CARPOOLS, CROOKED BANGS AND FAMILY TOGETHERNESS
Nia Vardalos tries very hard not to give advice to other parents — though she can tell you how not to cut your kid’s hair
In case you didn’t know, family is a big deal to Nia Vardalos.
The Canadian actress and star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 — out now on Blu-ray and DVD — comes from her own Greek family. She’s also married to American actor Ian Gomez, her husband of more than two decades, and mom to Ilaria, 11. (Vardalos and Gomez adopted their daughter in 2008, and Vardalos later wrote a book,
Instant Mom, chronicling the adoption experience and her journey into motherhood.)
“My movie family, and my real family, were really very, very close during that entire process and we celebrated it together,” Vardalos says of her experience making the original My Big Fat Greek Wed
ding, the 2002 rom-com box-office smash.
“When the movie hit, that crazy success that came our way, I wasn’t alone in revelling in it. It was all of us dancing a Greek jig.”
She spent four years writing the script for the sequel, and got the idea for the plot line — which includes the addition of her character Toula’s daughter with onscreen hubby Ian Miller, played by John Corbett — on Ilaria’s first day of kindergarten.
These days, Vardalos has several projects on the go, including a recurring role on ABC’s new Shonda Rhimes-produced drama The Catch.
Vardalos and her immediate family live in Los Angeles but spend a lot of time in her hometown, Winnipeg — with the rest of her big Greek family.
My family in one word: Close My family’s soundtrack: Any Greek composer playing very fast, loud music.
One piece of advice: I try very hard not to give advice to other parents. When I became a new parent, a lot of unsolicited advice came my way. “You should” is my least-favourite phrase. But here’s advice my mother gave me: during carpools, don’t be part of the conversation — just listen and you’ll know everything that’s going on in your daughter’s life.
Parenting mistake I laugh about now: I cut my daughter’s bangs while she was taking a nap, and her head was at an angle. When she woke up and looked at me, they were crooked! She looked like a punk rock singer.
Fondest memory: Before I was a parent, my fondest memory was my entire family flying into Los Angeles for the premiere of My Big Fat Greek
Wedding. I sat at the back and saw them all laughing, like a wave through the theatre. My family is awesome because: We support each other. I’m not the special one because of my profession. Everyone is equally important in my family, as hokey as that sounds.
Proudest moment: I was very proud of my daughter when we were approached in an airport by a woman who held a beautiful baby on her hip and said to my daughter, “Because of you, we are fostering this baby.”
She pointed to her family and said, these are my biological sons and we’re hoping to adopt this little girl. My daughter, at 10, nodded and said, “We donate proceeds of the book ( Instant Mom) to get kids adopted.” That was my proudest moment — she said “we.”
"When I became a new parent, a lot of unsolicited advice came my way. ’You should’ is my least-favourite phrase." NIA VARDALOS