This Is How Eva Longoria Gets Ready in Cannes
A last-minute change to the Cannes dress code can’t stop Eva Longoria. This is her 20th time attending the annual film festival, and the actress, producer, director, and entrepreneur came prepared as ever (with the help of stylist Maeve Reilly) for her jam-packed week in the south of France. And luckily, she didn’t have to change any of her looks. The “baby train” of her Tamara Ralph couture gown didn’t cause any problems at the opening ceremony.
In a matter of days, she has appeared at the Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning premiere, the 10-year anniversary of the Cannes restaurant La Môme, and a L’Oréal dinner, with many sightings at the Hôtel Martinez in between. On Sunday night, she graced the red carpet again for the debut of Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, and then hosted an after-party on the beach with Nespresso, for which she is a devoted ambassador. (You might’ve seen her recent heist-inspired campaign with George Clooney. “George and I have been trying to work together for 10 years. … And he’s lovely and charming,” she says.)
After sparkling head-to-toe in a rosy-pink custom Tamara Ralph gown on the carpet, Longoria changed into a sleek charcoal Coperni dress with a metallic halter neckline from the brand’s fall/winter 2025 collection. Her silver heeled Aquazzura sandals matched the hardware. To complete the glam, Elan Bongiorno handled her makeup while Stephanie Lancien styled her hair into glossy waves. “I like to be sexy, but classic,” Longoria says, but comfort is also key. When it comes to her Cannes wardrobe, “It’s definitely a conversation of 80 people,” she jokes. “I just sit there like a Barbie.”
What keeps her running on her nonstop schedule is surely the caffeine. She jokes that she has 8 to 10 espressos a day—perhaps not counting the Tequilatini served at the after-party.
As a filmmaker and producer herself, Longoria is “dying” to premiere one of her own films at Cannes. She explored the idea when she directed Flamin’ Hot in 2023, the biopic about the Frito Lay janitor who inspired Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, but it was “such an American story,” she explains. They showed the film at South by Southwest instead.
But she’s already working on her next film, which will be announced today: a “big, fat female comedy” that she promises is “laugh-out-loud” funny. Production begins in August.
“Comedy is like my superpower,” Longoria says on the beach in Cannes. “That’s why Flamin’ Hot had the tone of lighthearted comedy, because it wasn’t just all earnest and drama. I like that mix-up of genres, but this one’s straight-up comedy, which is going to be fun to push the limits and [ask], ‘What else can we do?’ And, ‘Let's try this!’ With the actors that we have, I am just excited to flex my comedy wings.”
Longoria wears Tamara Ralph at the red carpet premiere of The Phoenician Scheme in Cannes on May 17.
Speaking of spanning genres, Longoria will also continue to helm her Searching For travel series for CNN. Its next season, set in France, will be released in 2026. Featured cities will include Paris, Brittany, Alsace, Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Provence. Look out for a “pastry episode” in the French capital, she teases. They’re already in the midst of filming.
Longoria explored her ancestral heritage in the past Searching for Mexico and Searching for Spain seasons, but she has “such a connection to France” as well.
“I’ve had such a life here in my nine lives,” she explains. “One of them was with my ex-husband [Tony Parker] and then my L’Oréal relationship in Cannes for 20 years. I have traveled all over this country. I’ve discovered the beauty of each region having its own identity. ... I can’t wait to do other countries [on the show] that I don’t have an ancestral tie to, but I definitely have an interest in exploring.”
Longoria on the red carpet at the Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning premiere on May 14.
That’s not the only series Longoria is working on. The upcoming projects under her production company, Hyphenate Media Group, include the Hulu adaptation of Confessions on the 7:45 starring Jessica Alba, an adaptation of Say Hello to My Little Friend for AMC, and even an unscripted Welcome to Wrexham spin-off focused on Mexico’s Club Necaxa, which Longoria co-owns. She’s also adapting Isabel Allende’s iconic novel The House of Spirits into an eight-part Prime Video series, which is now in post-production and will premiere “hopefully in the fall,” she says.
“I’m such a fan of the book, and I’ve always wanted to remake it. It was done 30 years ago with no Latinos,” she laughs, referencing the 1993 film starring Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons, and more.
“I was like, ‘This needs to be a series, and it needs to be done in Chile where the book is based,’” Longoria continued. “So we convinced Isabel to option the book again, and it is written and directed by these two female Chilean filmmakers [Francisca Alegria and Fernanda Urrejola]. They’re two amazing women, and it’s really going to be made the way it was intended to be made.”
It’s clear that a through line in Longoria’s work is celebrating and uplifting the Latin community. “It is who I am. It just comes with the territory,” she says. One of the reasons she created her production company was “to create and support this pipeline of talent that our community has, whether it’s a director, an actor, a writer, a producer; giving people the resumé so that they can go to the next job and be prepared and ready, and then we can really be our own storytellers and not wait for Hollywood to tell our stories. We should tell them ourselves.”
Longoria herself has benefited from the help of many mentors across industries. She notes ELLE’s very own editor-in-chief, Nina Garcia, as one of them. “To be a Latina in the publishing industry and in the female space, she’s such a role model on how to do it with class.” She also shouts out female producers and directors including Patty Jenkins, Ava DuVernay, and Patricia Riggen. “I really look up to those women and what they’re doing behind the camera.”
With her hands in so many projects, Longoria feels this chapter of her journey is focused on entrepreneurship—and community. “Even as I’m directing and producing, it still has an entrepreneurial approach because I love creating jobs for people. I want to create opportunities.”
Decades into her career, it’s still full of new beginnings. “I definitely refuse to believe my greatest success is behind me,” she says. “I really think it’s going to be ahead of me.”
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