Eva Longoria is back on TV, producing and starring in a new bilingual dramedy unlike other shows currently airing.
The Apple TV+ series Land of Women is set in northern Spain’s wine country and features drama, laughs and stunning cinematography.
“It’s a really fun show about three generations of women — my mother, myself and my daughter, and we have to flee New York,” Longoria said on the red carpet during the show’s world premiere at the Whitby Hotel in New York City on June 20.
Based on Sandra Barneda’s acclaimed novel “La tierra de las Mujeres” (The Land of Women), the six-episode series features Longoria as Gala, a wealthy New Yorker whose life takes a dramatic turn when her husband’s debts force their family to flee the city.
Alongside Longoria, the show stars legendary Spanish actress Carmen Maura as her mother. Newcomer Victoria Bazúa plays Longoria’s daughter and Santiago Cabrera co-stars as the Desperate Housewives alum’s love interest.
“It has a lot of comedy. I’m a fish out of water in Spain,” Longoria explained. “I’m this American who’s never been to Spain, and I kind of speak the language.”
Land of Women is created by Ramón Campos (Cable Girls and Grand Hotel).
When Longoria decided she wanted to star in another series, she asked Campos to find the right project.
“I called Ramón Campos, and I was like, ‘Ramón, write me a show in Spain.’ And he found this book, and he found this amazing story. And before you knew it, I was acting in Spanish, in the middle of the wine country in the north of Spain,” she said.
The project marks a shift for the actress after a decade of working behind the camera as a producer. She most recently developed and produced shows under her UnbeliEVAble Entertainment company, including NBC’s 2015 sitcom Telenovela.
“I haven’t been in front of the camera in a while,” she said. “And I thought if I do go back to TV, I want it to be challenging and something different and something you wouldn’t expect,” she explained, noting that this project marks her Spanish-language acting debut.
It’s a significant milestone for Longoria, a ninth-generation Mexican American who didn’t grow up speaking Spanish. Longoria, 49, learned the language as an adult and confirmed on the Today show that she didn’t start speaking Spanish until she reached her 40s.
Following her feature film directorial debut with Flamin’ Hot (2023), she continues to push for more diversity in Hollywood.
The actress is best known to fans for playing “Gabrielle Solis” on ABC’s Desperate Housewives, a role that marked a breakthrough in media representation by featuring a prominent Latina character in a highly successful primetime network show — a rarity at the time.
The award-winning series ran from 2004 to 2012. Fast forward to 2024, and Longoria wanted to bring audiences an alternative to some of the heavier content currently airing.
“TV is so dire and it’s so depressing,” she said. “I wanted to do blue skies, I wanted to do escapism, and I really wanted to have a show you could really get lost in and not stress out about the apocalypse or, a dystopian future where the government collapses.”
Still, she had concerns about sharing the screen with Maura.
“I was terrified to work with Carmen Maura, who’s the Meryl Streep of Spain,” Longoria said.
As for working in Spain, the Texas native called it an “amazing” experience.
“The way of life in Spain is so great. People really appreciate life. They don’t really live to work, they work to live,” she said. “And even our hours were so amazing, because people want to go home to their families. Wine at lunch, I mean, it’s just all of it. The whole lifestyle is definitely right up my alley.”
Land of Women comes from Apple Studios, and is produced by Bambú Producciones. Executive producers include Ramón Campos, Gema R. Neira, Carlos Sedes, Teresa Fernández-Valdés, Ben Spector, Sandra Condito and Longoria via her UnbeliEVAble Entertainment.
The series debuted globally on Apple TV+ on June 26 with two episodes, followed by new episodes every Wednesday through July 24.
Watch the interview with Longoria below:
