Longoria leads Latina wave on TV

By Yvonne Villarreal

Los Angeles Times

Eva Longoria’s return to prime-time television on the NBC comedy “Telenovela” (tonight, 8:30) comes four years after she said goodbye to her career-defining role as wealthy Gabrielle Solis on “Desperate Housewives.” And in this particular moment, it’s a role that has her drenched in water.

As Ana Sofia, the over-the-top leading lady of the show-within-the-show “Las Leyes de Pasion” (The Laws of Passion), Longoria is the star of a comedy that peers behind the scenes of a popular Spanish-language soap opera, a telenovela where the drama offscreen is just as melodramatic as the drama onscreen. Ana Sofia is bossy but lovable, out of control while trying to be the one who holds things together. And she often finds herself in wacky situations.

But Longoria’s not just acting here. She’s also directing. And did we mention producing?

During a recent shoot on Universal Studios’ backlot in Universal City, Longoria scurries in fringed high heels from her mark in front of the camera, where her character has just been doused in water by a co-star for a post-hurricane scene, to a nearby director’s monitor where members of her team surround and cover her in towels.

The spoof on Spanish-language soap operas comes at a time when networks are looking at “Empire’s” success and striving for more diversity to appeal to underserved audiences. “Telenovela” joins “Jane the Virgin,” “Narcos,” “Bordertown” and other series that weave Latino culture into their foundations. “Telenovela” also is one of three NBC series launching midseason with Latina leads, with Jennifer Lopez in the drama “Shades of Blue” and America Fererra in the workplace comedy “Superstore.” It’s a shift that follows years of English-language networks struggling to find ways to cater to a growing Latino demographic, which in 2013 accounted for 17 percent of the U.S. population.

For Longoria, who has solidified her role as a Latina activist in recent years, the fight isn’t over. “Look, I think the Hispanic community is making progress on television,” Longoria says. “But we’re still severely underrepresented.”

The 40-year-old actress is seated in the stark white dining room of her character’s Miami home during a separate, off-day from filming, and the topic seems to animate her. Leaning in to focus her gaze, she taps the table with her right index finger when punctuating certain points, as if talking to a policymaker.

“When it comes to diversity in television, we have to have more people behind the camera,” she says. “We have to have more producers and writers in order to create those stories and dig from the well of our community, which has been untapped. And that’s what we’re doing here.”