Actress-writer Nia Vardalos had a story to tell; a big, fat, autobiographical story about the Greek family she grew up with in Winnipeg, Canada.  My Big Fat Greek Wedding changed her life. Here is a transcript of an interview with Nia Vardalos conducted by journalists in Europe.

JOURNALIST:  I just wonder about your own culture background, how important it's been for you?
VARDALOS:  Well, it's a constant source of amusement for me, definitely.  I love to laugh and talk about my family.  But what has been surprising to me is that people of all ethnicities have told me that they have the same crazy family. I guess everyone has tried to plan a wedding or a funeral or a bar mitzvah and realized that their family is dysfunctional and yet loving, just like mine.

JOURNALIST:  So your background has been similar to this?
VARDALOS:  Oh, definitely.  I drew from what happened to me.  My husband is named Ian, just like in the movie.  He was baptized Greek Orthodox just like in the movie. I have a father who believes that Windex cures everything.  I have an aunt who has a lump on the back of her neck that she claims is her twin.  Yes, I have this big large crazy family.  And then of course I made some stuff up. But the lucky thing for me is that my family can laugh at themselves.  They're very secure.

JOURNALIST:  I wanted to know, you say you know obviously you've drawn on your own cultural background.  And it did relate to you in life. Did you find it to be a cathartic experience?  Did it help you understand your family more in the process of making the film?
VARDALOS:  Definitely.  I think to actually take a really hard look at the family dynamic that I grew up in, and revere it and honor it instead of making fun of it, was a very cathartic and therapeutic experience for me. What has been more valuable than 10 years of talking to a therapist though is how many people have come up to me no the street and say - have said, "I have the same crazy family." I think, I think when I started to write this screenplay and really looked at my family dynamic, I chose to revere and honor it rather than make fun of it.

JOURNALIST Could you answer me what's next in your career?  Are you going to do a sequel of this film, or...
VARDALOS:  We have been offered so many things.  And I've been traveling all over, so I haven't really had time to entertain any of the possibilities. We've been offered a sequel and a Broadway musical and a cookbook. Like so many crazy ideas. My feeling is I'm not finished with this film.  I want to publicize it until it's open all over the world.  And everybody knows what it's like to grow up Greek. Then I may do another movie that I wrote a while ago about two women from Chicago.  Or I may just take some time off and go to Fiji for a month and lay in the sun.  I'm not sure.

JOURNALIST:  Do you fight with your Greek side?
VARDALOS:  No, not any more.  But I think like the average teenager I woke up at  16 and decided that everyone in my family was stupid.  And I didn't want to be Greek, and I didn't want to be part of the family.  It was normal teen rebellion. And then by the time I was about 21, I went to Greece for a summer.  And I realized how much I loved being Greek and how much you can't run away from your past.   You - I believe you must embrace your roots your past and step forward into future. And once I did that, being Greek became part of my life.

JOURNALIST:  There was some information about a possibility that someone could stole your story before a whole film being made up.  Tell us something about this, please.
VARDALOS:  That was actually printed, but that was never a fear of mine.  The reason I wrote the screen play is because - like three independent film producers before Rita and Tom came to the show.  And each of these three film producers told me that I could not be in the movie and that it was their right to change to any ethnicity they wanted. Well, I have only the greatest and utmost respect for the Hispanic population and the Italian population, which were the two ethnicities that they suggested. I wanted to tell a Greek story, because that's who I am and that's what I knew. So one of the producers introduced me to a writer in his office who's last name was - it was a very Anglo sounding name.   And I thought, "Well, why would I let this man write my Greek family story?  What's the difference between and me?  I know the story.  I know the family." So I sat down and wrote the movie myself only because I felt I knew these characters, even though I'd never written a movie before. But there was never any fear that it would be stolen.  I come from Winnipeg.  I'm kind of - maybe I'm naive -, but I'm kind of a trusting person.

JOURNALIST:  Nia, do you think that the phenomenon of your movie is the result of a crisis of ideas in  Hollywood? And now all of the movies are two parts, three parts, four parts, sequels.  It's a crisis of ideas.
VARDALOS:  Well, I think there are some really, really good ideas in Hollywood.  But there are very few people who have the imagination to take that idea and keep it as fresh and original as it came in. I got lucky with Tom Hanks and his partner Gary Goetzman because they were secure, accomplished individuals who were willing to take a risk on a complete unknown.  Hollywood seems to operate out of fear and not as many people take risks. What I'm hoping is that these studio executives will take more chances now, as a result of what happened.

JOURNALIST:  I would like to know what part of the movie did you enjoy the most?
VARDALOS:  I enjoyed it when my family showed up to be extras in the movie.  It was like we were at yet another family wedding.  And we had a really good time, and we all looked at each other - you know, the cameras were there.  The lights, the director.  Everybody was walking around and my family and I looked at each other like, "Is this  happening?"

JOURNALIST: What excites you most, in the real life?
VARDALOS:  To be creatively free.  I think just to be able to express an idea and see it come to fruition is the greatest thing that we can offer each other. We may not agree with each other's ideas, but if we could just let each other be heard, maybe it would just be a better place.

JOURNALIST:  What do you enjoy more?  Write or acting?
VARDALOS:  Acting, acting, acting.  I hate writing.  I only write to get myself acting jobs where the boy has to call me beautiful.

JOURNALIST:  Nia, do think that part of the reason for the success of your movie is that people don't know much about other cultures--especially Greek culture?
VARDALOS:  Well, I just wanted to show how people from different cultures can be bewildered by each other.  Because if anything, I think when you meet someone that you don't know anything about, we don't automatically not like them. We just kind of look at them with our heads sideways, like, "Why are you doing that?" And that's all I wanted to show that it was a culture clash that happens when any two ethnicities meet. 

JOURNALIST:  Is there a plan to make a television spin-off of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" on CBS?  I read something about that.
VARDALOS:  Yes, there are some plans.  But I've been traveling so much, that we're going to have to push back that time line a little bit because the film is still playing in all of these theaters.  So we had thought it would be like a normal film - it would open and close in a month.  But it's been over six months.  I think we're in our 28th week now.  And we're still in 2,000 theaters in North America. So I just plan to kind of keep on, and then in time maybe we'll get to the TV show.

JOURNALIST:  I was just wondering if you want to produce and direct in the future too to challenge Hollywood?
VARDALOS:  I never say no.  My first love is acting, but I think as human beings and creative people, we evolve.  So perhaps one day I will have a the desire to direct or produce.  Not right now though. I just like to tell stories.

JOURNALIST:  What would you do if you could have your dream career?
VARDALOS:  I'm kind of having it right now. So I guess, I'm just going to go shopping.

JOURNALIST:  How you feel about all of the success your movie is having now?
VARDALOS:  It's beyond even my wildest hopes.  It's beyond - all I ever wanted was for this film to be released in the theaters.  It was made - the film was produced for $5 million.  And if we made back $5,000,009, I would have been happy.  But then this happened, and it has just been a crazy, crazy wild ride.  I feel like somebody put me on a pair of skis and just pushed me down a mountain and I can't close my eyes.

JOURNALIST: I was wondering, Nia, what did you learn from this Hollywood process?  You said it took three years to get this movie done? What is the biggest lesson from your experience?
VARDALOS:  The biggest lesson is for me is secure and accomplished people say yes to a new and risky idea.  With Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, coming to me and supporting this idea that I had, my biggest obstacle was having the confidence in myself that these people had in me through the process.

JOURNALIST:  So you found the right people to work with.  How about in the future?  Would you do anything different?
VARDALOS:  Well, I'll tell you, I don't tolerate bad behavior any more.  I think the mandate of Playtone (ph) is be nice.  And so in all of my future dealings with these new films that I'm going to try and do, and if I try and do the TV series, I won't tolerate anything but good behavior. That's my mandate from now on to everyone else - "Be nice, life if short."

JOURNALIST:  Do  you think young women are going to - would like to be like you, like Nia Vardalos now because of the movie?
VARDALOS:  Well, that would certainly be flattering.  I would hope that they would instead just like whatever they have to offer from themselves which I guess is the message that Toula finds out about herself. She's not like anybody else, but who cares?  She likes who she is.  And that's why she gets the guy.

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