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Nia Vardalos Already Has an Idea for ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3’ (Exclusive)

Opa! Nia Vardalos isn’t done with the Portokalos family just yet. The My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 writer and star tells Us Weekly exclusively that a third movie is a possibility.

“According to my family, yes. Because they really enjoy being background actors,” she tells Us, laughing. “I do have an idea, but I haven’t started writing yet. I need to let it marinate for a little bit.”

Related: PHOTOS: Best and Worst Movie Remakes

Vardalos, 53, based the 2002 comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding on her family, and reunited with the cast 14 years later for this year’s sequel. She plays Toula Portokalos, who falls in love with a non-Greek teacher named Ian Miller, played by John Corbett. In the sequel, Toula and Ian send their daughter, Paris (Elena Kampouris), off to college — and try to reignite the spark in their marriage.

Nia Vardalos and John Corbett
George Kraychyk

“We’ve become such good friends over the years. He’s a wonderful person. He’s the first cast member that I told that we were going to go back and do the sequel,” Vardalos tells Us of the Sex and the City alum, 55. “My favorite scene that we filmed together was when we were walking toward the car to do the makeout scene. We looked at each other and it was the exact same place that we filmed last time. We were on the same street and the same car parked in the same location. It was very nostalgic to go back after all of these years.”

George Kraychyk

The costars are so close, in fact, that the kissing scenes were a bit more awkward the second time around. “I think it’s almost easier to do a kissing scene with someone you don’t know. Now we know each other so well that I was a little bit shy going into it,” Vardalos says.

Related: PHOTOS: Costars Reunited!

Luckily, Corbett put her at ease. She adds: “They had the car and lights ready, and John threw his arm around me and was like, ‘Come on, baby, let’s go make out!'”

Ian Gomez, Nia Vardalos, John Corbett
IFC Films/courtesy Everett Collection

Corbett portrays a version of Vardalos’ real-life husband, Ian Gomez. (The couple married in 1993 and are parents of daughter Ilaria, 11.) Gomez, 51, plays Corbett’s BFF, Mike, in the franchise.

“I knew that we had cast the right actor [with Corbett] when I walked onto the set with my hair down and my big glasses on and no makeup on. I walked onto the set and John turned around with Ian — they were both on set — and looked at me and neither guy went, ‘Oh, no!’ Neither man made fun of me. They both went, ‘Aw!’ It was just a really sweet moment that they empathized with a character that felt a little down in a period of her life, but that neither guy went to a mean place. Pretty sweet.”

Related: PHOTOS: Love on Set

For more with Vardalos, read her Q&A in our Now and Then series:

US WEEKLY: What was your favorite scene from the second movie?

NIA VARDALOS: Where the family comes wandering into the college fair and the girl who plays our daughter turns around and gives the best look ever. … We were all together, catching up, laughing and talking [off camera]. A normal cast would go out in the hall to talk, but we didn’t. We were sitting in the actual room where they were filming.

US: What’s been one of your favorite lines that you’ve written?

NV: Little kids have come up to me and have done all of Aunt Voula’s speech of “My lump was my twin.” … And then from this new film, [fans have sent photos] to me on social media of all of them pulling their necks back.

US: Have you kept any props from set?

NV: John Corbett and I always steal something! I have the little bell that was in the kitchen scene.

US: Do fans ever come up to you to talk about the bundt cake scene? (In the first film, Ian’s parents bring the dessert to a Portokalos family barbecue, but no one knows what it is.)

NV: Yes! I always hear, “You fixed it!” Little things like that. Or, “It’s a cake!” It always makes me laugh. There’s a store in Los Angeles that sells bundt cakes and I went in there and they didn’t let me pay.

Related: PHOTOS: Simple Celebrity Weddings: Stars Who Had No-Fuss Nuptials

US: Does your family still use Windex to solve everyday problems?

NV: Oh, yes. I have found that every family has a strange remedy for any situation — from “Use Fantastic to get the scuff off your patent leather shoes!” to “Soak an aspirin in a glass of water to get rid of a migraine.” Everyone has something, so that’s where it actually comes from. But my dad actually does use Windex.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.

 

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