Wait, the John Wick Franchise Wouldn’t Exist Without… Eva Longoria?

Today, the John Wick franchise is one of the biggest in action film history, so much so that there’s a spinoff series, and now a movie, Ballerina, starring Ana de Armas. Keanu Reeves was already a big name when that first John Wick movie came out in 2014, but its success transformed him into the most loved actor on the planet. Who knows how well a reported John Wick 5 will go, but what we do know is that none of it would have ever happened without Eva Longoria of all people. She’s never been in a John Wick movie, but a big risk she took saved the first movie from death in its final hours before production.

There Was No Guarantee That ‘John Wick’ Would Succeed

In 2025, the idea of Keanu Reeves making an action movie is an easy way to a hit, but that wasn’t so in 2014. Reeves may have been a household name thanks to the Bill & Ted movies, Speed, and The Matrix franchise, but he also had the perception of being a bad actor. Whether you agree with that or not, Reeves had a long string of clunkers, such as Generation Um… and 47 Ronin in the 2000s. He wasn’t exactly a hot commodity in 2014, so there was no reason to believe that another aging actor playing a hitman was going to change things.

On top of that, director Chad Stahelski had never even made a movie before. A dozen years ago, he was a stuntman best remembered for being Brandon Lee‘s body double, filling in for the actor on The Crow after Lee’s tragic on-set death. John Wick had everything going against it, and it could have easily been another one of those canceled movies that never saw the light of day, but then a desperate housewife stepped up to save the day.

Eva Longoria Invested Millions Into ‘John Wick’

Last year, Chad Stahelski told The Hollywood Reporter’s It Happened in Hollywood podcast about how John Wick, which he directed with David Leitch, almost crashed and burned. He said:

“About a week before we went to production, we had gap financing. We had an investor fall out for about $6 million. So when you’re [making an] $18 million movie, that kills you. And we didn’t have any money. So a lot of the crew left. We were losing locations. We were literally 24 hours away from failing.”

Related

This Forgotten Scene in ‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ Secretly Reveals the Franchise’s Most Important Lore

It was right there, all along.

Stahelski, Leitch, film producers, and even Keanu Reeves himself put every dollar they had into John Wick, but it still wasn’t enough. Then came a miracle when, 48 hours before filming was supposed to begin, an investor was found at the last minute to cover the gap. Although it was unknown who it was at the time, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch later found out they had been saved by Eva Longoria, with Stahelski telling Collider:

“We knew we had lost financing and we thought it was over. Basil had taken a trip to LA, the producer came back saying he had found a financier and found an investor to cover the gap. And it wasn’t till we had wrapped the movie and we’re back in L.A. in post that we realized. Dave and I were told 24 hours before where to meet her for lunch, and we hadn’t put two and two together, no one told Keanu or anybody.”

Actors stepping in to help finance a movie isn’t exactly new, but the combination of Eva Longoria and John Wick sure is a strange one. Longoria agrees, because, as she tells it, she had no idea what she was doing.

‘John Wick’s Success Led to a Huge Return for Eva Longoria

Image via Hulu

Eva Longoria told Business Insider that an agent, who wasn’t even her agent, had called her in 2014, recommending where to put her money. Longoria said, “And I didn’t even know how a movie was made. I was like, ‘What do you mean gap financing?'” The agent had gone to Longoria because she had money, even though she had no clue what she was doing. So why did Eva Longoria invest in a movie when she’d never done it before?

She told Business Insider that she loves to invest in people’s passions and was won over by how hard Chad Stahelski and David Leitch were working.

“They put in their 10,000 hours as stunt guys and second-unit directors; they had seen all the bad movies and knew how to make a good one. It was that. They were undeniably passionate, and I knew they were going to make an undeniable product.”

Chad Stahelski told Collider that Longoria’s explanation was as simple as, “I read the script, thought it was cool. Wanted to invest in filmmakers.” Years later, not having talked to Leitch in a decade, Longoria ran into him at an Oscars dinner, where, as fate would have it, they shared a table together. He told Longoria, “You changed my life.” Although the actor played such a huge role in getting John Wick made, she stayed humble, giving all the credit to the directors and Keanu Reeves, saying “I just wrote the check.”

The gamble paid off in a huge way. John Wick went on to make $86 million worldwide, and as for Longoria, she walked away having more than doubled her investment. Alas, she never invested in the rest of the franchise, but the success of John Wick caused her to develop a love for investing in others. Over the years, Eva Longoria has invested in two soccer teams, a food brand, and a tequila company. But she hasn’t forgotten where it all started. Not too long ago, she ran into Keanu Reeves and his girlfriend, Alexandra Grant. “Keanu said, ‘I’d love to take you to dinner; we should celebrate 10 years.” So we toasted to John Wick.”

John Wick is now available to stream on Peacock. Ballerina is now in theaters.

John Wick

Release Date

October 24, 2014

Runtime

101 Minutes

Writers

Derek Kolstad