Writer and actress Nia Vardalos turns the ordinary into extraordinary success

Two years after "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," Nia Vardalos' life is forever changed. A struggling actress/writer for much of her career, she's now recognized everywhere (on the street, in restaurants, at Starbucks — where it's not unusual for someone to touch her arm and say, "I love you!"), fielding multiple film projects and enjoying the kind of mainstream success few actors find. And she thinks she finally understands why.

"I write from my life and my gut, about what's interesting to me," said Vardalos, 41, on the phone from Chicago, where she's doing press for her new movie "Connie and Carla" (opening Friday in Seattle). "I'm an average person, just an ordinary person that something extraordinary happened to. I think that, as an average audience member, I write what I want to see, and that's why the audience agrees."

"Greek Wedding," a romantic comedy loosely based on Vardalos' life (and on a one-woman show that she wrote and performed), connected on an extraordinary level with audiences. Released with little fanfare in spring 2002, the film ultimately earned more than $240 million — making it, until "The Passion of the Christ" dethroned it last month, the highest-grossing independent film of all time.

Grassroots phenomenon

Vardalos, an energetic talker whose warm phone manner conveys the instant likability that was such a component of her film's success, still sounds dazzled by it all. "Greek Wedding" wasn't an instant hit, but a slowly growing grassroots phenomenon. "By July (2002)," Vardalos remembered, "we were only at the $20 million mark, but we were thrilled beyond any expectation — we were giddy. Our producer said to Joel (Zwick, the movie's director) and I, 'This doesn't happen to independent films.' We were so excited, that we had achieved that."

But as the summer progressed, the box office kept growing. Though it never hit the top spot on the office charts, "Greek Wedding" proved to have legs longer than any Hollywood chorine. It was still in the top 10 as late as December 2002, and still playing at many theaters when the DVD was released in February 2003. This was huge business for a little movie about a Greek-American woman in love with a non-Greek man, but audiences — especially older couples, a demographic rarely seen at the multiplexes — seemed to be looking for a sweet film about regular people.

And that's exactly what Vardalos is aiming for with "Connie and Carla." The story of two small-town women (Vardalos and Toni Collette) who achieve their dream of stardom by posing as show-tune-singing drag queens, its subject matter takes Vardalos back to her pre-"Greek Wedding" days — years of performing musical theater in Winnipeg (her hometown) and later in Toronto.

"Connie and Carla" isn't a new screenplay; Vardalos had completed a first draft of it before "Greek Wedding" even saw production. She put it away and "forgot about it for a while" — until producer Jonathan Glickman came to see "Greek Wedding" in its first weeks of release and liked what he saw.

"He called my manager and said, 'What else does she have?' "said Vardalos, who said she had not looked at "Connie and Carla" for a long time. During that summer of 2002, as the success of "Greek Wedding" became more apparent, Vardalos worried about choosing the right project to follow it, but found the idea of returning to her roots appealing.

"The craziness that hit my life and career — I couldn't absorb it," she said of those days. "I wanted to stay grounded and tethered to some post of reality. I couldn't just dive into another movie, another role, and not feel compassion for the characters, connection to the story. I needed to stay focused and just keep my feet on the ground.

"I thought, OK, what do I know? I know musical theater, and I'm going to do that. I didn't have to make ('Connie and Carla') next; I chose to make it next."

What's ahead

Once "Connie and Carla" opens, Vardalos hopes to take some time off. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, actor Ian Gomez, and in her spare time loves to arrange flowers from her garden ("it's very soothing — and has nothing to do with the movie industry!"). And she speaks affectionately of hanging out with old friends from her days as a member of the Second City Comedy Theater troupe in Toronto and Chicago.

Professionally, she's taking her time, wanting to choose the right thing for her next project. ("My Big Fat Greek Life," the much-panned TV show based on the movie, was quickly canceled by its network and may be a factor in Vardalos' caution.) She's currently working on two new screenplays and considering roles in two films written by others.

Though she was offered plenty of "big parts" in the wake of her success, Vardalos says she wants to stay in the sweet vein of romantic comedy, to honor the audience that "Greek Wedding" found. "I didn't want to say, thanks for being so supportive, see you later. I wanted to make lifelong friends and write these fun movies where the message is sugar-coated and everyone gets to sing a show tune."

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com