Actress Eva Longoria has come a long way in her career since she was first introduced to prime time television audiences, portraying Gabrielle Solis in the ABC series, Desperate Housewives (2004-2012). Now she is serving as Executive Producer and Star of Apple TV’s Land of Women, shot in both English and Spanish. Longoria portrays Gala, a high-society New Yorker whose life is turned upside down when her husband implicates the family in a financial scandal, forcing her to flee, along with her mother and teenage daughter.

Hailing from Apple Studios, and inspired by award-winning author Sandra Barneda’s best-selling novel La tierra de las mujeres,  Land of Women is created by Ramón Campos, Gema R. Neira and Paula Fernández and is directed by Iris Award winner Carlos Sedes. 

Also starring legendary film and television star Carmen Maura and newcomer Victoria Bazúa. 

Longoria quips, “Yes, my character Gala, is indeed suffering an identity crisis at the beginning of the show. Her whole life has been a lie, and she has to flee suddenly to Northern Spain, living in a small vineyard with her mother, who was raised there and now hates it; and her daughter, who is definitely going through a rebellious phase. To top it off, off, the people she meets, speak a language she doesn’t really understand (Catalon).”

The series creator/writer and Executive Producer Ramón Campos interjects, “We live with different languages. Eva and I are now speaking English to be interviewed; but the moment we start to speak in Spanish we live in that world. We both think this situation must be reflected in the series. It’s important to authentically function in that environment.”

Castilian and Catalan accents were heavily incorporated into the series, which is a sharp contrast to Mexican, which is what Longoria spoke growing up in Corpus Christi. “I think streaming has really broken down content,” says Longoria. “We no longer just watch what’s from America and Spaniards don’t just watch what’s from Spain. “We now live in a global community.”

Ramón Campos has lived through this streaming renaissance of programming, particularly in Spain where Netflix and now Apple are now invested heavily in local output. “I started with FreeTV” he says. When we had an amazingly successful series, Netflix come to Spain and we created “Cable Girls.” We were very lucky and we developed series for Amazon, for Netflix, and now for the amazing Apple TV+.

The episodes move smoothly, authentically flowing from Gala speaking English to her American daughter, then speaking Spanish with her mother. The ladies at the vineyard are from Catalonia, so they speak Catalan. It makes for a very rich, fun environment because it’s one of the big sources of comedy…miscommunication.

“I think it’s important to analyze the people who wait for your story,” says Campos. “I don’t believe in creating series just for me. I love my stories, but I always create the series for the people. My first audience is my mother. When I finish one series, I send my mother the episode and she has one of two reactions. Either it’s ‘I love it, it’s amazing,’ or ‘Oh, it’s nice.” It is with the second response, I know I’m in trouble?”

In the 12 years since the end of Desperate Housewives, Longoria has mostly been producing and directing, with a little bit of acting thrown in. So, how does she choose what she wants to act in, what kinds of projects does she want to produce and direct? Also, was she really interested in continuing to work on both sides of the camera?

Longoria just shrugs. “I wanted to get behind the camera to have more control of my career. I wanted to tell the stories from my community, from a woman’s perspective. And I started doing that during Desperate Housewives, I used that series as my film school.” Longoria shot her first two short films during Desperate Housewives and then produced Devious Maids with Marc Cherry. That’s also when she started her episodic directing career. It was Campos who segued her career into starring in a series.

“Yeah, that’s true,” Campos continues. “I love to write for women set in period series, but I decided I wanted to also speak in contemporary times, because I have strong women in my life. My team, all are women. And for me, it became very important to speak about them. And then Eva approached me.”

Longoria continues, “Ramón and I did Grand Hotel together. I optioned the format from Spain and that’s where we met. And then I optioned another one of his shows that I loved. And then after that, I was like, “Ramón, why don’t you write me a show? I want to drink wine and shoot in Spain.” He just shrugged and said, O.K.’ Oh my God! I was really excited to work with a showrunner like Ramón.” I’ve never acted in Spanish. I have never shot in Spain. To be playing such a phenomenal Spanish cast, including the legendary Carmen Maura, it was just something I couldn’t pass up.”

The series is produced by Bambu Studios, and executive produced by showrunner Campos, Neira, Sedes, Iris Award winner Teresa Fernández-Valdés, Ben Spector, Sandra Condito and Longoria via her award-winning production company UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, founded in 2005 by Longoria to produce film, television and documentaries.

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ABC Studios teams up with Eva Longoria, who executive produces a new drama Series, Grand Hotel, that is a bold and provocative drama set at the last family-owned hotel in multicultural Miami Beach. And, if the trailer teaser is any indication, Grand Hotel promises to be a few degrees more than just sexy and scandalous!

Charismatic Santiago Mendoza (Academy Award nominee Demián Bichir) owns the hotel, while his glamorous second wife Gigi (Roselyn Sanchez), and their adult children enjoy the spoils of success. The hotel’s loyal staff round out a contemporary, fresh take on an upstairs/downstairs story. Wealthy and beautiful guests bask in luxury, but scandals, escalating debt, and explosive secrets hide beneath the picture perfect exterior.

Grand Hotel
ABC Studios (Production Company), American Broadcasting Company (Distributor)

Airs Monday nights, 10PM on ABC — Pilot premieres June 17th, 2019, 10PM

Directors: Bill D’Elia, Eva Longoria, Ken Olin, Ron Underwood, Marisol Alder”
Producers: David Avena (Supervising Producer), Paul Kurta, Robert D. Simon, Jeff MacVittie (Associate Producer)
Executive Producers Brian Tanen, Eva Longoria, Ramon Campus, Bill D’Elia, Teresa Fernandez-Valdes, Ben Spector
Casting Directors: Libby Kirchgessner, Sandi Logan

Curtis Kheel (Co-Executive Producer), Nicki Renna, (Co-Producer
Writers: Ramon Campos, Gema R. Neira, Brian Tanen, Curtis Kheel, Bob Daily, David Avena, Destra Tedros Reff, and Nicki Renna
Cast: Demian Bichir, Roselyn Sanchez, Denyse Tonta, Bryan Craig, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Lincoln Younes, Shalim Ortiz, Annie Winters, Chris Warren, Feliz Ramirez, and Justina Adamo.

Recurring: Jencarlos Canelas, John Marshall Jones Richard Burgi, Adrian Pasdar, Katey Sagal, Freddie Stroma, and Ken Kirby.

Eva Longoria has a guest role as Beatriz Mendoza, Santiago Mendoza’s (Bichir) deceased wife.

Watch more Grand Hotel Season 1 videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…

Follow Grand Hotel on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GrandHotelABC
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrandHotelABC
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/GrandHotelABC

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