Pictured Nia Vardalos and Toni Collette as their drag alter egos in Connie and Carla.
Connie and Carla opens April 16.
In the tradition of the contemporary American movie comedy, which includes her own 2002 breakout hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding, actress and writer Nia Vardalos has created Connie and Carla, a laugh-filled romp which pays homage to and borrows from some of the best. After Connie ( Vardalos ) and Carla ( Toni Collette ) a pair of struggling Chicago lounge singers witness a murder, they high-tail it out of town ( see Some Like It Hot ) . They seek refuge in West Hollywood, where they go into hiding as female impersonators ( see Victor/Victoria ) . All sorts of complications arise, including when Connie falls in love with Jeff ( David Duchovny ) , the brother of Robert ( Stephen Spinella ) , one of the drag performers, who thinks she is really a guy ( Yentl ) . I recently spoke to Vardalos about her new movie.
Gregg Shapiro: I have been describing Connie and Carla as equal parts Some Like It Hot and Victor/Victoria with a little bit of Priscilla Queen of The Desert and Yentl thrown in for good measure. Does that sound accurate to you?
Nia Vardalos: ( Laughs ) I actually think of it like this—there are a lot of films like this. There's Tootsie, Shakespeare In Love, Sister Act, Victor/Victoria. I think if we could slide easily into that genre with those fantastic films, I would be honored. It's an original screenplay, but I don't want to pretend that I invented the idea, because everybody has been exploring cross-dressing since Shakespeare.
GS: Did you ever give a lunchroom performance like the one that Connie and Carla gave in school?
NV: Yes, yes I did ( laughs ) . I'm not cool.
GS: You and Toni Collette also convincingly portray lounge singers. Is there anything like that on your resume?
NV: Uh-huh ( laughs ) . It was called 'Broadway Tonite' ( laughs ) . It was me and two guys. I was 220 pounds and I had Pat Benatar hair. We sang 65 songs and tap-danced. It had a thinly veiled story line as if the three of us were all auditioning. I'm not sure if that meant for one job, or what. We went from 'No, No Nanette' to 'Suddenly, Seymour.' One time I was singing 'Maybe This Time' from Cabaret, ( sings ) 'Maybe this time, I'll be lucky,' and I turn to this guy ( in the audience ) and he's asleep ( laughs ) . I think my face fell and the whole audience—the whole audience of 27 people—turned and looked at me like, 'Oh!'
GS: That is so sad, but I'm so touched that you just sang, but it was great to hear you sing in the movie. Not many actresses get to do that these days.
NV: I agree.
GS: Were you glad to have the opportunity to do that?
NV: I never thought this movie would get made. I wrote it after I wrote My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but before My Big Fat Greek Wedding was made. And to actually get the chance to make this movie and to sing—it's like I'm living in another universe. To get to work with Toni Collette and David Duchovny, and to get to sing all of those songs, was ridiculous! I never heard a word from Universal like, 'We can't afford these six songs.' Nothing. They said, 'Whatever you want, we'll get ( it ) for you.'
GS: After the success of Chicago, there appears to be a revival of the movie musical. Are there roles like that for which you would like to be considered?
NV: Yeah! Oh, yeah, I would do it in a minute. I would love it. I had such a good time. I like to sing, I really do. I admire that guy William Hung, from American Idol. That's my thing. Sing to express, not to impress.
GS: Very well put. I'm glad that you mentioned David Duchovny. You got to kiss him a couple of times in Connie and Carla.
NV: Am I the luckiest girl in the world?
GS: So, it was pretty cool?
NV: Yes. But I would like to apologize to all of your readers for not writing a scene where David takes off all of his clothes.
GS: Apology accepted. As with My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Chicago is used as one of the settings in Connie and Carla. Can you please say something about that?
NV: I love Chicago so much because I lived there. And before I lived there I came and visited my cousins all the time. You only have to spend a minute there to become an instant Bulls fan. You ride your bike down the lake shore and you realize that this is the best city in the entire United States. So, my heart is there and I will always set things there in my second home.
GS: You are also working again with your husband Ian. Do you like being able to do that?
NV: We don't love working together. It's actually cuter for everybody else. They're like, 'Oh, look, they're talking.' And we're like, 'Ugh.' But we'd never see each other otherwise. We're always in other cities. He's always working. Just a few days ago he shot a TV show and started a pilot for a new show. We're so lucky, but I just wouldn't be able to see him. So, he was like, 'Yeah, all right, I'll play Stanley ... if he gets to carry a gun.' ( Laughs ) That's all he ever wants. He wants me to write him a character where he carries a gun.
GS: I wonder what that means.
NV: I think he wants to play a policeman or something. Or he's more macho than I know. I just find it sexy. He's a sexy New Yorker.
GS: Something that I really appreciated about the movie is that you had Alec Mapa and Stephen Spinella, two gay actors cast as gay men. Can you please comment on that?
NV: Yes. I feel like The Birdcage is a great movie, but we all know Robin Williams is not gay. He's a great actor, and more power to him. But we thought, let's do something different. We wanted to bring authenticity to the roles, and then cut to all of us in dance rehearsal going, 'What the hell?' in panty hose ( laughs ) . It was challenging for all of us to do drag. The only one of us who had ever done it was Robert Kaiser, who plays Paul. To have this gaggle of gay men be our Greek chorus, so to speak, was just so much fun. They were the grand arbiters of taste. You have not lived until you've had four gay men go through your purse and go, 'Honey, you cannot keep your vitamins in this plastic baggie. Go to Prada and buy a case.'
GS: Prada makes a vitamin case?
NV: I guess so. I haven't gone. If they go through my purse, I'm dead. I still have that Zip-Loc ( laughs ) .
GS: Speaking of Alec, his character Lee ( a.k.a. N'Cream ) , speaks with a thick Filipino accent. Taking the accents in MBFGW into account, would you say that you have a fascination with accents?
NV: Yes. I have a theory that anything said with an accent is funny. When we cast Alec, I made his part bigger. Every time he spoke, I was dying. He actually had a line at the end of the movie that we had to cut for time. It was when they are discovering that we are women, Brian ( Chris Logan ) says, 'I knew it!' And then Alec's character says, 'No, you didn't.' And then there's more after that … the part that got cut goes, 'Honey, they hit a high C.' And then Alec says, 'So what. I can do that in tight pantyhose.' ( Laughs ) We never got through it. We couldn't use it because every time he said it, we laughed.
GS: One of the funniest things about Connie is that she has this catch phrase. A couple of the variations include 'Your voice is giving me Mono' and 'Your voice is giving me shingles.' Where does that come from?
NV: This woman, a telemarketer, called me, and I was trying to get off the phone. I was rolling my eyes at my husband, I couldn't take it anymore. When I finally hung up the phone, I said, 'Her voice gave me shingles' ( laughs ) . He fell off the couch. And I went, 'Oh, maybe that's funny.' She had one of those ( speaking nasally ) grating voices that when she talked, I felt like I was breaking out ( laughs ) .
GS: The film also has a serious message about female body image.
NV: Yes. Just body image in general. I think we've all got this sickness running through us lately. When all my dreams were coming true with My Big Fat Greek Wedding, three of my friends, in a six-month period, lost their lives. Their bodies gave out. We all want to be slimmer and we all want to look great in non-pleated pants. But, my God, we must worship our bodies, they are the only ones we have.
GS: Have you also started thinking about or working on your next film project?
NV: I have a couple of ideas. I think I'm always going to write about things that happened to me. Things from my life and then I twist them and add things. I start with the truth and then I just run. I have two other scripts that someone else wrote that I'd like to do.
