Q 1

PLAYBOY: You've become famous playing a red-hot two-timing vixen who can scam her way out of anything on Desperate Housewives. Offscreen, how intense is your inner bitch?

Eva Longoria: Well, I am Latina, so automatically I have a feistiness most other people don't. When we made The Sentinel, Kiefer Sutherland called me a firefly crossed with a mosquito--bright but, look out, I could bite. When I have lines on Desperate Housewives like "I don't care if she shot triplets out of her ass--we're not having her as a surrogate," I become my character, Gabrielle, even though we're so unalike. I think I'm a tamed tiger.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: Your co-star Teri Hatcher is now reportedly TV's highest-paid actress. What are you doing with your newfound fortune?

Eva Longoria: Never in the history of television has a show done so well this fast. Our show is where most shows would be in their fifth or sixth year, which was when the stars of Friends started making $1 million an episode. I'm still really frugal, which is funny. The other day I got upset because every zipper was broken in a box of Ziploc bags I was using. My assistant said, "Let's just go buy another box," but I insisted, "No, they're supposed to zip, okay?" I called the number on the package and they sent me five free boxes. I felt better. It's the principle of the matter.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: You played another scheming bombshell on The Young and the Restless. Why are you the actress everyone loves to hate?

Eva Longoria: I hope it's because I can play someone with no moral boundaries who does what she wants when she wants. It's always much more fun for an actor to play the villain. People genuinely love Gabrielle on Desperate Housewives for being a good person with good intentions who does bad things. But I was bad to the bone on The Young and the Restless.

Q 4

PLAYBOY: Which two characters on Desperate Housewives ought to have a lesbian fling?

Eva Longoria: Definitely Nicollette Sheridan, who is a ball of fun, and Marcia Cross, who I think is stunning. My character would go for Nicollette too because Gabrielle is another ball of fun. They'd be a pair to reckon with. They would cause quite a ruckus.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: Your new movie, Harsh Times, set in south L.A., is all about guns, drugs and crime. You play a lawyer-to-be who hooks up with a druggie screwup played by Freddy Rodríguez. Are there any real-life parallels?

Eva Longoria: I used to have an asshole for a boyfriend, although he wasn't like Freddy's character, who I believe loves my character but doesn't have his shit together. I had a pretty evil person in my life. All my friends were going, "Run!" and I was like, "But I love him." Everybody has to experience one toxic relationship, and thank God I got mine out of the way. I'm attracted to driven, hardworking, humorous people, but the guys in the movie are either pretty serious or stoned.