Big hair rules in 'Greek Wedding' sequel
It's hard to forget John Corbett's flowing hair in 2002's My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
More than 15 years after the original hit romantic comedy wrapped, Corbett is rocking the hair again for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (due out March 2016).
Corbett, 54, fought hard for the long hair when he and screenwriter/star Nia Vardalos first discussed working on the sequel. He knew there couldn't be a conservative-haired Ian Miller.
"If I had a regular hair cut when we came back, I thought it was going to really bug people," says Corbett.
"I wanted to look as much like the original Ian as I could. But, heck, Nia's the boss. This is her ship," he adds. "If she had said that long hair is not working 15 years later, then I would have cut it and secretly thought she was making a mistake."
Originally, Vardalos had different plans for Ian, who memorably married into the Chicago Greek-American Portokalos family in the 2002 romantic comedy — getting the girl even being a non-Greek with long hair. For the sequel, Vardalos thought her grown-up screen husband would have cut the locks.
"I thought: Ian's a teacher. He should have short hair," says Vardalos. "So I said to John, 'I think your hair will be short in this one.' And John said, 'I'm still the guy, I'm still Ian Miller. And Ian rocked the hair.' "
Vardalos saw the passion.
"I was like, 'You know what. You know this guy. Great. Yup. Let's keep your hair long,' " says Vardalos. "So he's still got this hair blowing in the wind again."
Ironically, Ian's hair was never meant to be long in the original film. But when Corbett was cast in Greek Wedding, he was shooting Serendipity with John Cusack and was not allowed to cut his hair.
Vardalos used Corbett's long hair to her comedic advantage for the outsider boyfriend, writing in some jokes about the look for her un-approving father (Michael Constantine) and her Aunt Voula (Andrea Martin).
The Ian hair proved so effective that filmmakers were initially stymied when shooting the promotional poster and scene reshoots months after the production wrapped, Corbett had moved onto play Carrie Bradshaw's boyfriend Aidan Shaw in Sex and the City.
"My hair was about two inches long," says Corbett. "So they made this amazing wig, just like the original hair. I still have that wig. I dare you to find the scenes where I'm wearing it in the movie. It's really hard to see."
Vardalos considered a straightened version of her character Toula's hair for Greek Wedding sequel, but Corbett pushed for a return to her original style as well.
"John was concerned that I didn't look like Toula, so we did these camera tests and I put my hair back into the curls," says Vardalos. "And during the test John saw me and said, 'Ahh, there is Toula.' It made me feel like Toula again."
The entire cast from the original Greek Wedding, many of the production staff and even the hair staff returned for the sequel. It allowed for an easy return to the memorable looks.
"It was comforting to have even the same hair people there," says Vardalos. "They knew us. They remembered. They had the pictures. It was kinda cool."