Eva Longoria calls ‘Desperate Housewives’ her ‘film school’ – The Hollywood Reporter
Possibly Eva Longoria is making her feature film directorial debut Flamin’ Hotbut she’s been laying the groundwork for almost 20 years – going back to her breakthrough role Desperate Housewives.
After a decade directing TV episodes for shows including Black, Jane the maiden And Gordita ChroniclesLongoria noted that for Flamin’ Hot “All of my television experience paid off because we have a very ambitious and fast pace and this film was very ambitious in our planning. I really think, wow, all my ten years in television have prepared me for this moment, which is a movie set.”
“And I used it Desperate Housewives As my film school, I really learned everything there,” she continued at Friday’s Los Angeles premiere of the film, which tells the story of Richard Montañez, a caretaker of Frito Lay, who says he came up with the idea for Flamin’ Hot Cheetos came. “We had so many directors there and so many episodes; 10 years on the set and I paid attention.” Speaking of the hit series: the carpet served as a miniature Desperate Housewives Goodbye as Jesse Metcalfe stopped by to hug Longoria and pose for photos together.
The film’s stars also praised Longoria as a director. Jesse Garcia (who plays Montañez) praised her for being “very specific about the story she wanted to tell and for telling Richard’s story with great passion.” Annie Gonzalez (who plays Montañez’s wife Judy) added that Longoria “was an enforcer through and through — we saw that in her philanthropic work, she has charitable organizations, she has produced television shows, she has directed television shows, that was brilliant.” is no different. When Eve does something, she does it [it] to totality, and she makes it amazing.”
Amidst Montañez’s heroic story – which he documented in his own book and detailed his later journey to vice president at Frito-Lay’s parent company PepsiCo – questions have arisen about his narrative. The Los Angeles Times published a story in 2021 claiming that Montañez did not in fact invent the Flamin’ Hot Cheeto and reported that an internal investigation by Frito-Lay found that another division of the company developed the product and had no record of it had that Montañez was involved in the creation or test market. The story became known shortly before Flamin’ Hot started shooting.
Shortly thereafter, PepsiCo released a statement that “the information we have shared with the media has been misconstrued by some” and attributed “the introduction and success of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and other products to several people who worked at PepsiCo , including Richard Montañez”. It also added, “We have no reason to doubt the stories he tells about taking the initiative to develop new product ideas for the Cheetos brand.”
Producer DeVon Franklin narrated The Hollywood Reporter that the report never put the film in jeopardy because “I had met with the executives from PepsiCo and Frito-Lay in 2019, that was years before.” I sat down with them and got all the information I needed; A lot of information was already in the article, so we had already incorporated a lot of the information we received into the script,” he said, confirming no updates were made to fix the issue LA Times Story.
“When the article came out, it didn’t look like there was anything in it that we didn’t already know, and that’s why people see the real story when they see the film,” Franklin continued. “You will see how all these things worked together. Frito-Lay and PepsiCo saw the film and are proud of the film. They feel like we’ve done justice not only to Richard, but to the Hot Cheeto as well.”
Montañez himself walked the carpet along with his wife Judy, noting that they hadn’t read the story but had heard the details. “I’ve been used to fighting my whole life — I’ve been fighting since the day I was born, I’ll probably fight to my day, and that’s the story of the person who comes from the places we come from.” It’s always a struggle,” he replied. “But I’m so excited for the film because it answers every question you could have about it, so I’m happy with that.”
And how many of these were consumed on set in a film starring Hot Cheetos?
Longoria said she chose Cheetos with White Cheddar because Flamin’ Hots were not actively involved in filming until the end of the film; Garcia revealed: “I ate exactly five. I ate my first Hot Cheeto during recording, where I tasted the Hot Cheeto right off the tape, and we did five takes.”
Diane Warren, who wrote the original song “The Fire Inside” (played by Becky G) for the film, teased that she was even inspired by the snack: “When I saw the rough cut of the film, I ate a bag, and while it was pretty sharp, like “The Fire Inside”, OK. It was really.”
Flamin’ Hot streaming now on Hulu and Disney+.
