Alexis Georgoulis Plays Nia Vardalos's Love Interest In the Film...
...and is not only a hunk in real life but a huge star in his native country of Greece. Learn more about him below and be sure to check out a behind-the-scenes video in which Nia Vardalos talks about how they cast Alexis for the role of "Poupi."
A huge star in his native Greece, Alexis studied acting at the Jasmine Drama School, established by the great Greek actor Vasilis Diamantopoulos. Georgoulis' talents extend beyond acting. He co-wrote and starred in the television series "Kinoumeni Ammos" and directed plays for the Greek National Theatre and the Kivotos Theatre in 2004, the latter a production of Neil Labute’s black comedy "The Shape of Things." Georgoulis is also a talented blues guitarist and civil engineer who studied at the National Technical University of Athens.
The filmmakers wanted to cast a real Greek actor to play the tour-bus driver, Poupi. Director Donald Petrie was in pre-production in Los Angeles when he first saw the audition tape of Alexis Georgoulis, a popular TV star in his native Greece. "Alexis just jumped off the screen," he remembers. "But he was one of the first ones to read, so we said 'Yeah, he’s really good, but we've got to keep looking.' But he set the bar, and even though we must have spent three months looking at other actors for this role, we finally realized we weren’t going to find anyone better than the first guy through the door.
One of the selling points for Petrie was that Georgoulis was able to be off-putting, even a little scary at first, before evolving into the handsome leading man. But for Georgoulis, who makes his American film debut in MY LIFE IN RUINS, the job required some adjustments. "It was exciting yet stressful at the same time," he says.
It was important to Vardalos that Poupi was a real person who the audience would relate to. "Alexis was as important to this movie as getting the permits to shoot at the Acropolis," she says. "We masked this character for the first third of the movie. We took away an important actor’s tool: his face. We needed a very experienced actor and a very deep person to pull that off."
"Nia told me that when she saw me, she said, 'This is the character,'" Georgoulis says. "She said the character of Poupi represents the Greek way of thinking and living. I think if you came to Greece, you would agree."
