Called out. Eric Braeden slammed Eva Longoria after she spoke about her experience on The Young and the Restless.
“EVA LONGORIA: you just made derogatory remarks about daytime actors!” Braeden, 81, wrote via Twitter on Sunday, March 19. “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!”
He added, “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!!”
Braden, who has played Victor Newman on The Young and the Restless since 1980, was upset by Longoria’s Sunday interview on Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace. During her segment on the CNN show, the Desperate Housewives alum, 48, reflected on her time playing Isabella Braña on the CBS soap opera from 2001 to 2003.
“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,” Longoria said. “And I would hide the fact I was on Young and the Restless to my clients, because they didn’t want, like, a dumb actress handling their accounts.”
The Searching for Mexico host recalled a client realizing she was an actress. “And 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.’ I was like the opposite of a publicist’s dream,” she joked. “I was like, ‘Don’t tell anybody I’m on that show!’ Because I was still making more money on my day job.”
Following Braeden’s comments, some fans responded to his tweets and defended Longoria, noting she seemed to be talking about being underpaid as an actor. Braeden, however, firmly held his stance. “Come on now, the whole tenor of that segment was one of embarrassment about her stint in Y&R and HOUSEWIVES! What did you not get about that?” he told one Twitter user on Sunday.
The actor then doubled-down on Monday, March 20. “Well, it’s the obvious embarrassment she feels about her unsuccessful try at it! THAT‘S what I resent!” he told another commenter. “Be proud of your past endeavors! But you are right, there’s this sense of what we do, entertaining MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD ON A DAILY BASIS, as somehow less than!”
When another fan tagged Longoria to demand an apology, Braeden said it wasn’t necessary. “She doesn’t need to apologize!” he wrote. “I simply reacted to hearing this while watching CNN and CHRIS WALLACE, who I respect! But when the soap medium is being denigrated by anyone, I’ll go after them! This is the hardest medium for an actor, PERIOD!!! Be effing proud of it!!!”
