Longoria: Housewives fuelled charity

Eva Longoria thinks starring in Desperate Housewives helped expand her charity “reach”.

The 39-year-old actress-and-entrepreneur was presented with a humanitarian award at the Taormina Film Festival in Italy.

And during an onstage discussion at the event, Eva explained all her tremendous philanthropic work wouldn’t have been possible if she didn’t play Gabrielle on the TV show from 2004 to 2012.

“If it wasn’t for Desperate Housewives, I wouldn’t be able to have the reach that I have to talk to people in the world,” she is quoted as saying to the crowd by Variety.

Since the series ended, Eva has gone on to start several businesses, spearhead charity campaigns, get involved in politics, produce and direct.

But the star confesses she lied about her true identity regularly during early auditions, as getting her foot in the door at the beginning was challenging due to her Mexican heritage.

“When they asked me: are you Italian? I would always say ‘yes’ because I wanted the role,” Eva recalled.

In response to a question on why Italians are often depicted as gangsters in films, she went on to draw parallels between how Italians and Mexicans are typecast in Hollywood.

“We have the same problem in Mexico. We are always the drug lords, the drug cartel,” Eva said.

The actress will next be seen in drama Frontera, which will be released in US theatres on July 31.