We admit it — we love when celebs earnestly go on and on about how great Cincinnati is.
Actor/director Emilio Estevez is the latest to talk up the Queen City. In a March 25 Vanity Fair interview, Estevez calls Cincinnati “so cool” and “the Paris of the Midwest,” noting that his mother Janet Sheen was born here and his father Martin Sheen is from Dayton.
“I love being able to tell people in L.A. or New York, either come visit us to see what the hell is going on, or please stay away. One or the other,” Estevez tells Vanity Fair writer Julie Miller. “But I think when they get there, their minds are blown at everything that’s going on in Cincy — between the breweries and the restaurants and the historical preservation of the architecture. It’s a really magical city.”
Estevez, who lives in Over-the-Rhine when he’s not working in Los Angeles, says his love affair with Cincinnati began in 2010 after a publicity tour stop for The Way, for which he directed with his father. He filmed The Public primarily at the library downtown in 2017 and takes an interest in city life. Last year, Estevez penned a letter to Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley to plead for the city’s streetcar to return.
“There’s a ton of innovation. And you think about the corporations that are headquartered in Cincinnati! You’ve got Kroger…You’ve got Procter & Gamble. You’ve got Cintas. There are a lot of economic reasons to be there,” he tells Vanity Fair. “Cost of living is just, it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s affordable!’"
The Vanity Fair interview also contains bits about Estevez filming his new Disney+ series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers in Minnesota when police killed George Floyd, the difficulty of filming during a pandemic, the darker side of being an indie film developer, and critic Gene Siskel hating Estevez’ Repo Men in 1984.
