What can I say? She had me at “Good morning.”
I’ve interviewed many actors during the course of my career and I can say unequivocally that one of my all-time favorites is Nia Vardalos. I first met Nia when I interviewed her for the first My Big Fat Greek Wedding movie in 2002. What can I say? She had me at “Good morning.” You can watch our love fest here:
Nia is so full of joy and energy, and it seems as if the whole world fell in love with her character Toula, the hilarious young Greek woman whose parents are anxious to marry her off. (She did pretty well — hello Ian, aka Aidan, aka John Corbett.) Now she’s back with My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 and this time, the Portokalos family is off on a bittersweet but fun-filled adventure to the small village where her father was raised — the dying wish of the family patriarch.
The story mirrors real life in some ways — Nia wrote the screenplay with two very important people in mind: “I wanted to explore the topic of immigration and as always, the dynamics of family,” she recalls in press materials for the new movie. “The genesis of this story is that my dad always wanted us to go to his family village up high in the mountains on the mainland of Greece. But as adults, when my siblings and I would visit, we would always go to the islands because that’s where the parties are. In March 2020, after a period of failing health, I lost my dad. And very soon after that we lost Michael Constantine, who played my father, Gus. I began to find a way to manage my grief through my fingertips, and the screenplay emerged about us fulfilling a father’s last wish.”
The movie ended up, in many ways, a love letter to Constantine. Rita Wilson, who produced all three films, says in the movie’s promotional material, “I love that he’s still a part of it, even though he’s not present physically in the movie. Families often want to honor their parents when they go, by doing something that would be meaningful for them — but also for the family. It’s really a way to unite people, and I think we did that with this film.”
Many of the iconic characters are back, and I’m so excited to see them up to their old tricks: Lainie Kazan as Toula’s mother Maria, Andrea Martin as Aunt Voula, and Maria Vacratsis as Aunt Frieda. Between the crazy antics and the gorgeous scenery, I can’t wait to take a trip to some sparkling Greek locales, raise a glass of imaginary ouzo and shout “Opa!”
To get into the mood, you can watch the trailer right here:
