Eva Longoria is one of the most respected actresses in Hollywood. However, the Texan daughter of Mexican immigrants has had a parallel career in Hollywood for many years that many may not have known about and that has seen the light of day at the Cannes Film Festival. She has made her debut with the new feature film ‘Flamin’ Hot’.

The model and actress took advantage of the Cannes stage to launch a plea that has been widely applauded, because it highlighted the difficulties of Latina directors in the film industry to find opportunities and have their projects financed.

“My movie wasn’t low budget by any means, it wasn’t $100 million, but it wasn’t $2 million,” Longoria said. “When was the last studio movie directed by a Latina? It was like 20 years ago. We can’t have a movie every 20 years.”

Longoria added that “28% of ticket buyers at the box office are Latino. Your movie won’t be successful if you don’t have the Latino audience,” defending that presence in the United States.

In addition, Longoria showed her frustration: “The problem is that if this movie fails, people say, ‘Oh, Latino stories don’t work… female directors don’t really work. A white man can direct a $200 million movie, fail and get another one. That’s the problem. I have a chance, I work twice as hard, twice as fast, twice as cheap.”