Starring on a soap opera is a pretty glamorous job, but the early paychecks that come along with the TV acting gig might not reflect that glamour. Former The Young and the Restless star Eva Longoria, who played Isabella Braņa from 2001 to 2003, recently admitted that she had to hold down a second job while starring on the CBS soap opera in order to pay her bills.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Longoria reminisces about her early days as an actress and says that even though landing her soap role was a boost to her income, it wasn't enough for her to, as the saying goes, quit her day job. In fact, her Y&R paychecks were actually less than the paychecks she was earning as a headhunter, which is the job she took upon arriving in L.A. and trying to make it as an actress.
"I was a headhunter while I was on The Young and the Restless. I was doing it out of my dressing room," she recalls. "It wasn't until two years into The Young and the Restless that I was actually able to live off just acting."
As fans of the actress have seen, Longoria has come a long way since those days and now pulls in big bucks as a well-established producer and director, as well as a sought-after performer with credits like Desperate Housewives, Telenovela, and Grand Hotel to her name. Her early soap opera acting experience helped take her on this path, but she credits her headhunting position for helping her with "the business side" of Hollywood that has allowed her "to utilize muscles that you don't normally use as an actor."
As for what Longoria has in the pipeline next, she's directing on a biopic called Flamin' Hot that tells the story of Flamin' Hot Cheetos inventor Richard Montaņez.
"It's a beautiful story about the Mexican janitor who worked at the factory and invented the hot Cheeto, and saved people's jobs, and couldn't read or write when he started," she explains. "His whole life, he was told 'no. That opportunity's not for you, ideas don't come from people like you...' And he was like, 'Why not?' It's a very beautiful story [about] the man and his journey and how he succeeded in a world that tells you no."
For more from Longoria on her current projects and early days in Hollywood, read EW's full article here.
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