Sometimes even big-time action heroes need a savior of their own. For John Wick (and the future of his movie) that was Eva Longoria, as directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch explained in a Business Insider interview celebrating the first film’s 10th (!) anniversary.
“We were less than a week out and we lost almost $6 million on a gap financing,” Stahelski said. “We were financing independently to get the bond, but one of the investors couldn’t raise the money in time.” At that point, both directors and Keanu Reeves had already put their personal money into the film, while producer Basil Iwanyk had apparently maxed out three of his personal credit cards. It wasn’t enough.
Facing the possibility of John Wick putting his suit back in the closet forever, Leitch said CAA, which was putting the film’s financing together, offered some actors the opportunity to get involved. “You’ll be first out of this waterfall, you’ll get your money back then X amount,” he recalled them saying. Apparently, “Eva was like, ‘Cool!'”
“She came to the rescue and she provided the gap financing,” Stahelski continued. All $6 million of it, which Iwanyk didn’t tell the directors and Reeves at first. “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,'” he recalled. They didn’t find out who it was until the end of production, when the producer took them out to dinner and “we were laughing about all the bullshit that happened.”
“He said, ‘By the way, funny story, you know who gap financed you? Eva Longoria.’ We were were like, ‘What!'” Stahelski remembered. Longoria is, notably, not in John Wick nor has she appeared in any of the sequels. The directors only met her “when the movie got big,” after which they proceeded to take her to lunch at Chateau Marmont, where she laughed because she “didn’t think it was going to work.” “During the award season last year, I ran into her on two different occasions at Academy events, and we were reminiscing,” Leitch continued. “She was like, ‘Wow, that was the best money I’ve ever spent.’ It paid back significantly for her.”
Let’s all thank Eva Longoria, the real-life hero behind not just the four John Wick movies, but his entire universe. Without her, we would never have had The Continental or Ballerina or the Ballerina trailer’s “Tiny Dancer” needle drop, which was one of the funniest in any teaser this year. Eva Longoria, we salute you.
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