Actress-director Eva Longoria turns focus on sports world with new ESPN series of short films

Eva Longoria is putting her focus on the sports world in a new series of short films the actress is executive producing for ESPN.

Longoria's first effort for the "Versus" series debuting in May is about Sebastien De La Cruz, the young mariachi singer whose performance of the national anthem before Game 3 of the 2013 NBA Finals set off a barrage of racist tweets.

Like Longoria, De La Cruz is from San Antonio, Texas, so the story hit close to home for the Mexican-American actress.

She says she wanted to tell his story because what came out of the backlash against De La Cruz "was something beautiful."

Since her star-making turn in the hit series "Desperate Housewives" ended three years ago, Longoria has moved mostly behind the camera. She says she's a natural as a director because she likes telling people what to do.