My Big Fat Greek Wedding explores Greek American culture, and is set in Chicago, where the film was partly shot. The film’s central driving force, writer and leading actress, Nia Vardalos, was born in Winnipeg, Canada.
The filmmakers may have originally wanted Vardalos to change the ethnicity of her characters to Latino, and the promotional material may call the film a ‘US Hit’; but in filming Toronto’s multi-national inhabitants alongside the leading actors, and using its Greektown as a primary shooting location, the film is infused with a personality that perfectly encapsulates the Greek Canadian strains in Vardalos’s script…
The full 300 word version of this scene location analysis is published in World Film Locations Toronto, edited by Tom Ue, published by Intellect Books, 2014.
Carl Wilson 