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0 Eva Longoria has revealed how being locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic changed her personal drinking habits.
The 48-year-old Desperate Housewives bombshell co-founded her tequila brand Casa Del Sol after the illness swept the world.
And now, in a wide-ranging interview with Haute Living, Eva candidly discussed her own personal preferences when she wants a tipple.
‘I was always a big wine drinker, but COVID really drove me to cocktails, and that’s what sparked my interest in spirits,’ she dished.
‘For years, everybody was like: “You’re Mexican; you should have a tequila.” And I kept thinking, No, because I don’t want to just throw my name on something.’
Eva Longoria has revealed how being locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic changed her personal drinking habits
She has just covered Haute Living magazine with Mariana Padilla and Alejandra Pelayo, her co-founders in the Casa Del Sol tequila brand
In 2021, the year Eva’s spirits brand launched, Kendall Jenner was infamously slammed online for ‘cultural appropriation’ because she had started a tequila line called 818 despite having no roots in Mexico.
After Eva’s taste for spirits was ignited, she was sent a tequila sample by Casa Del Sol and she says she was so impressed she agreed to add her name to the brand.
She said that ‘when I found out how it was made, that its smoothness came from being aged in cognac barrels, it finally made sense to me.’
Her co-founders include Mariana Padilla, whose father Paco has been the cultural ambassador of the Mexican state of Jalisco, the birthplace of tequila.
The other co-founder is Alejandra Pelayo, whose godfather and mentor Francisco Alcaraz was best known as the master distiller for Patrón.
Both women accompanied Eva on the cover of the latest Haute Living, which saw them exuding a Wild West vibe as they posed around an old doorway.
For Eva, the fact that the brand is mainly run by women was one of the main factors that enticed her into hopping aboard the brand.
‘Tequila is the number one spirit preferred by women,’ she argued. ‘If you look at the marketplace, it’s like every ad is a man on a motorcycle, or a man smoking a cigarette; it’s so male-oriented. But if women are the ones drinking it, why shouldn’t women be the ones making it?’
‘I was always a big wine drinker, but COVID really drove me to cocktails, and that’s what sparked my interest in spirits,’ she dished
Over the course of her interview, Eva also talked about making her directorial debut with last year’s movie Flamin’ Hot.
The picture was based on the memoirs of Frito-Lay executive Richard Montanez, who has long touted himself as the inventor of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
Frito-Lay has repudiated his claim that he created the snack, and a Los Angeles Times exposé in 2021 found that a lower-level employee called Lynne Greenfield played a more pivotal role in the birth of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
By the time the bombshell report ran, Eva’s movie was already in the pipeline, and the actress-turned-filmmaker has staunchly defended her project ever since.
Flamin’ Hot bowed on Hulu and Disney+ last June and received a tepid critical reaction, to the tune of a 69% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
‘When it comes to directing, I have a thousand percent been met with male resistance. Getting behind the camera is still a challenge for women,’ she insisted.
‘Just look at the statistics. There are so few women getting the actual jobs of directing, and they are obviously totally capable.’
Eva argued: ‘If you look at the box office this past year, at female directed movies (like Barbie), we’ve proven ourselves over and over again.’
She went on: ‘There is zero gender parity with women behind the camera, women in the Academy, women in the Directors Guild. It’s still an obstacle in our industry.’
