Actress, director, producer and entrepreneur, Eva Longoria joined Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones on TODAY to present the new season of her food and travel series, Searching for France. She also talked about directing her first big female comedy and about the directors she invited onto her set.
France, beyond butter and croissants
During the pandemic, while others baked sourdough, Longoria made croissants, a three-day process. Her series now takes her to France, and she wanted to show more than the clichés. The season visits Brittany, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Alsace and Provence. She calls the result “visually delicious”, but also historically fascinating: French culture gave the world the restaurant, the menu, the sommelier and the idea of a meal in courses, and there is “a lot of politics within the food”. A second French season is planned.
Her approach to work is simple: “I just reverse engineer my job.” She decides where she wants to be and what she wants to be doing, and builds the project from there.
“I refuse to believe that my greatest success is behind me”
Longoria had just turned 51. The hosts quoted a line she gave on a podcast: she refuses to believe that her greatest success is behind her. One item on her list has already been ticked off: directing Fifth Wheel, a big comedy written by Paula Pell, in the tradition of Bridesmaids and Girls Trip. Women are funny, she says, but comedies led by women still do not get the same budgets, attention or launches.
A seat on set for other directors
On Fifth Wheel, she asked a mentorship programme to send her women directors, offering to let one shadow her every day of the shoot. About eight came, many of them Latina. Most directors never get to watch someone else at work before their first set, she explains, so they arrive “winging it”. Having been there once gives them confidence.
The segment ends with a game of “Spy the Lie” with Bryan Cranston. Searching for France premiered on 12 April.