Eva Longoria has claimed she first got into performing to compensate for feeling like the ‘ugly duckling’ in her family.
The Desperate Housewives star, now 50, is famed for her flawless looks – however the star noted that she ‘wasn’t the pretty one’ compared to her three sisters.
Opening up about her feelings at the time in an new interview with Today, the actress explained that she decided for focus on being the ‘funny’ and ‘smart’ one.
‘I was performative in my family because I was the ugly duckling,’ she explained, before joking: ‘Documentation is available if you need it.’
The Only Murders In The Building star continued: ‘My three sisters look alike. They are all blonde.
‘I knew I wasn’t the pretty one and I was like, “okay, I’m not the pretty one so I’m going to be the funny one. I’m going to be the smart one.”‘
Eva Longoria has claimed she first got into performing to compensate for feeling like the ‘ugly duckling’ in her family
The Desperate Housewives star, 50, is famed for her flawless looks – however the star noted that she ‘wasn’t the pretty one’ compared to her three sisters
The Land of Women star was the youngest of four sisters, and grew up with chickens on a ranch in Texas.
She recounted: ‘We had to go get the eggs in the morning. We had to milk the cow for the milk that was going to go in the coffee and in our cereal.’
Eventually, Eva achieved a degree in kinesiology from Texas A&M, using scholarship money from a beauty pageant she had won to partly fund her studies.
It was competing in pageants that led her to Hollywood as she noted: ‘I land in Hollywood and I don’t know what happened. I just was like, “I think I’m going to be an actor.”‘
The star then became a household name thanks to the success of Desperate Housewives, which ran for eight seasons from 2004 to 2012.
It’s not the first time the star has opened up about feeling ugly as a child.
Back in 2008, she told Channel 4’s Richard and Judy said: ‘I was the darkest one of my family. I was the only one with black hair and the only one with dark skin.
‘All my sisters were light blondes with hazel eyes. They used to call me ugly duckling.’
The Land of Women star was the youngest of four sisters and grew up with chickens on a ranch in Texas
The star explained: ‘My three sisters look alike. They are all blonde. I knew I wasn’t the pretty one and I was like, “Okay, I’m not the pretty one so I’m going to be the funny one”
She continued: ‘I grew up without being beautiful so I kind of relied on my personality and my character.
‘I kind of developed a skill not to depend on anything superficial because I didn’t have anything superficial to depend on.’
Elsewhere, the actress recently revealed the playful way Meryl Streep reacted to the news that the Hollywood stars are actually cousins.
Eva had discovered that she is related to the legendary actress during an appearance on Dr. Henry Louis Gates’ genealogy series, Faces of America.
Recalling the moment during her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last week, the actress explained: ‘He cross-references everybody’s DNA to see if we share a relative in the last 100 years.
‘And he’s like, “Do you want to know who you’re related to? Meryl Streep.” I was like, “Oh my god!”‘
While the Sylvie’s Love star was ‘so excited’ by the news, she said she had been reluctant to go and share the information when she crossed paths with Meryl at an awards show later on.
But when she did work up the nerve to chat with her relative about it, Meryl’s reaction was pretty comical.
Eva achieved a degree in kinesiology, partly using scholarship money from a beauty pageant she had won. It was competing in pageants that led her to Hollywood
The Desperate Housewives star pictured with her mom Ella Eva Mireles and sisters Esmeralda Josephina Longoria, Elizabeth Judina Longoria and Emily Jeannette Longoria in 2018
Eva continued: ‘I was at the Golden Globes or I don’t know – something backstage in the green room – and my friend was like, “There’s Meryl, go say you’re her cousin.”‘
‘I’m like, “I’m not gonna go up to Meryl Streep and say we’re cousins. It’s not gonna make any sense. I don’t know if she saw that part of the show.”‘
Thankfully, Eva didn’t have to approach the Oscar-winner because it turns out, Meryl had already been informed about their relation.
Eva continued: ‘Then I hear, “Cousin! Cousin!” That’s how cool Meryl Streep is.
‘I was like, “Clearly you got the talent in the family.” And she’s like, “Clearly you got the beauty.”‘
‘How sweet is she?’ the star gushed before she then joked: ‘So… Meryl’s Latina.’
