Vardalos lands a homecoming role

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This article was published 18/06/2011 (5209 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WRITER-ACTRESS Nia Vardalos is coming home to Winnipeg, but unlike past trips to her Winnipeg-based family, she’s coming to work.

Vardalos, best known as the writer and star of the hit indie film My Big Fat Greek Wedding, has been cast in the new, as yet untitled American Girl movie shooting in Winnipeg next month.

Contacted on the phone in Los Angeles, where she is helping publicize the Tom Hanks romantic comedy Larry Crowne which she wrote with Hanks, Vardalos confirmed she will be coming to her hometown for the four-week shoot commencing July 11.

“I’m so excited! I cannot believe it. Do you know how long I have tried to get into one of those shooting-in-Winnipeg movies?” Vardalos said. “I would say to my agent: I can play a Filipino midwife, come on! I can play a 12 year old! It was always grasping at straws.”

Vardalos credited being a “polite Winnipegger” for ultimately getting the opportunity.

“I had a meeting with (American Girl producer) Debra Martin Chase about a year ago about writing and acting in a project. But ultimately I got really busy with Larry Crowne, and it didn’t happen,” she said. “Then I ran into her recently, and she said: ‘I’m shooting a movie in Winnipeg.’

“And this is such a lesson in ‘Always be a polite Winnipegger,’ because I said to her: ‘That’s my hometown. If you need any help, please call me. You have my e-mail address, don’t you?’

“And that’s when she got the idea. She was like: ‘Wait. There’s a mom in this.’ She called me the next day.”

Vardalos will play the mother of the film’s heroine, who will be played by newcomer Jade Pettyjohn.

Vardalos’ family has known about her participation in the film, but they apparently kept it a secret.

“My mom knew, but I had her under a gag order. She’s so good at that now,” Vardalos says. “When people say, ‘What’s Nia up to now?’ she’ll say, ‘Who’s Nia?’ “

Vardalos says she is especially excited about working with the American Girl brand, which entails dolls and movies, including the 2008 theatrical release Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. It is a favourite with her daughter, whom Vardalos and actor husband Ian Gomez adopted in 2008.

“In our family, it’s a big thing. About six months after we adopted our daughter, we went to the American Girl store and have her choose the doll that she felt looked like her, just to help her with her identity,” Vardalos said. Vardalos does not allow her daughter’s name or photograph to be published to protect her privacy.

“She still doesn’t know what we do for a living because she doesn’t care, but this is going to be the perfect way to be cool in her eyes.”

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca