'THIS FILM IS FOR MY FATHERS'

THE STAR OPENS UP ON THE INSPIRATION FOR HER MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING THREEQUEL

- Sara Tapia

When Nia Vardalos sat down to write the third instalment of her beloved film franchise, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, she knew – like the previous two flicks – she’d need to draw on her own personal experiences again.

“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,” the star recalls. “But as adults, when my siblings and I would go to Greece, we would always go to the islands because that’s where the parties are.”

She originally drafted the script to centre on Toula Portokalos, a character Vardalos couldn’t wait to step back into, returning to Greece with her family and her father. But when Vardalos lost her own father, Gus, followed shortly afterwards by the death of her on-screen dad Michael Constantine, she knew she had to rewrite it.

“I did know Michael’s health wasn’t at a place he wanted it to be,” Vardalos explains. “When he read [the original] script, he called and said, ‘I’ll be there, but could I be seated in most of the scenes?’ I assured him I would take care of him. And then his sister called me and said that Michael just couldn’t bring himself to tell me that he wouldn’t be able to join us as he wasn’t well.

“But of course, I didn’t rewrite right away because I was optimistic,” she adds. “Then I received several texts from Michael Constantine just a month before he passed away, urging me to make the film and that he would be there in spirit. I still have the texts in my phone.”