“I immediately took ownership,” she tells EW.
“I’m the only person who can tell this story.”
“I read his story and I was like, ‘I’m Richard Montanez.’
Eva Longoria on the set of ‘Flamin’ Hot'.20th Century Studios
I’ve been told ideas don’t come from people like you.
I’ve been told women shouldn’t direct.
I’ve been told many nos.”
Jesse Garcia and Eva Longoria on the set of ‘Flamin’ Hot'.20th Century Studios
So what’s a strong woman with a goal in mind to do?
I made them give it to me, and they did."
“I wanted to make a movie about Richard Montanez,” says Longoria.
Eva Longoria directing ‘Flamin’ Hot'.20th Century Studios
“He’s inspiring, he’s complex, he’s interesting….
There are a lot of lessons to be learned from his journey.”
“The movie you see is [her] script,” says the director.
“Because we don’t get a lot of bites at the apple.
If my movie fails, people can say, ‘Oh, female filmmakers don’t really work’.
Or, ‘Oh, we tried to do a Latino story that one time and nobody showed up.
It didn’t work.'”
“I was so proud because we didn’t compromise talent because we did a diverse hire.
It made the project better,” proclaims the 5th generation Texican.
Continues the director, “There’s talented people from our community, there’s talented women.
That authenticity means also honoring parts of our community that have been highly stigmatized and turned into harsh stereotypes.
We really, really took effort into doing that.”
That is a story of survival, right?
That’s a story of I don’t have any other choice, and so I’m so happy.
And that letter can now be opened on both Hulu and Disney+.
Want more movie news?
