Turns out, even action heroes sometimes need rescuing. For the John Wick franchise, the real hero wasn’t armed with a tactical suit or revenge-fueled motivation; it was Eva Longoria. The Desperate Housewives star stepped in as an unexpected savior for the first movie—just hours before it would have shut down completely. As directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch recently shared in a Business Insider interview, Longoria’s last-minute investment kept John Wick from being canceled, quite literally saving the day.
So, what happened? According to Stahelski, they were about a week out from filming when things went south: “We were less than a week out and we lost almost $6 million on a gap financing,” he explained. Independent financing efforts had fallen through, leaving a massive hole in their budget. By then, Keanu Reeves, Stahelski, Leitch, and producer Basil Iwanyk had already put personal money on the line, with Iwanyk even maxing out three of his credit cards—but it wasn’t enough.
CAA, which was handling the financing, decided to reach out to some actors to help out. Leitch recalled how they pitched it: “You’ll be first out of this waterfall, you’ll get your money back, then X amount.” Apparently, it worked, and Longoria jumped in with a cool $6 million at the eleventh hour. As Stahelski put it, “She came to the rescue and she provided the gap financing.” Iwanyk only told the directors and Reeves after the deal was done—and literally within 24 hours of when they would have had to walk away from the entire movie.
The full story only came to light after filming wrapped. Iwanyk took the team out to dinner to debrief and reflect on everything they had gone through, and that’s when he finally dropped the bomb: “By the way, funny story, you know who gap financed you? Eva Longoria.” Stahelski said their reaction was instant shock: “We were like, ‘What!'” Longoria had no on-screen role in the film, and she’s not in any of the sequels either—in fact, the directors didn’t even meet her until John Wick became a hit.
The first meeting? A lunch at Chateau Marmont, where Longoria joked that she really didn’t think the movie would take off. During last year’s award season, Leitch ran into Longoria again and they reminisced about her Hail Mary. “She was like, ‘Wow, that was the best money I’ve ever spent.’ It paid back significantly for her,” Leitch added.
So, let’s take a moment to salute Eva Longoria, the unsung hero of John Wick’s bloody, bullet-ridden journey. Without her, we wouldn’t have John Wick, his puppy-avenging arc, The Continental, or even the ballerina assassin that’s spinning off into her own film. And that iconic “Tiny Dancer” needle drop in the Ballerina trailer? Yeah, we owe that to Longoria too. Here’s to Eva—the true architect of Wick’s revenge saga.
