The Real Reason Eva Longoria Is A Producer On John Wick

For those of us who regularly watch the credits of a movie, it can be fun to spot some names that almost double as Easter eggs. Not since people went "Danny DeVito, what are you doing in the credits for 'Pulp Fiction'?" has there been as surprising a name turning up in a producer credit as actress Eva Longoria for the first "John Wick." Such an appearance creates a series of fascinating questions in the mind: was Longoria attached to the movie from the get-go? Was she perhaps going to play John's dead wife, Helen, or the assassin who nearly kills him on the grounds of the Continental, Ms. Perkins? Alternatively, is Eva Longoria secretly an action movie lover, and she just really wanted to see Keanu Reeves kill bad guys on screen again?

Now, a full decade after the release of "John Wick," we're finally getting down to the bottom of this question which has tickled the imaginations of many a credits-watcher for years. "Wick" co-directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch recently gave a tell-all retrospective interview to Business Insider, and during this conversation revealed exactly how Longoria's involvement with the film came to be. The short answer is that she simply consented to lend some money to the production. The longer answer is that, without Eva Longoria, "John Wick," the subsequent multimedia franchise it spawned, and quite possibly the directing careers of Stahelski and Leitch may never have come to pass at all. There are numerous names of people who've attempted to take the life of Mr. Wick; Eva Longoria can be counted as one of the few who saved it.

It's been talked about before (including on this very website) how "John Wick" managed to escape several instances of being injured or diminished during its production. What some perhaps didn't know, until Stahelski and Leitch talked about it in this recent interview, is how close to being outright killed the film actually was. As Stahelski explained:

"We were less than a week out and we lost almost $6 million on a gap financing. We were financing independently to get the bond, but one of the investors couldn't raise the money in time. Me, Keanu, and Dave had deferred, Basil [Iwanyk, Producer] had maxed his three credit cards, we all had put in everything, including Keanu. And we were still short. So we were shut down."

Before things proceeded far enough that could've meant the movie would've never seen the light of day, CAA, the agency that the production was working with to handle the financing, had the idea to pitch some big-name actors who they represent with the opportunity to help close this gap. Apparently, Longoria was up for it and took the deal, which according to Leitch involved her getting her money back plus an additional amount if the film was financially successful. As Stahelski recalled, he and Leitch weren't even aware of their secret savior until the film was ready to be released in theaters:

"She came to the rescue and she provided the gap financing. We didn't know any of this. Basil never told Keanu or us. Literally less than 24 hours before we had to lock the doors on the movie and walk away, Basil said, 'We've got the investor, we've locked the gap.' We found out by the end of the movie, Basil took us out to dinner, and we were laughing about all the bulls–t that happened, and he said, 'By the way, funny story, you know who gap financed you? Eva Longoria.' We were like, 'What!' Once the movie got big, Dave and I met Eva. We had never met her before. We took her out to lunch at Chateau Marmont and she was laughing going, 'I didn't think it was going to work.'"

As with most things in Hollywood, as in life, there's no such thing as a sure thing. Who knows what possessed Longoria to take a gamble on a random action movie that nearly went straight to VOD, but her gamble paid off in a big way. Sure, there's the fact that she's partially responsible for kickstarting careers and launching what's become a world-renowned franchise, but there's also the money, which is most assuredly good. As Leitch says, Longoria is still very happy about her decision:

"During the award season last year, I ran into her on two different occasions at Academy events, and we were reminiscing. She was like, 'Wow, that was the best money I've ever spent.' It paid back significantly for her."

Sadly, Longoria never made an on-screen appearance in any of the "John Wick" films to date, nor its spin-off series, "The Continental." Yet the "Wick" train hasn't come to a stop yet, as "Ballerina" is set for release next June and both a new spin-off series and an anime feature are following quickly on its heels. So this begs the question: will things ever come full circle and find Eva Longoria portraying an assassin, or High Table member, or some such character in a "Wick" project? It'd be awesome to see, but then again, she doesn't owe "John Wick" anything; he owes her. All we know is that Wick always pays his debts.