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Eva Longoria for CW interview.jpg

When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong: Eva Longoria vs. Eric Braeden

By Brian Richards | Social Media | March 20, 2023 |

By Brian Richards | Social Media | March 20, 2023 |

Eva Longoria for CW interview.jpg

This past weekend, actress-producer-director Eva Longoria was interviewed on the CNN/HBO Max talk show Who’s Talking To Chris Wallace?, where she discussed motherhood, her refusal to pursue political office, and her two upcoming projects: Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico, a CNN docuseries in which she travels around Mexico for a deep exploration of the country’s cuisine and culture; and Flamin’ Hot, her feature directorial debut about Richard Montañez, and his claim that he is the inventor of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.

Longoria also discussed her history as an actress on the long-running soap opera The Young and the Restless, and how her role as Isabella Braña didn’t pay her nearly enough, which required her to take on a second job as a headhunter for a temp employment agency. From The Daily Mail:

‘I was so good at it that when I got Young and the Restless, it didn’t pay enough for me to live off being an actor. So I continued being a headhunter and Young and the Restless.’

She then revealed that she, ‘would hide the fact that I was on Young and the Restless to my clients, because they, you know, they didn’t want like a dumb actress handling their accounts.’

Some people would read those quotes, watch that clip, and interpret it as Longoria looking back on how difficult her early days as an actress were. How her first job as a series regular with a popular soap opera paid so little that it was necessary for her to get a second job. How that same second job required her to deal with clients who didn’t hold actresses in very high regard, and who would probably go elsewhere for help with their job searches if they knew about her other line of work. Eric Braeden, who has played ruthless businessman Victor Newman on The Young and the Restless for over four decades, was not one of those people. After hearing what she said about her time on The Young and the Restless, he used his Twitter page to let everyone know how he truly felt about Eva Longoria and her recent interview.

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If you and/or any of the women in your family are fans of soap operas, there’s a very good chance you’ve all watched — and continue to watch — The Young and the Restless. Braeden’s longtime run as Victor Newman is considered the stuff of soap opera legend, right up with there with Susan Lucci as Erica Kane on All My Children, Anthony Geary and Genie Francis as Luke and Laura on General Hospital, and the late Josh Ryan Evans as Timmy Lenox on Passions. So it should come as no surprise that Braeden lashing out at Longoria for her perceived disrespect of his bread and butter grabbed a lot of people’s attention on social media, with many of them siding with Braeden.

There were a few people who came to Longoria’s defense, with some of them tweeting to Braeden that he was being harsh toward her, and misinterpreted what she said as an insult to The Young and the Restless, and to actresses on soap operas, when it was really the complete opposite of that.

Soap operas have been the butt of jokes for a very long time, with the perception that the acting and writing are horrible and over-the-top, that they’re impossible to take seriously compared to primetime dramas, and that only women and gay men enjoy watching them. However, anyone familiar with how soap operas are made knows how much effort goes into making one full episode a day, and how the actors work incredibly hard and fast to memorize their material and turn in enjoyable performances day after day. They’ve not only influenced how primetime dramas are made (whether their creators are willing to admit that or not), but they’ve also launched the careers of many well-known actors who went on to achieve greater success: Julianne Moore (As the World Turns), Amber Tamblyn (General Hospital), Sarah Michelle Gellar (All My Children), Laurence Fishburne (One Life to Live), Taye Diggs (Guiding Light), Meg Ryan (As the World Turns), Morgan Freeman (Ryan’s Hope), and numerous others. It’s why the people who make soap operas, and the people who love watching them, will usually fight tooth and nail when defending them against anyone who they feel isn’t giving them the respect that they’ve long since earned and deserve.

So far, there has been no response from Longoria, and it seems highly unlikely that Braeden will apologize for his statements about her. But soap opera fans are used to cliffhangers, and they’re certainly waiting on the edge of their seats to find out what will happen next.

This has been another episode of “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong.”