NSYNC’s Joey Fatone is back on the big screen with “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.” Fourteen years after the first film, the sequel brings back the original characters for another titular Greek wedding. While meeting fans and promoting recent projects at Salt Lake Comic Con FanX, Fatone told SpoilerTV’s Tonya Papanikolas he had a blast filming the movie. (Don't miss her video interview below.)
“It’s like time had never passed,” he says. “The director always had to tell us to shut the hell up because we were always talking or always loud or, ‘Hey, how’s it going? Blah blah blah.’ We were always just messing around.”
Fatone says it took all these years for writer (and star) Nia Vardalos to pen the original movie’s follow-up script. But he believes it was worth the wait. “The beauty of it is, I think it’s just as good [as the first one.] It’s right up there. And the reason why is because it actually can stand on its own. For somebody who has never seen the first one, in the beginning it kind of establishes everybody again, you get familiar again because it’s been 14 years. And then it starts moving a lot quicker and you’ll start to see a lot of things happening.”
But Fatone also emphasizes that Vardalos and the cast weren’t trying to outdo themselves with the sequel. “We weren’t trying to make it better and bigger than the first one. Nia was like, ‘Let’s have a good time, let’s have fun. And let’s just make a movie like we did before. Let’s tell a story.’”
Fatone says since starring in these films, he’s been adopted by the Greek community. However, he says the Greek fans’ faces always droop in disappointment when he points out he’s not actually of Greek descent. “But I’m Italian. It’s close – very close. We’re all loud and obnoxious,” he laughs.
For those who haven’t seen the film yet, the singer and actor jokes he can reveal one spoiler: There will be another wedding. And though he doesn’t want to give too much away, he says audiences will get a little more background on his character Angelo. “Basically you get a little more in depth of what Angelo’s about. In one of the scenes he is talking to his family – and hopefully his family accepts him for who he is,” he teases.
“My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2” isn’t the only venture keeping Fatone busy these days. He also co-stars in an upcoming tongue-in-cheek zombie western movie called “Dead 7,” airing April 1 on the SyFy channel. The script was written by the Backstreet Boy’s Nick Carter and stars numerous boy banders from the ‘90s. And outside of performing, Fatone has a big food project in the works. “Since I’ve done some stuff for the Food Channel and the Food Network (Fatone hosts the show “Rewrapped”), I’m actually opening up a hot dog place,” he says. “[They’re] just small kiosks right now. [They’re] going to be in the Florida mall probably in the next couple months, in Orlando. We did the whole testing for the hot dogs with what are good, what’s all beef, which ones are kosher. I’m learning all of that. So it’s kind of cool. It’s a fun process.” And he’s really excited about the name. “Fat Ones,” he reveals with a huge smile. “Isn’t that funny? It’s my last name: F-A-T-O-N-E. Fat Ones.”
To see our "Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" interview with Joey Fatone, check out the video below:
