In Focus With Eva Longoria: Directing 'Flamin' Hot', Latino Representation in Hollywood & More | THR Video - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

Eva Longoria talks to The Hollywood Reporter about her passion for producing and directing at the start of her career. Plus, she dishes on directing her first feature film "Flamin' Hot" and the importance of Latino representation in Hollywood.

Transcript

00:00You know, everybody thinks I'm an actor turned director, but I've always been a

00:06producer-director that fell into acting. I've always been fascinated with being

00:10behind the camera, putting the whole project together, you know, having a

00:14total vision and control of the final product.

00:18I've had some amazing mentors in this industry. You know, I use Desperate Housewives as my film school.

00:33I paid attention to where the cameras went and lenses and lights and blocking and, you know, it was

00:39ten years of my life and I had so many directors come through. You learn some really great things

00:45and then you also learn what not to do. And so I really feel like my curiosity was my

00:52greatest strength. I asked a lot of questions and when a good director came

00:56along I picked their brain. I was inspired by so many directors and their work. You

01:05know, I wanted a strong POV in the film and nobody does it better than Scorsese. I

01:11loved the journalistic approach of Adam McKay and I like, you know, the social

01:17issues of Ava DuVernay. I like the heart of all of Ron Howard's films. I mean, I

01:22really studied so much of their work to see like, God, I want a little bit of that. I

01:30want to do a little bit of that. I want to, I want to, you know, I was so inspired by, you

01:34know, their approach to filmmaking. For me, I, you know, kind of touched every rung of the

01:40ladder in directing. I started with short films. I went to episodic TV, did, you

01:45know, comedy, did drama, did multicam, single cam. And so it was the natural

01:51evolution to do a feature next, although I wasn't looking for one. This story found

01:56me and I was obsessed with wanting to tell Richard Montaignez's story. This movie

02:04hasn't been made and I say that humbly and I say that with sadness because, you know, I think the last

02:10major studio that did a film about us and by us Latinos was 20 years ago. And so you

02:17can't get a film, we can't get a film every 20 years. So yeah, I mean, I really

02:23tried to get inspired by some of the the greatest filmmakers of our time and and

02:28and put it into Evil and Gloria style, you know. Oh God, that's horrible. Don't ever

02:33speak in third person into my style. I don't know when I felt represented on

02:40screen. The first time I would probably say, which is not accurate, but West Side

02:44Story with Rita Moreno because she was brown like me. But I wasn't Puerto Rican

02:49and I wasn't particularly, I wasn't from New York. I had never been there. You know, I

02:55related nothing to, to, you know, the story other than Rita Moreno looks like me. And

03:05I remember, you know, that being one of the first times. Also, I would say Salma

03:10Hayek in Desperado and Robert Rodriguez's name just like, whoa, wait, a Mexican

03:18American like me directed that. I remember being very blown away by that and the fact

03:24that Robert was from Texas, I'm from Texas. So I remember, I think, feel like

03:29those were the earliest memories I have of representation looking like me. You

03:35know, I think there's an illusion that Hollywood's very progressive and it's

03:41super diverse and the data and statistics say otherwise. Actually, there's less

03:47female directors behind the camera than there were a couple years ago. There's less

03:51Latinos in TV and film than there were a couple years ago. So, you know, I feel

03:57like we have to keep our foot on the gas. For me, I mean, that's, that's the whole

04:00purpose of getting behind the camera is to tell our own stories, you know, write our

04:05own stories, produce our own stories. And, you know, we, on this film, I dedicated an

04:12immense effort to hiring Latinos behind the camera because that's the story we were

04:18telling. And I needed that authenticity in every department head.

04:24I really only say yes to projects that have something to say. Like, what are we

04:28saying about society, about culture? Are we changing anything? Are we changing

04:32anybody's hearts and minds? And that's why this particular film is so important

04:38because it's entertaining and it's funny and it's a fun ride and, you know, it's heart

04:43tugging. It's emotional. It's all those things, but it also is saying a lot about the hierarchy

04:49that we live in and society and about how opportunity is not distributed equally. And a man

04:55like Richard Montanez who said, but why not? Why not me? Why can't ideas come from somebody who looks

05:01like me? And that was important to me to direct something that says something. Yeah. And I also think,

05:08you know, I've heard this recently, like, imposter syndrome is made up by patriarchy.

05:12You know, it's made up by a certain group of people who want women to think they don't belong

05:19and want women to be so humble and so thankful for this job, you know. And I, with this project

05:26and with Flaming Hot, I keep balancing between immense gratitude and humility for what we've created

05:34and all the talent that was assembled to make this film possible. And I balance that with like,

05:39like, yes, I want to own this space. Like, I want to be proud of this space and stop saying,

05:44thank you so much for allowing me the space. Thank you so much for letting us be here. Like, no,

05:49this is our space. We deserve to be here. And so, so it's, it's a balance.

05:56It's just been this amazing journey to, you know, finally present this movie to the world and for it to,

06:02for it to be received the way it's been received with the intention of what, how we made it, you know.

06:06I really think like, how am I ever going to care about another project as much as I cared about

06:11Flaming Hot. It was a special story, special, talented group of people that, you know, helped me

06:17bring my vision to life. And now we, we get to be here to tell the world, go watch it. And them saying,

06:23I watched it and it's amazing. Like all of it is pretty amazing. So, um, you know, I'm going to

06:29continue to tell the stories from my community. Um, cause I think we have a lot of stories to tell.

06:35And I think we're amazing storytellers.

In Focus With Eva Longoria: Directing 'Flamin' Hot', Latino Representation in Hollywood & More | THR Video

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