Music Supervisor Vanessa Jorge Perry Discusses Working With Eva Longoria to Bring a Chicano Sound to ‘Flamin’ Hot’

Starring Jesse Garcia and Annie Gonzalez, Flamin’ Hot chronicles the lives of Richard and Judy Montañez, a working-class family whose pursuit of the American dream leads to the creation of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. For her feature film directorial debut, Eva Longoria prioritized putting Latinx talent in front of and behind the camera. An effort that led Longoria and producer DeVon Franklin to music supervisor Vanessa Jorge Perry. Flamin’ Hot marks Perry’s first studio feature film, but Perry came to the project with over two decades of experience, ready to tackle Longoria’s primary objectives—honor the Montañez family and create an authentic representation of Mexican-American and Chicano culture.

Perry’s research guided her through multiple decades and musical genres to create a soundtrack that includes big names and modern classics—a delicious match for Flamin’ Hot’s humor and fast-paced energy.

I spoke with Perry back in March as she and I took a break from the chaos of the SXSW Film and TV Festival (where the film took the top audience prize) to dive into all things Flamin’ Hot.

Awards Daily: Flamin’ Hot is your first big feature film as a music supervisor. Tell me a bit about your background.

Vanessa Jorge Perry: I actually started in production. I thought I was going to be a producer or director for entertainment news. I was working for Entertainment Tonight; the music supervisor quit. I thought, “I’m going to try to get his position.” So I moved into the music department back before 2000. So, I was a music supervisor for Entertainment Tonight and all these other offshoots of Entertainment Tonight on MTV and VH1. From there, I got into movie trailers and music direction for film advertising— promos, trailers, and teasers. And then, I started freelancing after I had my kids, and I started doing a bit of everything. I did some indie films; I did video game trailers. I did anything that I could get my hands on. I got offered this music supervision role for Flamin’ Hot in 2021, and I jumped at it.

AD: Were you always a music nerd? 

VJP: Yes, when I was little, I loved score music. My favorite score was The Mission, and I would play it and pretend to be a conductor. I played the piano. I did a jazz vocal ensemble in high school and college. I was a singer, but I never studied music. I didn’t think I would become anything related to music. I really wanted to be in journalism, and somehow, I came into music supervision and loved it.

AD: How did you get involved with Flamin’ Hot?

VJP: I’ve been very involved in the music supervision community. I started working with the Guild of Music Supervisors, I want to say, ten years ago. Then four years ago, I became a board member, and I’ve been involved in their diversity, equality, and inclusion committees.

When Eva Longoria was looking for a Latin music supervisor for her Latin movie, John Houlihan, the former Guild of Music Supervisors president, who now works at 20th Century Studios, put me forward for the role.

I love that our industry is trying to promote equity and inclusion within the music supervisor world. John remembered that I was Latina, and he remembered that these were the people that needed to be represented in this movie. There’s a very small pool of Latina music supervisors, which is what Eva wanted.

AD: What was that first meeting with Eva like? 

VJP: She’s awesome. I was a little nervous because I thought, “My first movie’s going to be with a celebrity. This is kinda weird.” But she was super cool. She knows what she wants. She really wanted the whole crew to be Latino/Latina. I know we couldn’t do that with everybody, but that was her vision. She was very clear, and I really appreciate that about her. And she definitely knew what she wanted from the beginning. She had firm opinions about the music and the sound she wanted.

Because of Covid, we met through Zoom; there were stops and starts, and the filming process was elongated. It was a little stressful but really, really fun.

AD: What was Eva’s vision for the music, and how did you two work together to achieve it?

VJP: Eva wanted a Chicano sound. Richard grew up in the San Fernando Valley in the seventies, eighties, and nineties. I did a lot of research for a long time, going through the decades and pulling music. The problem with the Chicano sound is that it’s a lot of oldies, and Flamin’ Hot is upbeat, but the oldies are slow, ballad-y type songs. We tried hard to find fun, upbeat songs that fit within those sixties, and seventies moments. Eva was really into having hip-hop music in the film. And it was tough for me to find hip-hop that was from the seventies or eighties that was Latin. Usually, hip-hop back then was from African American artists. We had a first cut of the movie, which had totally different songs. I had to kind of fight with Eva over a few things that didn’t fit the timeline and the sound of the movie. It was definitely a collaboration. She was very open to listening to these issues. I also loved that she had ideas that were really, really good.

AD: Describe the music of Flamin’ Hot.

JVP: It was interesting to work with Marcelo Zarvos, our composer, and work on the movie’s sound. That was also really challenging, and I used a lot of temp scores, which was also hard to find because most Latin movies are either Flamenco from Spain or some other sounds that you can’t really use. They’re either too guitar, kind of like a Robert Rodriguez-type movie, where the music sounds a little too jangly and too guitary. So it was hard to find the balance needed to fit the tone of Flamin’ Hot. The movie has a lot of Spanish guitar in it and some score portions with a little bit more modern guitar. I would say modern Flamenco, definitely a Spanish guitar sound.

The songs ranged from Santana to an Ozomatli song from the new album. My favorite part was the La Raza song, “Kid Frost,” when all the gangsters come out, and La Raza plays in the background. I fought for that song. We also used Mexican Power, which was cool too, in the scene where they passed out Cheeto bags to the community. I feel like, in terms of the songs, the sound is definitely, I think, from a Chicano standpoint, really cool because you don’t see many movies like that.

AD: How do you approach your work?

VJP: In trailers, you pretty much have that day or two to three days to search for something. So I work really, really fast; I can finish up to three trailers a week. I dive in very quickly, and I tend to select stuff that’s pretty on point because I’ve been doing that for the past 25 years. It was weird for me to do the movie because I would [choose songs] so quickly, and then it would be like, ‘Oh, we need more.’ And I would do it again. I already did a massive search at the beginning, but it was an ongoing process. Every time I watched a new cut of the film, I got a new vision of how things would work, and that was really, really helpful.

I did so much research on Chicano anthem songs and a lot of Chicano movement songs. I loved constantly looking at artists, picking songs, talking to friends, and emailing labels and publishers. I also researched Richard and Judy Montañez and tried to find out as much as possible about their history—that was also extremely helpful.

AD: Has working on Flamin’ Hot made you want to get involved with more feature films?

VJP: Yeah, I think so. It’s fun. Especially after this weekend [SXSW]. It’s been so fun to see everyone again and see the audience’s reaction. I knew that this was going to be a hit. The minute I saw it, I so was emotional, but I also laughed a lot.

And people were laughing at the same points I laughed at and cried at the same stuff that I cried at. It’s an emotional film, and it gets people. As a Latina, I have not seen a movie like that in a long time. There are TV shows and stuff that are all goofy and funny, but there’s nothing like Flamin’ Hot— a real, heartfelt story, and I think that’s great.

You can just feel Eva’s energy, and the movie is really good. She did an amazing job; her love and attention to detail is really impressive, and it goes a long way, I think. All the people around the film did really, really good. It was a unique collaborative experience.

AD: Lastly, Vanessa, are you a fan of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos?  

VJP: I didn’t try them until this movie. I’m not gonna lie.

AD: What?

VJP: I know. I know. That’s a bad tagline for our interview. I love Cheetos. Plain Cheetos. The thing is, it is like I choke every time I have Flamin’ Hot Cheetos; I can’t handle it. But I had a bag on the way out of the theater; I was choking, but I ate the whole thing. [Laughs].

Flamin’ Hot is streaming now on Hulu and Disney+.