Eva Longoria has developed quite a business savvy over the years, but she still has some regrets.
After making “more than double” her $6 million investment on John Wick after it debuted in 2014, the Golden Globe nominee admitted she wishes she would have continued on with the wildly successful franchise that recently marked its 10th anniversary.
“What I’m pissed off about is I wasn’t connected to the rest of them,” Longoria told Business Insider. “This was a one-time thing. That was the gamble. But that was my only mistake, not being attached to all of the films.”
John Wick (2014) grossed more than $86 million worldwide, with the franchise crossing the $1 billion mark last year with John Wick: Chapter 4.
Longoria’s interview comes after producers Chad Stahelski and David Leitch told the outlet about her crucial role in bring the film to the screen after funding fell through on the Keanu Reeves-led action flick at the last minute.
Lionsgate
“By the way, I was in my infancy,” she said of her producing career, noting: “My bankroll was very new, and it was a lot of money, and I was like, ‘So how does it work?’ I had no idea. I would love to say I was an investment genius and I just knew and I calculated my risk. No, none of that.”
It was Longoria’s agency CAA that brought her the opportunity while pulling together funding for the project. “An agent, and he wasn’t even my agent, he called me and said, ‘You got money, you should put your money here,’” she added. “And I didn’t even know how a movie was made. I was like, ‘What do you mean gap financing?’”
Noting she still gets checks for her investment on John Wick, Longoria said, “My husband is friends with the head of Lionsgate, and he’ll say to him sometimes, ‘I see we wrote a check to Eva this week.’ But the geniuses were Chad and David and the star that was Keanu. I just wrote the check.”
The franchise will continue with From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, starring Ana de Armas and premiering June 6, 2025 in theaters. Meanwhile, Donnie Yen is set to reprise his role as the highly skilled, blind assassin Caine in an upcoming Lionsgate film. A prequel anime film is also in development.
In addition to last year’s Peacock prequel limited series The Continental, the sequel series John Wick: Under the High Table is in the works.