Longoria, who not too long ago rang in her fiftieth birthday, advised Right this moment, in an interview revealed Sunday, that she relied on being “humorous” and “sensible” as a result of she was the “ugly duckling” in her household.

“I used to be performative in my household as a result of I used to be the ugly duckling. Documentation is out there in the event you want it,” quipped Longoria, who grew up the youngest of 4 daughters. “My three sisters look alike. They’re all blonde. I knew I wasn’t the beautiful one and I used to be like, ‘OK, I am not the beautiful one so I’ll be the humorous one. I’ll be the sensible one.’”

Raised on a ranch in Texas, Longoria and her sisters grew up with chickens and milking cows.

“We needed to go get the eggs within the morning. We needed to milk the cow for the milk that was going to go within the espresso and in our cereal,” she recalled.

And whereas she says she was the “ugly duckling” in her household as a baby, Longoria would go on to win a magnificence pageant, utilizing a part of the scholarship cash she received to fund her education at Texas A&M, the place she earned a level in kinesiology.

It wasn’t lengthy after that she discovered herself in Los Angeles, and ultimately Hollywood.

“I land in Hollywood and I do not know what occurred. I simply was like, ‘I believe I’ll be an actor,’” Longoria advised Right this moment.

Longoria would go on to star in small roles on reveals like Beverly Hills, 90210 and Common Hospital earlier than touchdown a collection common gig as Isabella within the daytime cleaning soap opera The Younger and the Stressed.

Nevertheless it was Determined Housewives that helped skyrocket Longoria to fame, making her character Gabby a family identify not lengthy after its premiere in 2004.

“By the point I acquired Determined Housewives, I keep in mind when it aired, and I used to be like, ‘Mother, you gotta watch, it is known as Determined Housewives,’” she recalled. “She watches and he or she calls me afterwards, she goes, ‘Honey you had been in it rather a lot.’ I’m going, ‘Yeah mother, I am one of many stars.’ And she or he goes, ‘Are you going to be in it subsequent week?’ [I go], ‘Mother I’ll be on each week.’ It was a giant adjustment for everyone round me, however not me.”

The 50-year-old actress has gone on to star in a number of movies and TV reveals since Determined Housewives aired its collection finale 2012, even transitioning to producing and directing.

Her most up-to-date function, nonetheless, sees her again in entrance of the digital camera for the movie Alexander and the Horrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Unhealthy Street Journey, which is ready to be launched on Friday, March 28.

“I cherished the thought of doing a film that my son can watch and that I can watch with him,” Longoria stated of her 6-year-old son, Santiago, whom she shares with husband José Bastón. “It is actually a enjoyable highway journey film however with a household and it simply occurs to be a Latino household. Quite a lot of instances once we are on TV and movie as Latinos, it is about our trauma. It is about our wrestle or id.”

She continued, “So to have the ability to be in a film that lives in pleasure and lives in household and lives in a unique area then we usually see, I used to be like, ‘That is what I need to do. Signal me up.’”