Eva Longoria Says 'I Want to Work with People I Love': 'Life's Too Short' (Exclusive)

Difficult people need not step on set with Eva Longoria!

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE at the L'Oréal Paris suite at Hôtel Martinez during the Cannes Film Festival in France, the Desperate Housewives alum, 49, explained why she approaches new projects by considering her circle of friends first.

"I want to work with people I love," she says, naming friends and fellow actresses Kerry Washington and Gabrielle Union, with whom she has upcoming projects.

"Life's too short to work with a-------, and I'd much rather be surrounded by people I love, and creatives that I respect," she continues, describing the process in which she decides what to work on next as "reverse engineering."

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The star of the upcoming AppleTV+ dramedy Land of Women says she considers who she wants to collaborate with first, and then seeks out projects that will work best for everyone involved.

"It's the people and their vision and what they bring to it more than the actual project" that will get her on a set, Longoria tells PEOPLE.

She has a list of directors and producers she would love to work with in the future.

"Édgar Ramírez, I want to work with so bad," the Searching for Mexico host says, referring to the Emilia Perez actor, whose film, costarring Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldana, recently premiered at Cannes.

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Per her creative process, the longtime L'Oréal Paris ambassador says she'll "develop projects around that idea" and eventually they'll be collaborating together on something. "Like, 'Okay, if I want to work with Carmen Maura, what would be a good vehicle for that?' " she explained.

Longoria has certainly been juggling quite a lot of projects lately. The Flamin' Hot director recently announced a Mexican cookbook, will host CNN's upcoming series Searching for Spain and will also appear on the upcoming season of the hit Hulu comedy Only Murders in the Building.