PAGE 2
Do people ever see this movie and ask to become part of your family?
Nia: Yes (laughing). I just love that. People say that all the time, "I wish I was part of that family." I am so lucky. I have the greatest family in the world. I'm really lucky.
Were they supportive of the film?
Nia: Very much so. They laughed. 49 of them came to the Premiere. They still call me. My cousin Tommy who sells fruit for a living is using the word 'demographics' now. My cousin Nikki - the real Nikki - went to Chicago theaters when it first opened. She was calling us all the time and saying, “Alright. I met 10 people and 5 of them were Greek and 5 not.” She was really great. They were all into it. They call it 'our movie.'
Does the positive word of mouth surprise you at all?
Nia: Yes. It's selling the film out there. We don't have the money for big budget advertising so it's all word of mouth.
John: Yeah, it's a total surprise because you can't expect word of mouth. That's either going to happen or not. We never really thought that word of mouth could be this powerful with this movie either because we didn't have any advertisements on bus stops or billboards. The only thing we really had was they put some money into the ads in the paper and prime, prime spots - commercials - on maybe like “Oprah” or a few shows.
We came out on the same day as "The Scorpion King." You couldn't turn around without seeing billboards of The Rock. The Rock was everywhere. We didn't have any of those things. I've done movies for the USA channel; this isn't my first lead in a feature film. As the movie's coming out, as it's getting closer and closer, a couple of weeks away from it opening, you know I live right in Hollywood and I'm driving around seeing all these other movies that are coming out a month after us - like that “Life or Something Like It” film. They're coming out way after us and I'm wondering, “Where the f**k are our billboards? The movie is literally opening now in two days and I'm still driving around going, “How come we don't have a f**king billboard on Sunset?” I've done USA movies where we've got a whole billboard.
There wasn't anything in the budget at all for advertising?
Nia: Right. There was just no money.
John: No money. We didn't have one billboard in LA, the movie kingdom, of our movie. Did we?
Nia: No.
John: Did we ever have a billboard anywhere in the United States?
Nia: No. No billboards, no buses, nothing. It was an email campaign, an Internet campaign where people told their friends about it, and word of mouth.
John: Just to put the number out there, as of today the movie cost a little over $3 million to make and we're at about $33 million so far [in receipts]. The movie is still going up; it hasn't peaked. We just had our biggest Wednesday ever, after 14 weeks, in just about the same 500 theatres. We had the biggest Wednesday we've ever had - like $400,000 or $500,000.
How important of a role did the Internet play in promoting this film?
Nia: Very important. There was something called the Greek First Friday Club. It was an email campaign that went out to the first eight cities that we opened in - there was no way we could have afforded it. It was a group in San Francisco that took it upon themselves to decree the film positive: positive Greek values, positive America values, and positive family values. They sent out this campaign saying, “Don't sit at home and go to this movie three weeks after it opens when it's gone from movie theatres. This is an independent film,” - this was a great email - “that will be yanked from the theatres so please help us out and go on the first Friday.” And people went! They organized groups, churches put buses together, and not just Greeks. It was called the Greek First Friday Club because of the movie and without that… Because then those people went to the movie, thank God they liked it, and then they told their 10 friends. That's how we are here today, sitting on $33 million.
John: I totally knew this movie would not get that first weekend and would be out of the theatres. I just thought that it wouldn't catch on and that we'd get yanked out. We're not going to have that first Friday thing.
Nia: And then, after that first weekend and our numbers came in and everybody was tap-dancing, you said, “Honey, we're going to go to $20 million.” And I said, “Shut your mouth!” Remember that?
John: We made like $200,000 and I said, “We're going to go to $20 million.” And now we're at $33 million and we'll be $35 million by this weekend, they predict.
That's amazing.
John: We're making movie history with this thing. Out of the 20 top independent movies…
Nia: We've beat “Fargo,” “Being John Malkovich,” “Usual Suspects,” “Billy Elliot,” “The Apostle” - there's a list - and “Monster's Ball.”
John: And this weekend we're going to beat “Shine.” That will make us like #8. The two top guys are “Blair Witch” at like $140 million, and “Crouching Tiger.” Now if you remember when those movies came out, you couldn't turn the TV on without seeing ads for “Blair Witch” or “Crouching Tiger.” Even if this movie ever made $60 million, you still wouldn't see a thing. This is a true independent movie.
This is based on your one-woman play. How close was the film's script to what you did on stage?
Nia: The script goes further, much further, because there's more room to show things in the movies. The relationship with the brother, I didn't really have that in the play at all, but I thought I had a responsibility to the Greek community to portray us in a positive way. I think that Greek males are portrayed kind of as chain-wearing guys. I have a great relationship with my brother so I just wrote that whole B story in, him wanting to be an artist. Louis Mandylor is great in that part; he is Greek. So that's different.
In terms of my real life and my real marriage, everything that happened in the movie actually happened either to me, or a cousin, or happened to me 20 years before I even met Ian. I just condensed it all and put it all into the year framework. Then some stuff I made up just to make the story more coherent. But the more bizarre the thing is, the more likely it is to be true.
Like the Windex cure?
Nia: Exactly, and the lump on the back of the neck.
What is it about Windex?
Nia: My dad just started using Windex to cure stuff and it just caught on with him. Now he uses it for everything.
So this is just something your dad came up with? This isn't something in all Greek families?
Nia: No, it's just my dad. That's something I wanted to do, too. I wanted to say that this is an eccentric Greek family but also an eccentric family. I didn't want everything to be about being Greek. John pointed out to somebody that we don't really toss the plates or light the cheese on fire. Greeks don't do that really; we just do it for the tourists.
I tried to stay away from that stuff, and tried to put stuff in that was quirkier.
