Eva Longoria says her years as a working actor looked very different from the usual Hollywood origin story. Long before she became the face of Gabrielle Solis on Desperate Housewives, Longoria says she was simultaneously building a career in corporate recruiting while auditioning and filming television roles.
Speaking about her early years in Los Angeles, Longoria said she made a decision almost immediately after arriving in California: she was not going to depend entirely on acting to pay her bills. “The first day I landed in L.A., I got a job,” she said, according to Fortune. “I was like, ‘I’m not going to be a struggling actor. I’m going to figure this out.’”
That job eventually turned into a successful side business. Longoria worked at a temp agency as a headhunter, helping place candidates in corporate jobs while also pursuing acting. Even after landing a recurring role on The Young and the Restless, she continued doing both at once.
“In my dressing room, I was doing the headhunting,” Longoria said. “I was negotiating 401(k)s and salaries and interviewing and reading résumés and placing people. And then they would be like, ‘Eva, ready on set.’”
Longoria said the recruiting job was actually paying more than acting at the time, which is why she kept the arrangement going for years. She did not leave the corporate side of her life until her third year on the soap opera, when a raise finally made acting financially sustainable.
Even then, she viewed her business experience as a safety net. “I knew I could always go back to corporate America if acting didn’t work out,” she said.
The actress, now 51, has since built an estimated fortune of more than $80 million through acting, producing, directing, and investments, including a stake in Angel City FC and a reported investment in the John Wick franchise. But Longoria says her business instincts started long before her Hollywood success.
She traced that mindset back to her childhood in Texas, where she began working at a Wendy's as a teenager. Longoria said she worked her way up from the fry station to assistant manager between the ages of 14 and 18, often volunteering for extra shifts. “If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it well,” she said.
That same competitive streak followed her into recruiting. Longoria said her boss offered her a choice between a fixed salary and commission. She immediately chose commission, despite not fully understanding the difference at the time.
Within a month, she said she was earning three times more than the guaranteed salary. Her boss was reportedly so impressed that he later tried to convince her to stay in business rather than pursue acting.
“He never understood why I didn’t stay in corporate America,” Longoria said. “He kept saying, ‘Why would you want to be an actress? You’re so good at business.’”
