Eva Longoria Took a ‘Gamble’ Investing in Keanu Reeves' John Wick. 10 Years Later, She’s Earned $12 Million and Counting

Eva Longoria does not appear in the 2014 action hit John Wick. She didn’t write it or direct it, either. 

But the movie — starring Keanu Reeves, Willem Dafoe and Bridget Moynihan — has paid her handsomely over the past decade, thanks to a $6 million investment she was advised to make. 

The former Desperate Housewives star revealed to Business Insider how she came to put up a chunk of her own money to help make the movie, which was in danger of falling apart after directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch lost financing at the eleventh hour.

“An agent, and he wasn't even my agent, he called me and said, ‘You got money, you should put your money here.’ And I didn't even know how a movie was made. I was like, ‘What do you mean gap financing?’” she told the outlet.

Longoria invested the money, the movie was completed, and it went on to make $86 million at the worldwide box office. In the years since, the former soap opera star has reaped the rewards of her investment, but she told the outlet she isn’t sure how much she’s made. There are, however, a lot of zeroes involved.

“I would have to check. More than double, for sure,” she said.

Longoria also confirmed she still receives checks from the movie to this day — but she’s annoyed at herself for not continuing her involvement in the franchise, which includes four films.

“What I'm pissed off about is I wasn't connected to the rest of them. This was a one-time thing. That was the gamble. But that was my only mistake, not being attached to all of the films,” she said.

While Longoria doesn’t often think about her involvement in the movie — the directors never forgot what she did.

“I remember last year at one of the Oscar dinners, I'm sitting at my table and across from me is David Leitch and his wife. And I didn't recognize him at first. He goes, ‘Hello,’ and I go, ‘Hi.’ And he goes, ‘It's David.’ And I'm like, ‘Hi?’ And he was like, ‘You changed my life,’ said Longoria.

“Then I realized who it was. We hadn't spoken in 10 years. I never saw them again, and I didn't need to because I was getting the checks,” she said with a laugh. “ But it was such a serendipitous moment to sit with him and get the inside story of what happened. My husband was there and was like, ‘What did you do?’ I was like, ‘John Wick.’”

Longoria noted that her husband José Bastón is friends with the head of Lionsgate, the studio behind the action series. “He'll say to him sometimes, ‘I see we wrote a check to Eva this week.’ But the geniuses were Chad and David and the star that was Keanu. I just wrote the check,” she said.

Since putting her own money in John Wick, Longoria has become a shrewd businesswoman, investing in sports teams and starting her own production company, Hyphenate Media Group.