Eva Longoria slammed Hollywood during her Kering Women in Motion speech at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
The “Desperate Housewives'” alumna, along with University of Southern California Annenberg Professor and Researcher Dr. Stacy L. Smith makes her feature directorial début with “Flamin’ Hot,” a inspirational story about a Frito-Lay Janitor who created Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. The film was awarded an audience award by the SXSW Festival.
Longoria, as a Latina woman, a Latina first-timer director, and a Latina female director said that she “felt” the “weight of my community”, and “the burden of all female directors” when “Flamin’ Hot” production began.
Longoria, a Latina director, said: “We don’t have many opportunities to be directors.” “My film was not low-budget by any means – it wasn’t 100 million dollars, but it was also not $2 million. When was the last Latina directed studio film? It was about 20 years ago. “We can’t have a new movie every 20 years.”
Longoria said, “The issue is that if this film fails, people will say, ‘Oh Latino Stories don’t Work… Female Directors really don’t Cut It.'” We don’t have a lot at-bats. If a white male directs a $200 million movie, he can fail and then get another. This is the problem. “I only get one at bat, one chance. Work twice as hard, double as fast and twice as cheap,” Longoria stated.
Dr. Stacy L. Smith and Eva Longoria speak during the Cannes Film Festival, on Tuesday.
Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images for Kering
Longoria wanted to create a story that was inspirational for Latinos, with characters that resembled members of her family. From her father to her aunts, she did not compromise. The story examines how corporate America undervalues the Hispanic Community. Longoria noted that the same could be said about Hollywood studios.
She said that 28 percent of the ticket buyers are Latinos. “Your film won’t succeed if it doesn’t have a Latino audience.” Do you know the number of Latinos who attended ‘Crazy Rich Asians? Do you know the number of Latinos who bought tickets for “Fast and Furious”? Why shouldn’t we be satisfied with the content if it is us who are buying tickets?
Longoria believes that despite the progress made in Hollywood with regard to Latino inclusion, there is still a lot of work ahead. In fact, Longoria claims that the industry has actually regressed statistically.
Longoria stated, “We are still underrepresented both in front and behind the camera. We’re not reaching out to the Latino women.” “We used to be at 7%, but now we are at 5%. The myth that Hollywood was so progressive is a lie when you examine the data.”
