Why Andy Garcia Said “I Do” To ‘Father Of The Bride’

Andy Garcia follows in the footsteps of fellow icons Steve Martin and Spencer Tracy in becoming the Father of the Bride in a new adaptation of the classic story.

Starring opposite music legend and actress Gloria Estefan, Garcia plays the Cuban-American patriarch struggling with his daughter’s impending nuptials. Honestly, the charming romantic comedy, which is skipping movie theaters and premiering on HBO Max, is smarter and funnier than it needs to be to win the audience over.

I caught up with Garcia to chat about the latest take on the narrative, how the movie tested through the roof with audiences, and his early chatter around a possible sequel.

Simon Thompson: Father of the Bride premiered at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival. You’re no stranger to movie premieres, but premiering it there, did feel extra meaningful?

Andy Garcia: Edward James Olmos is a dear friend of mine, and he was one of the people who founded it. It’s been an uphill battle for them throughout the years, but Eddie’s been so diligent with it, offering great support for kids and young filmmakers. They do a lot of programs. There’s a connection that is important to the Latino community and those of us in our industry, and this movie has a strong connection to all of that.

Thompson: Because Father of the Bride will be streaming on HBO Max, the premiere was one of the few times people could watch this with a wide audience. How was it to experience the audience experience, especially at a festival like that?

Garcia: As one of the producers on the movie, we’d been testing the film with audiences before we locked it, so I’m lucky to have seen it with an audience several times. However, as you said, it’s one of the few times we’ll actually get to see it with an people, and you’ve got to take advantage of that. However, even if the movie is a theatrical release, you get that when it first comes out, but after that, it’s very rare that you ever see it with an audience again. You’ll see it on TV or DVD, or if it happens to be showing at a festival and they ask you to visit, then you might revisit it, but usually, it’s an opening week of the movie or the premiere, you see it with an audience. So, the fact it’s on streaming is similar to that.

Thompson: You tested this with an audience. When people saw this and gave you their feedback, did that validate what you had done?

Garcia: Yes. The reaction was actually overwhelmingly positive. It tested in the 90s out of 100. Some things were taken out for the first screening but went back in for the second screening, and the movie tested even higher.

Thompson: That is a massive validation of your choices as a lead in Father of the Bride and as an executive producer. It isn’t easy to know what audiences want these days.

Garcia: Exactly. Sometimes you can get an audience that is kind of jaded. People come to those test screenings because they want to. They’re not forced to go. They want to chime in on what they feel, what they like, and all that stuff. We felt that even before the test screening, it played really well and worked, but you want to hear that from the audience. You want to hear the laughs, you want to sense the tears, and you could. People say, ‘Oh, it’s so funny, and I cried three times.’ People can cry at different times for anything that might strike them personally, but the number three seems to keep popping up.

Thompson: I’m happy to admit I laughed a lot and shed a few tears. This isn’t the first adaptation of the classic story, but is it one that has always appealed to you?

Garcia: My family is a big fan of Father of the Bride. The first movie starred Spencer Tracy and was set in a completely different time in America. The second one was Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Diane Keaton, which had unique qualities. It was something that we’ve enjoyed many times. Who doesn’t enjoy that movie and watching Marty take over Steve’s life? It’s amazing. They’re so great together, they’re good friends, and they work a lot together. It was an IP that I admired, and I was approached with it by Paul Perez, one of our producers but an executive at Warner Bros. at the time, where he was one of the people developing it. I was honored to take a crack at it. As soon as they sent me the first draft, I felt the movie had a lot of potential, and I jumped on board and began to work on the material. Then our director Gary Alazraki came on board, and Jeremy Kleiner, our producer at Plan B, all chimed in on what we needed in the second draft. Gary did a pass on the script, and we had some more notes, and that was the process. As we filmed, when we were in the room with our fellow actors, it created a perfect space for us to explore the material, and sometimes some improvisations happened and ended up in the movie. They were based on the dynamics of the scenes. The actors put their spin on it and offered new ideas; sometimes, those ideas stuck.

Thompson: With many romantic comedies and family comedies like Father of the Bride, the script is good, and it works, but this script is better than it probably needs to be. It’s certainly better than I was expecting. Do you agree?

Garcia: I understand what you are saying and the question you’re posing. To me, the script is the thing. You have to have that as a solid base, so you can improvise off it if you can, but it all has to hang on this piece of material that works. It’s going to protect you; I know what you’re saying: sometimes these movies are a little bit frivolous; they’re not intense or concentrated and ride on personality and chemistry. We’re following two other great films, so we need to be on point. We also have to be different, we have to be our own entity, and we have to have an elevated movie. As Duke Ellington would say, there are two kinds of music; good music and bad music. We had to be a good movie.

Thompson: You mentioned that Diane was in the other two most recent Father of the Bride movies, and I know you two have a personal relationship. When this came your way, did you talk to her about it?

Garcia: No. I looked at it as if we were making this story for the first time, and there hadn’t been any other movies. We have to exist on our own. In ours, the story is set in a particular culture, actually, two particular cultures coming together and clashing, and a particular town. It has nothing to do with any of the other movies. The title and the concept of the father being concerned about losing his precious daughter are threads throughout the movies. It’s all the other elements that make it unique. My father is a totally different father from Steve’s, and Steve’s is totally different than Spencer Tracy’s father. If anything, my father leans more toward the original film than the Steve Martin version.

Thompson: You talk about the Father IP there, Andy. Your character has two daughters. Since you’ve had such a positive reaction to the movie, are you looking to do a sequel? Was that the plan initially?

Garcia: There has been talk from the beginning that they would like to do another, but we hadn’t done the first one yet. It really depends on how the first one comes out and is received from the studio’s point of view. That will determine whether or not they will make the second one. There has been talk about it, but nothing’s written, so the story’s not there. I have a second daughter in the movie, so that is one option, but nothing has been determined.

Thompson: This is the second movie in the space of a few years where you’ve starred opposite a musical legend. Here it’s Gloria Estefan, and it was Cher in the second Mamma Mia! movie. Is that coincidence? Was there ever a plan for you to sing in this with Gloria?

Garcia: No, not at all. We brought in Gloria as an actress, and there was never any thought of that, nor did she request it. Obviously, we knew we could suggest that to her, but we felt that she was there for us as an actress, and that’s what we wanted her for. I guess if something organic would have happened and we had said, ‘Hey, why don’t you sing this?’ it might have been a thing, but I think it would have been to like, ‘Oh, Gloria’s in the movie because they want her to sing a song.’ She was the only choice for us. She was the first and only choice. We were hoping she was available to do it, but as she has said, she made herself available because she wanted to participate.

Thompson: There’s a scene in Father of the Bride where you are in a villa, and the fountains suddenly come on behind you. You looked genuinely surprised. Did you know those fountains were going to come on?

Garcia: No. We did the scene, and the fountains did not come on. When we were talking about the end of the scene, how to put the button on it, I said to guys that after everybody leaves me there alone, I’m at the lowest point of my life, and they said I should just lay down on the ground. Anyway, I meandered my way over there to the fountain; it was a behavioral thing, but the fountain didn’t work, so we were going to put them in using CGI. So the director was waiting for me to settle down and suddenly screamed out, ‘FOUNTAIN!’

Father of the Bride is now streaming on HBO Max.