Eva Longoria. “The idea that Hollywood is progressive is a myth. There’s still a lot of work to do.”

One is an actress, famous for her role Desperate Housewives, but also a producer and director. The other is a researcher, a professor at the University of Southern California who specializes in the study of gender in film and television. Eva Longoria and Stacey L. Smith met in Cannes a few years ago. They met there on May 23 as part of Kering’s “Women In Motion” conversation, a program that aims to promote the actions and struggles of women in the film industry. Together, they reflected on the place of minorities among the latter and the initiatives that give them the opportunity to shine, in an environment that is still very much paralyzed by the old mechanisms.

In the video: guests at the Kering dinner on May 22

Illusions and statistics

“I love data, statistics, and that’s at the heart of Stacey’s work,” said Eva Longoria, who works to promote the Latino community in film. “So we were destined to meet.” Stacey L. Smith, in turn, launched the Inclusion List, an online tool that lists films, directors and distributors who are promoting minority representation in cinema, in front of and behind the camera. A significant initiative. “If we look at the recent winners of the Oscar for the best picture, it is mostly about works signed by minority directors,” notes Eva Longoria. “But that doesn’t reflect the reality of Hollywood at all. When we focus on the statistics of films financed there, we realize that the idea that this medium is progressive is a myth. There is still a lot of work to be done.”

He works on it himself. “On the film I produced, I specifically requested that the cinematographer be a woman. And they found me female CVs without a problem. Proof that talent exists, but that we don’t automatically think to connect with it. This is one of the purposes of the “Inclusion List”. “Our goal is to create an “imdb” (online directory of the film industry, editor’s note) of inclusion,” says Stacey L. Smith. “So that studios know where to find minority people when it comes to crews or casting.”

New representations

For both women, this greater diversity should naturally lead to better representation of the population on screen. Cultural and economic progress. “We represent 20% of the American population,” emphasizes Eva Longoria, who herself is of American-Mexican origin. We have the strongest population growth. The movie won’t work if Latinos don’t go. Therefore, it is time to tell stories that touch us as well.” Here’s what he did with his first feature film. Flamin’hotAvailable on June 9 on the Disney + platform. The story of Richard Montanez, an employee who turned the food industry upside down by using his Hispanic heritage to create Flamin’ Hot Cheetos chips. “For a long time, no one wanted to listen to her,” says Eva Longoria. “But because he wasn’t aware that it was because he was Latino, he kept saying he had an idea and believed it until it was noticed. His naivety also contributed to his success.

In the video: “06400 Cannes episode 2”, our card from the Cannes Film Festival

Memories of the cast Desperate Housewives

She, who says she always wanted to be a producer even before she became an actress, realizes that it is this activity that excites her the most today. As well as the foundation she created that bears her name, which aims to help Latin American women develop their potential; “Today, I want my legacy to be embodied more through my philanthropic activities than through my career,” he explains. . “Since the birth of my son, I have become more and more aware of the problems that threaten our society, everything that needs to be changed in the world.” At the age of 48, Eva Longoria has reached a position that gives her the power to act. It’s been a beautiful journey since that day in the early 2000s when he passed the casting Desperate Housewives “We were in the middle of ‘pilot season,’ when castings follow one another before the start of a new series. I spent hours in my car transforming into the characters I had to play, one moment a nun, the next a prostitute… I was exhausted. Mark Cherry, the creator of the series, asked me if I had read the script. Usually we were never asked questions. I honestly answered that I had only read the part about the character of Gabriel Solis. I was taken that way, it suited the shameless selfishness of the character.” Composition role.