At a recent Cannes interview, Eva Longoria announced that her directorial debut, Flaming Hot, will begin streaming on Disney Plus and Hulu on June 9. Talking with Variety‘s Elizabeth Wagmeister, Longoria discussed the pressure she felt as a Latina making her first film, as well as her work with an initiative called The Inclusion List, which provides research on diversity and inclusion in entertainment.
As part of a talk sponsored by Kering’s Women in Motion program, Longoria said that as a woman and a Latina, she “felt the weight of [her] community” and “the weight of every female director” when production began on Flamin’ Hot, a biographical comedy-drama about a Frito Lay janitor who claims to have invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Longoria explained that she wanted to make Flamin’ Hot an inspirational story about how corporate America underestimates the Hispanic community, with characters who resemble her own Latino family.
The Desperate Housewives and Empire actor said there’s little margin for error as a woman of color embarking on a directing career. She explained that Latina directors “don’t get a lot of bites at the apple,” adding, “The problem is, if this movie fails, people go, ‘Oh, Latino stories don’t work … female directors really don’t cut it.'” She noted, “A white man can direct a $200 million film, fail, and get another one. That’s the problem. I get one at-bat, one chance. Work twice as hard, twice as fast, twice as cheap.”
She underlined her point by revealing that the last Lainta-directed studio film was made about 20 years ago. According to Longoria, “You really carry the generational traumas with you into the making of the film. For me, it fueled me. I was determined.” And it sounds like the final product is worthy of celebrating: Flamin’ Hot premiered at South by Southwest earlier this year and won an audience award.
Joining the discussion was University of Southern California Annenberg professor and researcher Dr. Stacy L. Smith, who said Longoria’s help with The Inclusion List is an example of the actor/producer/director “walking the walk.” Smith explained, “This was a collaborative effort to reward folks that are doing well on-screen when it comes to representation across multiple categories: gender, race, ethnicity, LGBTQ+, as well as people with disabilities and over the age of 65.”
Longoria pointed out, “The metric [with] which you measure success is important.” She suggested that studios and networks sometimes claim to be helping bring about change if they have doubled the number of women behind the camera. However, Longoria explained, in some cases the companies have only “gone from one to two” women. According to Longoria, “[I]inclusion being that metric is so awesome because you can applaud the people who are doing it right.”
Plus, Longoria noted, Latinos buy a lot of movie tickets. She said that “28% of ticket buyers at the box office are Latino,” adding, “Do you know how many Latinos showed up for Crazy Rich Asians? Do you know how many Latinos bought a ticket for Fast and the Furious? We over-index at moviegoing, so why shouldn’t there be content for us if we are the ticket buyers?”
Salient points all around. And luckily, Longoria will be able to get her film in front of as many eyes as possible: Variety notes that Flamin Hot will be the first feature film ever to premiere on both Disney Plus and Hulu. Mark your calendars.
