Eva Longoria calls out Hollywood’s double standards for male directors

During her Kering Women in Motion talk at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, director Eva Longoria spoke out against Hollywood’s double standards when it comes to directors, saying that only male directors get second chances.

Longoria is making her directorial debut with the feature film Flamin’ Hot, an uplifting story of a janitor who worked at Frito Lay and went on to invent the Flamin’ Hot flavor for Cheetos.

Talking about Latina directors, the Desperate Housewives alum said, “We don’t get a lot of bites at the apple. 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.”

Speaking with Variety, the novice director shed light on Hollywood’s second chances for male directors whose’ movies fail at the box office, “The problem is if this movie fails, people go, ‘Oh Latino stories don’t work…female directors really don’t cut it.’”

“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,” she added.

Despite the pressure from Hollywood, the director remains determined, “You really carry the generational traumas with you into the making of the film. For me, it fueled me. I was determined.”