Eva Longoria is hot. Thanks to her role as sultry Gabrielle Solis in hit TV show Desperate Housewives, she has become a star and an international pin-up. But the 31-year-old Latina lovely has left Wisteria Lane far behind for her latest film role as a smart and tough Secret Service agent in The Sentinel (with Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland), playing Jill Marin, who helps uncover a plot to assassinate the American president. Here she talks openly about shoes, her fear of alien abduction and, of course, life on set with Kiefer and Michael

How are you getting used to life in the spotlight?
When I look at how many shoes I have, I say, 'Wow!' I wake up every day and just go, 'I can't believe this is happening to me, this is great.' I am still me though - people always say that, but I really am. I also take into account the fact that we are not curing cancer here. I just have a really good time and I love what I do.

How do you feel about all the media attention you get?
I have ignored it so much that when paparazzi are following me, I really don't see them any more. There are times when I am at basketball games and I am eating everything - nachos, hot dogs - and there's a picture of me. I'll see it and go, 'When did they take that?' and my publicist is like, 'Didn't you see the 100 cameras shooting you?' I keep forgetting they're there because I tune it out so much. Nobody wants to hear a celebrity complain, so I am not about to do that.

Were you surprised when the show became a hit?
Absolutely, I was probably the most surprised because I was really naive. Teri, Nicollette, Felicity and Marcia had all experienced hit shows and they had all been around. Marcia kept telling me, 'Get ready, it's going to be big, get ready.' And I'm like, 'Ready for what? What are you talking about? What do you mean?' Then it hit, and I thought, 'Oh my God, this is what you're talking about.' It was great though, it was fun.

How do you cope with the pressures of fame?
I'm lucky to have a great family and great friends around me who are very grounding. I think the craziness comes when you start to believe your own hype, and you get caught up in all of the superficiality of our business. Felicity (Huffman) gave me the best advice when she said, 'It's all about the work. Just always make it about the work and good things will come.'

Were you disappointed Felicity Huffman didn't win the Oscar for Transamerica?
I was extremely disappointed. I think Felicity in particular transformed herself into something different, something believable, being a woman who is playing a man trying to become a woman. I said to her, 'How is everything going on the campaign trail?' and she said, 'You know what I realised? That I really want to win.' And so knowing that, I was so sad that she didn't because I knew she really wanted to.

Did you take the role in The Sentinel because she wasn't desperate or a housewife? I chose this role because it was the exact opposite of Desperate Housewives. Jill Marin is closer to who I am as a person, so it was nice to play that. People keep saying, 'Wow, The Sentinel is such a stretch for Eva Longoria,' but if you look at my earlier work, I always played the detective, I always played the cop. Desperate Housewives was fun for me because I got to do something different, so this was returning to my roots.

How did Kiefer and Michael feel about you being better at shooting than they were?
Women are better shooters, they are just better target shooters so it was funny, we went to the firing range and we had to shoot at that little man you get to hit. All of mine were in the bulls eye, Kiefer's were a little bigger and lower; and Michael's wasn't even on the man, it was on the paper - he would have killed so many civilians and bystanders. I grew up on a ranch with my father, so he educated us about guns really early on and we used to go target shooting all the time. Coffee cans, tin cans, Coke cans, beer; anything that exploded and made noise, we would shoot it.

How did you get so good at running in high heels in the film?
Well, I'm Latina! I was born with high heels. We crossed the border with high heels, running from immigration! But those shoes are low compared to what I am used to wearing - I could do aerobics in heels.

What was it like working with Kiefer Sutherland?
He has a well of wisdom when it comes to life and he had a lot of life lessons. It's an amazing career that he's had and everything that he's been through personally too, and yet he's still the kindest human being you'll ever meet. I was nervous at first to work with him because I thought he was very serious and going to be very boring to work with but he's quite funny and a great musician, so he's always playing his guitar. It was fun.

And what was Michael Douglas like?
He was very supportive from the beginning with me doing this movie. He called me personally and said, 'You've got to do this movie. I've seen your work. I know you are deeper than Desperate Housewives.' He was kind and a sweet person and he's dedicated to his family. Michael, Kiefer and I had an amazing work ethic. It was like a race to get to set because we were all early birds. Nobody was a diva - but Kiefer took the longest in hair and make-up.