AMC's Eva LaRue Says... I Have Never Loved a Job More (SOM 7/27/95, by Sheila Steinbach)

When AMC offered Eva La Rue the role Maria, Eva had mixed feelings-but she agreed to take it only because she was broke and needed a job. In an exclusive interview with Soap Opera Magazine, Eva candidly confessed she used to look down her nose at soaps, but her opinion about daytime has turned around 180 degrees. “Most actors have the attitude about soaps where they feel they are either slumming, or they’re thanking God they have a way to pay their rent,” Eva explained. 

“They don’t know which to feel until they get on a soap and into a major storyline and realize how difficult daytime is compared to all the other facets of the business. Whether they come out still thinking they slummed or not, I think they do come out with a whole new respect for the medium. It’s the most stress-producing job I have ever had- and I love it!”

Originally, the beautiful actress never imagined she’d remain on AMC longer than her original two-year contract. But now she’s glad she stayed and recently signed on for two more years. “ I have never loved a job more and never respected a job more, and I’ll never look at it as slumming again. I’m embarrassed to say I did before I took the job.” It wasn’t the first time Eva had to dramatically revise her thinking about the way the world operated. As a teenager, she thought she had her future all plotted out, but soon discovered life can suddenly take some unexpected turns. Born in Long Beach, CA, Eva grew up in the small suburban town of Norco, in Riverside County. “We lived in a little house on an acre of land, but were considered poor. For my fifth birthday, my dad bought me a pony name Sapphire,” Eva recalled fondly.“ She was my best friend and that’s how I learned to ride so young. I had her until I was 18.” 

Although her parents separated when she was 7, her early years were mostly a happy time for Eva. She began taking dancing lessons when she was 4 or 5, and by age 6 she was already winning beauty pageants. She captured the title of “Little Miss California” and finished in the top finalists of the “Little Miss World” pageant. Little Eva seemed destined for show business. “I got an agent and started doing commercials,” she remembers. “I did McDonald’s, American Airlines, Del Monte foods and a lot of print ads. I always wanted to be an entertainer, but I never thought of myself as an actor.”  Throughout her high school years, Eva continued to concentrate on dancing. She was so talented she on a ballet scholarship with the San Francisco Ballet Company for one summer, followed by a three-year scholarship with the Stanley Holden School in Los Angeles. After high school, Eva wanted to go to UCLA to major in theatre. “But my mom didn’t have the money to send me, so I thought I’d take a year off from school, and get a job and save some money, and then go back to college after that.” In LA, Eva landed a couple of commercials, then was picked to appear on Star Search. 

“That’s where I met Scott Thompson Baker (Connor, B&B) and we’ve been friends for almost 10 years now,” Eva says smiling. 
Around this time, Eva began to realize she would have to rethink her earlier goals, because things weren’t going according to plan. 
“All those dancing classes I took had not paid off. Nobody was beating down my door. There were no jobs for dancers, ballerinas or singers. You were either an actress or nothing. So I began taking jobs in those dance videos, and doing more commercials.”  But with perseverance, Eva successfully made the switch to acting. At 19 she landed a part in her first movie. “It was called The Barbarians, and it’s one of those movies that always comes back to haunt you,” she laughs. More roles followed, in Robocop 3, Heart Condition, and Crash ‘N Burn. Eva also guest-starred in several sitcoms and in 1988 won a short-lived part on the soap Santa Barbara. “I was there for about six months. I got hired two months before the writer’s strike, so I never had an integral part of the storyline.”  Then Eva met actor John O’Hurley. For the first year and a half, they were just friends, then began dating and
eventually got married in 1992. A year before their marriage, Eva had screen-tested for the part of Gloria on AMC and auditioned for another job, as co-host with Dom DeLuise on The New Candid Camera show. “On the same day I found out AMC wanted to fly me to New York for the final test, I also learned I got the job on Candid Camera,” Eva said. “I decided I wasn’t willing to move to New York. And rightly so, because I don’t think I would have been right for that part.” When her Candid Camera gig ended a year and a half later, Eva found herself once again looking for a job. 

“But I was feeling cocky. I had just got married and was feeling good. I thought I could turn down job offers and take what I wanted to take because the world had opened up for me. All of a sudden, six moths later, neither of us was working. John and I were broke, and there weren’t that many pilots being made anymore. Big stars were coming down into our ranks, and we found ourselves at the bottom of the food chain, wondering what we were going to do.”  Then the role of Maria on AMC came along. Eva wasn’t thrilled but…a job is a job. And it all worked out beautifully, because after more than two years on the show, Eva loves her work. Today, she confesses she doesn’t do much planning because she knows blueprints for the future can get blurry. Her marriage to John ended in divorce. 

“It’s funny how you think you can plan your life and know what you’re going to do with it and what the next step is going to be. But what I’ve realized is that with my marriage and subsequent divorce, my move to New York, and all these things that I never had planned on happening, not only have I learned more and grown more, I think I’ve become a better person. 

“I’ve always been a goal setter and a goal achiever, and not having a goal right now keeps me a little off kilter,” Eva admits. “But it’s actually a better place for me to be. I’ve learned more being off kilter than I do having my stuff together.  “I don’t know what my next step will be. I’ve just signed for another two years, and after that I don’t know. Eventually, I’d like to go home to Los Angeles to be near my family. I’d like to get married again and have kids. That’s important to me. I’d always like to be working, although I’ve sort of given up the idea, ‘I’m going to be a star.’ I think if it’s in the cards for me, then it is, and there is nothing I can do to make it happen or not make it happen,” Eva says stoically.” It’s either my turn or it’s not, and I’m not going to beat myself up about it.”  Then, switching moods suddenly and flashing a radiant smile, Eva added: “I’m just happy to be working. This is a great job and I’m really glad my life took what looked like a bad turn. It wound up being the best turn of my life.”

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