Eva Longoria Fans Shut Down ‘Young and the Restless’ Star’s Claim She Trashed Soap Actors: He ‘Got His Drawers in a Knot!’ (Video)

Eric Braeden accused his former costar of making “derogatory remarks” about the genre rather than commenting about the life of a struggling actor

Actress Eva Longoria has a mighty powerful fan base who is standing by her after her former “The Young and the Restless” co-star Eric Braeden said she made “derogatory remarks” about soap opera actors in an interview with Chris Wallace.

The “remarks” she made came during an appearance Friday on CNN and HBO Max’s “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” when he showed a clip from 2001 of Longoria on the CBS daytime soap near the start of her career.

“You got your first break 20 years ago when you were cast on a very popular soap opera, ‘The Young and the Restless,’” Wallace began, introducing the clip.

“Oh, God, don’t show a clip! Are you going to show a clip of that?” she laughed.

The scene was of Longoria as Isabella Brana, a character described as “evil” and a “whack job,” in a very soapy scene with Paul Williams (played by Doug Davidson), the father of her child and ex-husband of a woman she tried to kill. Longoria laughed hysterically when the clip ended.  

Wallace pointed out that she was so determined not to be a struggling actress that while she was on “Y&R” (from 2001-2003), she was also working as a headhunter for a temp agency out of her dressing room at the studio.

She explained that out of college she got the job at the temp agency — and was good at — and then was cast on “Y&R.”

“It didn’t pay enough for me to live off being an actor. So I continued being a headhunter and ‘Young and the Restless,’” she said. “And I would hide the fact that I was on ‘Young and the Restless’ to my clients because they didn’t want a dumb actress handling their accounts.”

Longoria went on to say that one of her clients recognized her from the soap, which she quickly denied. “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, you know, still making more money on my day job.”

Braeden, who has played Victor Newman on the soap since 1980, took offense to what she said, misinterpreting her comments about not wanting one of her employers to know about the other as a dig on actors who appear on soap operas, which he told her, is a “medium you denigrate!”

“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!” he tweeted.

“Our actresses would run rings around you!! And they did then!!” he went on. “From Robert di Nero to whoever they all are, many of them started in the medium you denigrate! It shows a complete lack of class!!”

Soap fans, for the most part, didn’t quite understand where Braeden was coming from, accusing him of “reaching.”

“That’s all she said? He’s overreacting. Struggling actors (whatever genre they are in) just don’t go around bragging at their other job that they are a struggling actor on the side. She didn’t insult daytime soaps,” Diane Leigh tweeted.

“She didn’t insult anyone. She just pointed out that there is a bias against actors that exists and she’s experienced. This is factual. Sorry EB get over it,” @soapwikijohn responded.

“Yeah that sounded more like she was saying her clients while she worked as a head hunter stereotyped actors as dumb, more like a criticism on how actors are viewed. Hans Gudegast took offense for no reason,” Clark Savage wrote, making note of Braeden’s birthname.

Braeden jumped into the Twitter storm of comments that came raining down on him, writing, “Well, it’s the obvious embarrassment she feels about her unsuccessful try at it! THAT‘S what I resent! 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!”

He added, “Stop that nonsense, I saw and heard what she talked about!!! And it was derogatory!!!”

But support for Longoria continued to dominate the conversation. Here are just a tiny handful of others:

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