‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2’ Star Nia Vardalos On Trying To Get Pregnant: ‘It Was A Sad Process’
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 has been a major project for Nia Vardalos, who not only stars in the film, but wrote the script as well. The process has made life tense for Vardalos, but it hasn’t been nearly as stressful as events in her personal life.
In a recent interview, Nia revealed that trying to get pregnant, which should normally be a joyous event, has become something of a nightmare for her.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 Star Nia Vardalos Has Been Trying To Get Pregnant For Nine Years
Nia hadn’t planned for the sequel to My Big Fat Greek Wedding to take nearly 14 years, but she now reveals that the sequel was dependent upon her getting pregnant, as was her own personal happiness. Nia explains that the main character in that first film was pregnant by the end of the story and, as Ms. Vardalos has never experienced motherhood firsthand, she felt it was something she needed to explore in her personal life, before she could write about it.
Vardalos confesses that she hadn’t expected to face so much difficulty in just trying to get pregnant. What started out so seemingly simple, turned into a real trial as Nia sought alternatives such as in vitro fertilization and surrogacy. Even miscarriages couldn’t deter Vardalos from becoming a mother.
“It was a sad process for me to become a mom, and a long process,” 53-year-old Vardalos said of her nine-year struggle. “I felt so embarrassed that I couldn’t have a biological child.”
Eventually, Nia and husband Ian Gomez gave up on conceiving a child of their own and turned their sights to adoption. The My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 writer says it was love at first sight, when she met 3-year-old Ilaria. To say that the experience ended on a happy note is something of an understatement. Ms. Vardalos was so inspired by the daughter she and Ian adopted through the California foster care system, that she wrote a book about it, Instant Mom, which was published in 2013. The book details Nia’s experiences from the moment she decided to get pregnant, all the way through her nine year ordeal, up to the adoption of her daughter.
“I’m so grateful and can’t imagine my life without her,” Vardalos says of the adoption of Ilaria.
Nia Vardalos Reveals How She Seduced John Corbett Into Returning For My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
If she was going to do a sequel, Nia knew she couldn’t tell the story without John Corbett, who played her husband in the first film. Ms. Vardalos says she went for the direct approach and Corbett was quick to accept.
“I called John and said, ‘Hey, do you feel like kissing me again?’ And he said the ultimate dreamy response – ‘always baby.'”
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 picks up just as the daughter of Toula (Vardalos) and Ian (Corbett) heads off to college. The sequel promises secrets and laughs, as the Portokalos family comes together for another wedding, this one promising to be both bigger and Greeker.
The tagline for the film reads “People change. Greeks don’t.”
Getting the entire cast back together was no easy task, reveals Nia, but, as she has already proven, Ms. Vardalos can be quite stubborn when it comes to getting her way. Dauntless, Nia pursued the cast from the first film, until she could sign them all up for the sequel. Ultimately, Vardalos described the gathering of so many actors as “loud, joyous, full of laughter and like a big family reunion”.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, starring Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, and Michael Constantine, will hit theaters on Thursday, March 23.
[Image by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images]
