Nia Vardalos celebrates another Wedding

By Angela Dawson

HOLLYWOOD — After the phenomenal success of 2002’s international sleeper hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the pressure was on Nia Vardalos, the star and writer of the Mediterranean-flavored family comedy, to come up with a sequel. But Vardalos, a Canadian of Greek ancestry, wasn’t quite ready to cook up another adventure for the Portokalos family and their extended and boisterous relatives. For one thing, the original had wrapped with Greek-American Toula (Vardalos) and her hunky Anglo-American husband Ian Miller (played by John Corbett) enjoying a happily-ever-after as they walked their young daughter to school.

Vardalos herself was undergoing a personal crisis, as she and her real life husband, actor Ian Gomez, struggled with fertility issues. The Oscar-nominated writer couldn’t address the next chapter for Toula because she hadn’t completed her own journey into motherhood. Eventually, though, Vardalos and Gomez became parents. They adopted a little girl in 2009, which completed their family. At last, Vardalos, who had been busy working on other film and TV projects (including a short lived TV spinoff called My Big Fat Greek Life), finally felt inspired to write My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.

After writing and rewriting her script, she presented it to her good friends at Playtone — Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson’s production company — and it was game on.

Getting the cast back together wasn’t a problem. Corbett signed on first, followed in short order by Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Andrea Martin, Gia Carides, Louis Mandylor, Joey Fatone and the rest of the original cast. The Greek family expanded for the sequel to include Elena Kampouris, who plays Toula and Ian’s daughter, Paris, and John Stamos and Wilson, who play fellow churchgoers.

In the sequel, Toula is sandwiched between two generations: her parents, who make an awkward discovery about their half-century marriage, and her teenage daughter, who wants to go to prom with a boy at school but is also very shy.

Reached by phone in New York, Vardalos spoke about the long gestation for Greek Wedding, getting the cast back together, becoming a mom in real life and more.

What took so long for the sequel to come about?

The end of the first movie, I had that wishful thinking moment where I wrote that Ian and Toula were parents. The fact that I wasn’t a mom kept me from doing a sequel because I kept thinking the press tour would be so invasive for me.

You have Greek-Americans Rita Wilson and John Stamos in the cast. How did you get them on-board?

John Stamos and I became friends when he approached me outside of a restaurant to compliment my husband’s acting work and I was like, “What a sweet guy!” My husband had gone to get the car and I ran over to the car and said: “John Stamos wants to meet you,” and Ian said: “Why?”, I said: “I think he thinks you’re somebody else. Get over here.” And so Ian went over and we became friends. John’s mom had told me how much she loved the movie and had said to me: “If you ever do a sequel, it would mean so much to me if you gave John a role in it,” which of course I would love to. And then she passed away last year, so I decided to just keep the promise.

Was it tough getting the whole cast back together?

I wrote so quietly over a four-year period. While I was promoting my book, I would go back to the script over and over again as I kept thinking of ways to layer in three generations. Then it was done and it was time for people to read this. I went to Playtone (Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson’s production company that also produced the original) and they said: “It’s John [Corbett’s] birthday. Let’s call him up.” So I called him and asked him if he felt like kissing me again. (She chuckles.) And that was it. We were green lit. I, then, called two more cast members. By the time we got to the fourth or fifth, they had already told each other. Everybody knew.

The story tackles the issue of being the “sandwich generation,” where you’re taking care of aging parents and children at the same time.

It comes from my own real life. I find myself overbooked, but I’m so grateful for it. I’m so lucky to have my parents and my daughter. The minute we finished the film, I signed up to volunteer for the book fair at my daughter’s school, and I thought to myself, “My God, I am Toula!”

Lainie Kazan has a pivotal role in the sequel. Her character, Maria, has to come to terms with her long relationship with Gus. Few Hollywood films present issues older women face and actresses frequently complain there are few roles in Hollywood for them to choose.

In response to the dearth of female roles available to women in Hollywood, I just decided to write very strong female characters as well as strong male characters in this script because the goal is parity. We’re not looking to push men out of films. We’re just saying: “Hey, guess what, we can live side by side with you.” If I’m going to depict a family life, then both genders have to have a good amount of story. It was really joyful for me to be able to write for these strong women like Lainie and Andrea because when they say my lines it’s like a gift.

Your husband, Ian Gomez, is in the sequel too.

Yeah, I make him be in all my movies so that we can be in the same city. He was so busy though. He was filming (the TV series) Cougar Town, and a pilot at the same time. So we were lucky to get him. We flew him back and forth because he would bring my daughter to us so that we could all be together. He said: “I’ll do the schedule if you let me play a policeman because I’ve always wanted to wear that uniform.” So I had to find a way to work that into the story. He gets his lifelong dream of getting to strut around in a uniform. But he comes up to me on the first day and goes: “This uniform’s itchy.” (She sighs.) It’s going to be like Village People, if we ever do a third one. I’m going to make him the construction worker. (She laughs.)