it. I don’t know who plays me, but I hear it’s in Argentina, Columbia, Venezuela and Mexico. It’s interesting because they use the same exact scripts.                       

MediaBlvd> How do you adjust to doing both film and TV at the same time, and then suddenly now having nothing?  Do you wake up thinking you should be somewhere?

Eva> Yeah, absolutely. I like routine and I like to work. I have an incredible work ethic, so that’s why I love working on film and TV. I love juggling everything at once. The only nice part is that I have been able to enjoy marriage and being a newlywed. I’ve accepted that and think it’s a sign from God that he just wants us to just be together, at this time. Especially at the holidays, it was nice to be off. But, there are just too many people out of work -- camera guys, hair and make-up people, electricians, grips -- to be like this for too long. We were such a family.

MediaBlvd> What are you doing in your downtime during the Writer’s Strike?

Eva> I’m being a housewife, as opposed to playing a housewife. I’m nursing Tony back to health.

MediaBlvd> If the writers go back to work, would you finish the season, or do you think the season is pretty much finished?

Eva> I would hope we finish Season 4 because it was a weird way to end it. But, I did read an article where Marc Cherry was being interviewed in USA Today and he said he thought that was the last episode of Season 4. Even if the strike ended, he needs 2 months to write and he hasn’t written anything. He’d need at least 2 months to re-group, so there’s no point in filming because after May, and in the summer, the ratings just aren’t there. We’d just have to start Season 5. I was bummed that we aired that last episode because that tornado episode was such a great cliff-hanger that it would have been great to end Season 4 on that, as opposed to airing the episode we did film that answered a lot of questions. Now, there’s really no suspense.

MediaBlvd> Even with your new marriage, the TV show and movies, you still find time to do charity work. Why is that so important to you?

Eva> Thank God I haven’t experienced anybody in my family with a child who has cancer because I can’t imagine anything more difficult. But, I was asked to go to an event that Padres Contra El Cancer was having one year, about 6 years ago, and I met Michael Valasquez, the CEO at the time, and he said I should come to the children’s hospital. I don’t know if any of you have ever visited the children’s hospital in that wing, but once you go it’s life-changing. To meet the parents and family, and talk to the kids, there is more hope on that floor than you will see in your whole life. These kids really are resilient and they’re almost the parents saying, “Mom, it’s going to be fine. Mom, we’re going to kill the monster.” I got involved with Padres because 70% of the kids in L.A. at the children’s hospital are Latino, and the reason there are so many more Latino children with cancer is that socially we’re not a culture to go the doctor early enough to catch it. The death rates are higher because they usually go too late. There’s also the language barrier.  And, if you don’t have insurance, you can’t pay. They don’t understand chemotherapy, anyway.  Understanding cancer is hard enough in English. It would be like you were in China and someone was explaining it to you in Chinese. Those barriers are preventative. You can have financial education courses, you can have a translator with you at the hospital, and you can educate the culture to get check-ups and take their kids. Everything can be prevented. These kids don’t have to be there. That’s why Padres really is important to me. It’s work that has to be done and somebody has to do it. 

MediaBlvd> Who do you play in Lower Learning?

Eva> A superintendent, named Rebecca, who is coming to shut down the school with Jason Biggs. Jason and I become allies and try to save the school. It was fun. 

MediaBlvd> What do you think the chances are for a league win for the Spurs?

Eva> They have a lot of injuries now, so that’s why there’s been a slump. They hit this wall last year because it was right before trades, everybody got all nervous and they were not playing as well as they could be. And, the West is way more competitive than the East. The East has Boston and Detroit. The West has Phoenix, Utah, New Orleans, Dallas, the Lakers are doing great, Denver is amazing, and I hate the Mavericks. I always blank them out of my mind. The Spurs are in a slump, and you can’t be in the West because you’ll get run over pretty fast. But, they usually hit this wall every year, around this time. Everybody’s tired, particularly Tony. He’s been playing with an injury. He’s not 100%, so every time he hits a lay-up, he can’t jump because of his swollen ankle. He plays year-round because of the French National Team, so he is tired. His body is tired. To play that hard, that long, it catches up. 

MediaBlvd> With the Dallas Cowboys fan backlash against Jessica Simpson, holding her responsible for losing games, are you ever afraid to go and watch your husband play?

Eva> I had that. Once Tony and I started dating, you’d think I was the Yoko Ono of the Spurs.  If Tony had a bad game, it was my fault. If Tony had a good game, it was because of me. If Tony got injured, it was my fault. Anything that happened was my fault. If Tony did anything, it was, “Oh, Tony is Hollywood now.” Believe me, he’s not thinking of me when he’s on the court. And, I don’t think Tony Romo is thinking of Jessica with 10 linemen coming down.

MediaBlvd> Does that stop over time?                  

Eva> Yeah because you’re not just some girl distracting him, you’re actually in a long-term relationship. Sports is such subculture. The fans of the Cowboys or the Spurs, that’s their team and who are you to come in and mess up with their boys. The fans have ownership. And, I totally understand it. Fans are very protective of their teams.