“6 Screenwriting Lessons from Nia Vardalos”
An LA Screenwriter post about a recent appearance by actor-screenwriter Nia Vardalos, best known for the 2002 movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding which grossed over $368M in worldwide box office revenues. Not bad for a movie with a reported production budget of $5M. Nia has gone on to write and act in other projects as well as carve out a niche as a ‘script doctor’, so when she offers advice, as she did this past weekend, it’s a good idea to pay attention. Here are two items which caught my attention:
3. Don’t wait for an agent or manager — make things happen for yourself.
When Nia got to LA, her agent told her that she wasn’t pretty enough to be a lead and wasn’t fat enough to be a character actress. When asked, Nia told her agent she was Greek, and the agent said, “Well that’s the problem.” Sadly, Hollywood still has this perception that only what’s been done before can be done again. That’s why Asian actors can’t be leads and Greek women can’t star in their own movies — it’s all bullshit.
So Nia decided to write herself a role. She didn’t get anywhere sending her script to studios, so she started doing it as a one-woman show. The show was selling out, so she put a small-but-pricey $500 ad in the LA Times, hoping it would draw someone — anyone — who could help her turn this show into a film. As fortune would have it, Rita Wilson saw the tiny little ad and came. The next night, she sent her husband Tom Hanks to the show. The day after that, Nia’s phone rang, and it was Tom Hanks. That was the genesis of My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
This is very much in the Spirit of the Spec, a series of posts I wrote several years ago:
Nia Vardalos
5. “Today is the day…”
At Second City, Nia said, they always used to say, “Today is the day…” That’s the point that stories start from. Today is the day that I ask the girl out. Today is the day my daughter was kidnapped. Today is the day I face my greatest fear. Whatever the situation, your catalyst should be a vital day in the life of your main character. Then, for Nia, she writes from a point of motivation — what does the character want? That’s what drives the story forward. In her stories, the answer to that question is usually happiness.
This hearkens back to one of the questions I always ask when doing story prep on a Protagonist character: Why does this story have to happen to this character at this time?
Not that character. Or some other character. This character. Not any story. This story. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Today. There is a specificity about why and how a Protagonist goes on the adventure they do, what I call their Narrative Imperative. The Call To Adventure is about leaving the Old World and going on a journey into a New World. And that Call is happening right now. Put the Protagonist at a pivotal point in their life and you’ve got the start of a dramatic story.
For the rest of the article on Nia’s advice, go here.
Twitter: @NiaVardalos.