'Father of the Bride' Stars Gloria Estefan and Andy Garcia on Their Real-Life Rom-Com Moments (Exclusive)
The new adaptation of the beloved family film is now streaming on HBO Max.
Gloria Estefan is hitting the big screen in her first-ever cinematic leading role, starring in Father of the Bride, a new remake of the beloved family story that centers the chaos of a wedding weekend in a colorful Cuban family.
Only ET spoke with Estefan and her co-stars as Father of the Bride closed out the Latino International Film Festival in Los Angeles earlier this month, and she raved about getting the opportunity to star as the mother of the film's titular bride, played by Adria Arjona, opposite legendary leading man Andy Garcia.
"I moved everything around to make it happen, 'cause I I was pretty busy last year, but I was not gonna miss that opportunity," Estefan shared with ET's Nischelle Turner. "It felt like, if I was gonna be in my first leading role it couldn't be with anyone other than Andy. It was phenomenal."
Garcia had to agree. "Jeremy Kleiner, our other producer, said, 'Who do you think can play your wife?'" he recalled to ET. "I said, 'There's only one person to play my wife.'"
The casting was crucial, particularly for Estefan, who shares her first-ever on-screen kiss with Garcia in the movie. In fact, it was her first kiss with someone other her husband, Emilio Estefan, in the 47 years they've been married!
Estefan told ET that her husband has seen the film -- and the kiss -- but joked, "I banished him from the entire state when we were gonna shoot it, 'cause I'm going, 'Oh my god!'"
"But no, I mean, it wasn't me kissing Andy, it was Ingrid kissing Billy," she clarified, using their characters' names, "so that's a different thing."
The new adaptation of the 1949 Edward Streeter novel -- which also inspired the 1950 film of the same name starring Spencer Tracy and the 1991 adaptation with Steve Martin -- puts a few new twists on the story, including some marital drama for Estefan and Garcia's characters, which hovers over the happiness of their daughter's big day.
"Our characters are in a crossroads of their marriage, which has nothing to do with the other movies," Garcia noted. "We were privileged and honored to take on that responsibility, to respect the IP put another spin on it -- keep it growing, have different cultural elements."
And while their characters in the movie might have some romantic ups and downs, both Garcia and Estefan are lucky enough to be in long-term marriages in real life. Estefan and husband Emilio Estefan have been married since 1978, and Garcia and his wife, Marivi Lorido, tied the knot in 1982.
That's not to say that their relationships haven't had their share of rom-com moments, however. Estefan revealed to ET that her hubby technically never popped the question when he proposed to her in the late '70s.
"All he did is hand me a little box and his mother sat behind me," she recalled with a laugh. "I open the box and there was a ring. He never said a word. I didn't know whether to kiss him or kiss his mom!"
Their wedding day didn't quite go off without a hitch either, as Estefan recalled, "My cocker spaniel ate the sleeve off my dress, 'cause I had gotten cake on it. It was one of those days."
Unlike the Estefans, Garcia shared with ET that he wasted no time with his proposal, popping the question to his wife the first night they met!
"I proposed to her on the night I met her, at a club," he reminisced. "I walked in, I saw her sitting next to her sister, who I knew... and it was like OK, here we go."
"We were very young -- I was in college, and she was just out of high school," he added, noting, "She said yes that night, but we got married about five years later... She's been putting up with me ever since."
As for advice on a long and happy life together?
"You commit to the vows... that gets you through the thick and thin of situations and arguments you might have," Garcia shared, offering some pitch-perfect paternal pointers. "I’m totally dedicated to her and to my family, and that’s the most important thing for me. I wake up as a husband and as a father, I don’t wake up as an actor."
Father of the Bride is now streaming on HBO Max.
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