'You simply weren't good enough to survive the pressures of this medium!' soap legend fired back after perceived slight
Eric Braeden has put Eva Longoria on blast after she made “derogatory remarks about daytime actors.”
During her recent appearance on CNN’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, Longoria opened up about her time playing Isabella Brana on The Young and the Restless, the long-running soap opera on which Braeden plays Victor Newman.
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Longoria, 48, erupted in laughter after Wallace played a clip from her time on Y&R. He then revealed that she continued to work at a temp agency as a headhunter while acting on the show.
“When I moved to Hollywood I had my Bachelor’s degree. And so, when I told my mom, ‘I’m going to be an actress,’ she was fine because I had graduated college,” Longoria explained. “So I knew I could get a job … 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.”
But she hid the role on the CBS serial from her clients, “because they didn’t want a dumb actress handing their accounts.”
“One time one of my clients was like, ‘You look like a girl I’ve seen on a soap opera.’ And I go, ‘No, I don’t know who that is,'” Longoria recalled. “I was like the opposite of a publicist’s dream. I was like, ‘Don’t tell anybody I’m on that show’ because I was still making more money on my day job.”
Braeden spotted her guest spot and immediately put the Desperate Housewives actress on blast.
“EVA LONGORIA: you just made derogatory remarks about daytime actors!” Braeden wrote in a lengthy Twitter thread. “You simply weren’t good enough to survive the pressures of this medium! You were very lucky to get on that ‘housewife’ show! You did one show in 8-12 days, with mediocre but salacious dialogue!”
EVA LONGORIA: you just made derogatory remarks about daytime actors! You simply weren’t good enough to survive the pressures of this medium! You were very lucky to get on that “housewife” show! You did one show in 8-12 days, with mediocre but salacious dialogue! Our actresses
— Eric Braeden (@EBraeden) March 19, 2023
Braeden’s continued his rant, adding: “Our actresses would run rings around you!! And they did then!! From Robert [De Niro] to whoever they all are, many of them started in the medium you denigrate! It shows a complete lack of class!!”
While some fans tried to defend Longoria’s remarks claiming that “she didn’t say anything bad,” the 81-year-old Emmy winner wasn’t having it.
“The whole tenor of that segment was one of embarrassment about her stint in Y&R … What did you not get about that?”
When one follower tried to say that Longoria might have forgotten how hard daytime actors work, Braeden dismissed her stint as Brana as “a caricature”
“She just wasn’t very good, simple as that!!!” Braeden wrote.
Braeden thanked another fan who shared an article listing all the Hollywood A-listers who got their first big break in daytime.
Thank you very much for sending that to me! Among those mentioned are some I have always respected enormously!! 🙏🙏👍👍👍
— Eric Braeden (@EBraeden) March 20, 2023
“When people who have not made it in the [soap opera] medium or have no idea what it is about say pejorative things about it, I get pissed off!” Braeden continued to fume. “Because I’m one of few people in it who have done it all, from theatre to films to loads of nighttime guest star roles! I know what I’m talking about!”
The Young and the Restless airs weekdays on CBS and Global.
mdaniell@postmedia.com