Ana Ortiz Talks Devious Maids Controversy and Working with How to Get Away with Murders’ Viola Davis

Prior to the series premiere of Lifetime’s sexy guilty pleasure Devious Maids, the show was met with a lot of backlash and controversy surrounding the nature of the show and its Latina cast.

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While promoting her upcoming guest appearance on ABC’s hit freshman series How to Get Away with Murder, she addressed the controversy of Maids, which was recently renewed for a third season.

“I understood the controversy, I did,” Ortiz explains on The View. “I think even when I first saw the script, I was like, ‘Really, we have to be maids?’ But I read the script and I knew [Executive Producer] Eva Longoria and she has such incredible support for the community and she’s such an incredibly smart and powerful woman. So I said, ‘Let me read the script,’ and I just had fun and I was reading and I was laughing. [The maids in the show] are the ones that hold all the power!”

“My grandmother cleaned homes,” she continued. “Why can’t I tell her story with dignity and humor and sexiness and all of that stuff?”

While the actress isn’t busy filming her hit Lifetime show, during her hiatus, she finds time to make guest appearances on ABC shows (ABC Studios produces Devious Maids for Lifetime). Last season she appeared on Revenge; This Thursday she will guest star as one of Annalise Keating’s clients on How to Get Away with Murder.

“She is beyond incredible,” Ortiz says of working with Academy Award nominee Viola Davis. “She’s so kind, she’s so generous, she’s so down to earth. That whole cast is really phenomenal; they’re all so close. It’s hard to walk into a show when you don’t know anybody and they were all so welcoming. She’s unbelievable. She’s an incredible artist.”

Devious Maids returns Summer 2015 on Lifetime and How to Get Away with Murder airs Thursdays at 10pm on ABC.