Nia Vardalos is finally ready to talk — and what happened behind the camera on My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 is just as dramatic as anything that made it to the screen.
The actress and filmmaker, 63, opened up at the Celebrity Autobiography Broadway opening night on May 18, revealing that the production was riddled with unexpected setbacks that she never got the chance to discuss publicly when the film first released in 2023. The reason? The movie debuted right in the middle of the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes, making it impossible to speak freely about the journey.
“To tell you the truth, the biggest memory that I have is of the third one, because so many things went wrong,” Vardalos told PEOPLE at the event.
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A COVID Crisis Nearly Wrecked the Most Important Scene
One of the most memorable filming disasters came during production of the climactic wedding sequence — easily the most technically demanding scene in the film. The entire shot had been carefully mapped out in advance, but on the day of filming, the Steadicam operator tested positive for COVID, leaving the crew without one of their most essential technical team members.
Rather than shutting down for the day, Vardalos and her team found a creative workaround that turned crisis into collaboration. The crew physically removed Camera A from its base, with two crew members holding it by hand. Vardalos then linked arms with them and directed the shot in real time — calling out every move herself.
“Whip them to the drums. Great. Go back to the feet. Great. Left, left. Move in, move in, move in. Back, back, back,” she recalled directing, blow by blow. Between takes, the entire cast would rush over to rub the camera operators’ shoulders, giving them water before sending them back out to film again.
“That’s how we filmed without a Steadicam operator,” Vardalos said, clearly still in awe of what the team pulled off under pressure.
A Crew That Gave Everything — Including Standing in the Ocean All Day
The dedication of the crew didn’t stop there. Vardalos also praised the same camera operator for his work on a separate scene featuring John Corbett as Ian, alongside a monk character on a Greek beach. That operator stood in the water for the entire shooting day to capture the footage.
“He was in the water all day,” Vardalos recalled. “And he said to me, ‘I’m not complaining.'”
It’s the kind of behind-the-scenes grit that audiences rarely see — but it’s exactly what brought the world of My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 to life.
What the Film Is About
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, written and directed by Vardalos, follows the beloved Portokalos family as they travel to Greece to honor the memory of their late patriarch, Gus — a role originally played by the late Michael Constantine. A distant relative named Victory invites the family under the guise of a reunion, but the trip turns into something much bigger as the family works to revive their father’s hometown village of Vrisi while also navigating a surprise engagement.
Despite the chaos that unfolded on set, Vardalos has nothing but pride for everyone who showed up and pushed through. “So many people did great things,” she said.
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