VIDEO: Nia Vardalos Talks Inspiration Behind MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 2
Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric interviewed hilarious actress, screenwriter, director and producer Nia Vardalos to discuss the highly anticipated film MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 2. Couric and Vardalos discussed how she drew the film's inspiration from her daughter's first day of kindergarten, the challenges and pressures of making the sequel to the 2002 smash hit, writing in John Stamos, and the importance of women in Hollywood. Watch the interview in full below!
Highlights from the interview include Vardalos on:
How her daughter first day of kindergarten inspired the sequel: "All the other moms were saying goodbye in a very loving and...they were normal people... And I heard a sound that sounded like a BANSHEE wailing and realized, 'oh it's me!' I'm crying so loud I was trying to get control of myself and that's when I realized I couldn't let go and I have morphed into my own suffocating Greek parents."
Writing a role for John Stamos: "His mom had asked me before she passed away if I ever did a sequel, if I would write him a part. Isn't that funny? So sweet, as a mother would do. She was the loveliest person and her memory lives on in Jon, he had such a close connection with her."
Strong roles for women in Hollywood: "There's are so many of us who said 'Look I can't wait for the phone to ring with the job offer. I'm going to call myself and just keep creating my own roles.' But I can't just do it for me, my whole gender's out there looking for work, so I wrote very strong roles for the women, but also for the men. Because I keep saying 'we can't just leave one half of society out.' We don't like it when men do it to us in their movies, so you know the men and women are represented in this - like a family."
