Victoria Bazua didn’t know who her Land of Women costars Eva Longoria and Carmen Maura were before they were cast on the series together.
“Eva and Carmen are a few generations older than me, LOL,” Bazua, 16, exclusively told Us Weekly. “I didn’t know who they were before going into the show. I remember my manager at the time was like, ‘Oh my God, your mom is going to be Eva Longoria,’ and I was like, ‘Who is she?’”
Bazua explained that she had never watched Desperate Housewives, but had seen a few scenes on TikTok — and knew Longoria’s character Gabrielle Solis was “iconic.”
“I’m literally Gaby Solis’s daughter in real life,” she said. “That really helped us bond and get to know each other on a deeper level. It was also the cast and crew that really made it feel like a true family. We were all a family.”
Bazua gushed that she and Longoria, 49, as well as Maura, 78, have great chemistry. “What you watch on screen is all real, all natural, and that’s because Carmen, Eva and I really bonded,” she said. “I mean, we’re like a little family. I call Eva my mommy. She calls me daughter. Carmen is literally my grandmother.”
Bazua said that the trio had “so much fun shooting” Land of Women. “We created a beautiful family dynamic on screen that a lot of women, no matter their age group or where they’re from, they’re going to feel identified with and they’re going to love these characters,” she said.
When they weren’t filming the Apple TV+ series, Bazua recalled spending quality time with Longoria. “Eva and I loved to go shopping. We love eating,” she said. “I mean, the whole cast, we would go to this pizza restaurant that was in the little town and we would all hang out, have pizza.”
The drama-comedy series centers around Longoria’s character, Gala, who flees her life in New York with her daughter Kate (Bazua) and her mother Julia (Maura) to reside in Spain. The show is inspired by the novel La Tierra de Mujeres by Sandra Barneda.
When Bazua first read the script for the series, she “fell in love with the story.” She added, “I was like, ‘This is literally the best opportunity for me to speak up about topics that aren’t really talked about enough in Hollywood, which is being Latina, being trans in Hollywood,’ and I think we really nailed those two,” she said.
For Bazua’s first time acting in front of a screen, she said the experience was a “dream come true.”
“I feel like stepping into Kate’s shoes really helped me to do that because Kate is really sarcastic,” she said. “She has a lot of dark sense of humor that I also have and love. I feel like Kate’s sarcasm really helps her in vulnerable situations where she needs a shield. That, obviously, uplifts her in these hard situations. I do really feel like she’s the glue of the family.”
The first two episodes of Land of Women premiered on Apple TV+ Wednesday, June 26. The additional installments will drop one-by-one every Wednesday until the July 24 finale.
With reporting by Travis Cronin
