Eva Longoria says she refused to be a ‘struggling actor’—so she worked part time as a headhunter, closing deals from her soap opera dressing room

Most actors arrive in Hollywood with nothing but a headshot and a tolerance for instant noodles. Eva Longoria arrived with one rule: her dreams would not come at the expense of her bank account. 

Before she became a multimillionaire TV star, sipping rosé on Wisteria Lane as Desperate Housewives’ Gabrielle Solis, Longoria refused to rough it up like other actors, waiting on tables between auditions and crashing on a roommate’s couch. Instead, she was building a headhunting empire from her soap opera dressing room. 

“The first day I landed in LA, I got a job,” Longoria exclusively tells Fortune. “I was like, I’m not going to be a struggling actor. I’m going to figure this out.”

Figure it out, she did. The 51-year-old star—who now has a net worth north of $80 million, a production company, a directing career, a stake in women’s soccer team Angel City FC, a $6 million investment in the John Wick franchise, and a new mentoring partnership with Lenovo to support small business owners—landed a role at a temp agency as a headhunter. 

And even once she’d scored her first real acting role on The Young and the Restless, she kept going. She was still negotiating salaries, screening candidates, and closing placement deals in between takes. 

“In my dressing room, I was doing the headhunting,” Longoria recalls. “I was negotiating 401(k)s and salaries and interviewing and reading resumes and placing people. And then they would be like, ‘Eva, ready on set.’” She’d hang up mid-call, go act, come back, and pick up........

© Fortune