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NEW YORK -- Seven years after bursting onto the movie scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Nia Vardalos says she is still having trouble landing new roles.
Still, the Canadian of Greek descent seems anything but bitter.
Well really, how can anyone be bitter after making a gazillion dollars off a hit movie? (It cost $5 million to produce My Big Fat Greek Wedding -- and the world-wide box office was $368 million! You do the math.)
Chatting with Vardalos is as refreshing as a cold drink during a heat wave. She's real, spontaneous and approachable, and she hasn't taken on the stereotypical Hollywood personality, even after having lived in the city for nearly 10 years.
Tanned and dressed in a skirt and a black satin blouse, Vardalos lights up the room. "I tried to work out, but I'm not very good," she said of her new look. "So I broke up with cheese."
A year ago, she also adopted a five-year-old girl from an orphanage and motherhood has been a good fit for Vardalos. "It's the love of my life," she said of the new role.
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Since the success of My Big Fat Greek Wedding in 2002, she has rarely been seen on screen. Well, there was the TV sequel to My Big Fat Greek Wedding -- My Big Fat Greek Life, which lasted for only seven episodes on CBS. And then there was the 2004 box-office dud Connie and Carla, which also starred Toni Collette.
Nothing if not candid, Vardalos admits roles being offered to her have been few and far between.
"People think I only want to write my own parts and that's not the case," she said, adding that she writes because she needs to.
Vardalos also said some of the roles that do get offered to her are ridiculous.
"It makes you want to call the scriptwriter's mother to suggest that she have her son examined," she said.
For example?
"Dirty roles," she said. "I went to meet a producer once that had written a role for me. In the first scene, I was smoking a joint, boobs in the air in bed with a lesbian. Umm, no! I thought at any moment Ashton Kutcher was going to walk in (to punk her)."
Never losing touch with her Greek origins, the 46-year-old Vardalos, who was born to Greek parents in Winnipeg, is coming back to the big screen with another Greek-themed movie. My Life in Ruins, which comes out June 5, closed out the Tribeca Film Festival.
While on the red carpet wearing a beautiful fuchsia dress, she confided: "All of this isn't real life. In four hours, I'll be in my pajama pants with acne cream on my forehead."
In the new movie, Vardalos plays Georgia, a tourist guide who has lost her libido and all other motivation. She is planning to leave Greece when she becomes involved with a Greek bus driver. I'll let you figure out the rest of the plot, which is fairly predictable.
The movie's premiere took place in early April in Athens, where she was named the country's cultural ambassador. "I was so touched, and my parents were there," she said.
Her folks still live in Winnipeg and make a cameo appearance in their daughter's new movie, as does her New Yorker husband, Ian Gomez.
Like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the movie was produced by Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson. Vardalos admitted that her career probably wouldn't have taken off had it not been for the famous couple.
"They are my guardian angels," she said. "They are the most extraordinary people, but at the same time the most normal. How many times did I see Tom Hanks leave a production meeting because it was his turn to car-pool or he had to feed the dogs?"
Vardalos has just written a new script for Hanks for a Universal Studios film.
"The title is Henry Brown and it's about a man who reinvents himself -- but I can't say anything else," she said. "It was (Hanks) that asked me for it, he read it and he adored it."
So, where does the comedic streak come from? "In my family, you didn't have to be the prettiest, the tallest or the skinniest to get noticed," she said. "You just had to be the loudest and the funniest. So far, I'm the only one to get paid to do that!"
As for Greece, Vardalos isn't done writing about her culture.
"I'll be baptizing my daughter soon so I'm sure there is a movie idea there," she said.