Eva Longoria is about to make the leap from A-list actress to feature filmmaker, thanks to her directorial debut, “Flamin’ Hot.” The film, which is set to get the rare dual release on both Hulu and Disney+, has already received favorable reviews from its debut at SXSW, but the true test will be viewership when it hits streaming. And according to Longoria, she’s well aware that, as a woman and Person of Color, she’s held to a different standard as a filmmaker than white males.
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Speaking to a crowd at a special Cannes event (via Variety), Eva Longoria called out Hollywood for the double standard in which white male filmmakers are treated versus women and People of Color. She believes that directors who are white men are given more chances to fail and come back than others. And Longoria worries that if “Flamin’ Hot” doesn’t succeed in a big way, it will reflect poorly on women and POC filmmakers.
“We don’t get a lot of bites at the apple,” Longoria said. “My movie wasn’t low budget by any means — it wasn’t $100 million, but it wasn’t $2 million. When was the last Latina-directed studio film? It was like 20 years ago. We can’t get a movie every 20 years.”
She added, “The problem is if this movie fails, people go, ‘Oh Latino stories don’t work…female directors really don’t cut it.’ We don’t get a lot of at-bats. A white male 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.”
As you might expect, these are concerns that Longoria carried with her throughout the creation of the film. And because of these inequities, the filmmaker had more determination to make sure her film succeeds.
“You really carry the generational traumas with you into the making of the film,” Longoria said. “For me, it fueled me. I was determined.”
“Flamin’ Hot” hits Hulu and Disney+ on June 9.