Eva Longoria has waded into the debate over the potential impact of the Warner Bros. Discovery–Paramount merger, expressing her fears over how the consolidation will impact jobs and diversity.
“The consolidation is the scary part of it… especially when you see a consolidation, you see a massive amount of job loss of creatives… because it comes into this siloed system of intake,” Longoria said in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Friday.
“I probably will just pitch one person for, you know, five different buyers, but…pitching to one person… really what happens in that process is innovation dies, diversity dies. It becomes very cookie cutter of like we’re looking for a medical procedure, and then it just becomes about that,” she said.
The U.S. actress, producer and director, who has been producing and directing under the banner of her Hyphenate Media Group since 2016 alongside acting, has worked with banners within both studios over the years.
Her comments come less than 24 hours after Warner Bros. Discovery announced it had set a April 23 date for a shareholders vote on its sale to Paramount Skydance, a key step forward in the merger process.
In other related news of Thursday, Los Angeles County Board Of Supervisors voted to conduct an analysis of the proposed merger, including on the entertainment industry workforce.
Asked by the Today program on the role of the regulators in the merger process, Longoria replied: “I think we all need to pay attention to what’s going to happen. Supposedly, it’s going to operate separately still. But you know, who knows?”
