Eva Longoria used her "mum compass" in ‘Dora and the Lost City of Gold’.
The 44-year-old actress plays the mother of the titular character in the upcoming live-action ‘Dora the Explorer’ spin off and admitted she was told to keep her maternal instinct in check because she couldn’t help but think about the titular teenager – who is played by Isabela Moner – in the same way she would worry about her and husband Jose ‘Pepe’ Baston’s own son, 14-month-old Santiago.
She said: "It’s exciting [to play a mum] because this is the first time I’m doing a movie that Santiago can watch.
"It’s the first movie where I’ve played mum while being a mum.
"All of a sudden, I had a mum compass.
"I’d say things like, ‘Should we let Dora hold that snake?’ But the director would have to correct me and say, ‘Eva, this is Dora. This is not Santiago.’ "
Eva’s friends from around the world were very excited when they heard she was going to be in the film.
She told Britain’s OK! Magazine: "Dora was an icon on the Hispanic community.
"When I got the part, my friends from London, Germany and France all called me and I said, ‘How do you know who Dora is?’ I didn’t know she was a global icon."
But the former ‘Desperate Housewives’ star initially planned to turn down the role because her son was so young, but her husband persuaded her to sign up.
She explained: "When I received the phone call to do ‘Dora’, Santi was two months old.
"I said to Pepe, ‘Honey they just called me. They want me to play the mother of Dora in Australia. I’m going to have to say no because Santi is so little. We can’t take him to Australia while I’m still breastfeeding.’
"And he goes, ‘Why not? You have to do this. What do you mean you’re not going to do it? We’ll all go.’ And we all went together to Australia as a family.
"Pepe was the one who really told me to do the role."
Eva Longoria brought parenthood to role
