Nia Vardalos Reveals the True Story Behind 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding's Windex Joke

Nearly 25 years after its release in theaters, My Big Fat Greek Wedding has stood the test of time as a cultural touchstone of a rom-com celebrating Greek heritage and the many loving relationship dynamics within a family. Nia Vardalos wrote the film with heavy inspiration from her family life, giving each character and their little eccentricities a loose but very personal connection to reality that, in the eyes of critics and audiences, made them all the more human. The result was a relatable clash of cultures and search for identity as Toula Portokalos falls for a non-Greek man, played by John Corbett, and her loved ones continue to insert themselves into the wedding plans. Yet, one of the things best remembered about the feature, above its central romance, is its connection to Windex.

Gus Portokalos' (Michael Constantine) belief that just about any ailment can be cured with Windex is one of many peculiarities that help the Portokalos family feel so alive. Throughout both the first and second film, he uses it to treat rashes, zits, and more, whether by applying it out of the spray bottle or completely soaking his elbow in a bowl of the surface cleaner. So iconic is his infatuation with the product that, when My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 was nearing its release in 2016, SC Johnson even joined forces with Universal Pictures for an entire promotional campaign around Windex. It's now part of the DNA of the franchise, to the point that My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, which takes place after Gus and his actor Constantine's death, still features the cleaner prominently. According to Vardalos, getting the licensed product on board in the first place required an appeal directly to SC Johnson, though selling the odd use of the solution was easier than expected.

Vardalos appeared at FanX Salt Lake City over the weekend for a panel moderated by Collider's Maggie Lovitt where the topic of the Windex miracle cure was brought up. While she shared that not everything in MBFGW is based in reality, she again affirmed that her real father did, in fact, use the product in the same bizarre way as Gus. She experienced his insistence on the healing power of Windex growing up and wanted to make that a core part of her on-screen father's caring, goofy, and a bit overbearing personality.

"The weirder the thing is in the movie, the more likely it is to be true, and the more commonplace, the more I made it up. For example, I'm gonna burst your bubble. Sorry, but we did not have a restaurant growing up. I made that up because I needed a base for the family, but, as I said, I really do have 27 first cousins, so it's like that. So my dad... when we were growing up, my dad was an immigrant from Greece, and my dad was cleaning his windshield. He had a wart on the back of his hand, and he was using Windex on it for, I don't know, six to eight months, and the warts started to dry up, and my dad went, 'Ahhh, OK.' So my sister had these warts on her knees, and she'd gone to every dermatologist, and my dad sprayed Windex on the warts, and the warts went away. And so, my dad started using it for everything. Everything in the house, something would happen, and my dad would say, ‘Put some Windex on it.’

SC Johnson Was Touched to Be a Part of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding'

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It was imperative to have Windex specifically be a part of the film to accurately capture the personal connection to Vardalos' family. Fortunately for the writer and star, SC Johnson was totally on board. When she wrote to the self-styled "family company" about using their product, that story and the overall focus of MBFGW on family and heritage didn't just convince them to license out the brand, but outright "proud" to be part of the groundbreaking indie movie. Even if they weren't huge fans of marketing Windex as a cure-all, they recognized the vision and real care behind the use of it, unknowingly cementing what would become a piece of rom-com history.

"And so I wrote it into the movie, and then we had to ask SC Johnson for permission to use Windex. They read the script, and they wrote us the most beautiful letter. They said, 'We would be so proud to be part of this movie that promotes family values. Please do not tell anyone to put the Windex on their warts.'"

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is currently streaming on HBO Max. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on the series' future under Vardalos.