Nothing can prevent a Greek mother from protecting and guiding her daughter, even from beyond the grave. That’s certainly true for Rachel Suissa and Abby Miner’s characters in the upcoming dramedy, ‘Greek Mothers Never Die.’

Gravitas Ventures will release the film On Demand on May 9, just in time for Mother’s Day weekend. The movie is now available on Apple TV+ for pre-orders.

‘Greek Mothers Never Die’ will also have several special screenings leading up to its On Demand distribution. The first one will be held this Monday, April 21st 6:30 pm at the New York AMC Village 7 to celebrate Greek Easter. The New York screening will be followed by screenings over Mother’s Day weekend (May 9-11) at Cinema 6 Port Richey near Tarpon Springs in Florida. The screenings will include a Q&A and special gifts for all mothers.

In addition to starring in ‘Greek Mothers Never Die,’ Suissa also wrote, directed and produced the project. The filmmaker, Miner and Rérolle are joined on screen by Carter Siranni, Wade Hunt Williams, Asia Suissa-Fuller, James Pearthree, Michelle Calloway, Mollie Laylin, Bennett Pappas, Sophia Sutton, Kelby Roberson and Bob O’Hara.

In ‘Greek Mothers Never Die,’ Ella (Miner) dreams of becoming a singer, but her overbearing Greek mother, Despina (Suissa), insists she take over the Gyros business and marry a Greek man. After her sudden death, Despina’s larger-than-life presence refuses to fade, as she continues to haunt her daughter with more unsolicited advice. As Ella struggles to find her path to freedom and self-discovery, her charming childhood love, Nick (Rérolle), reappears, complicating things even further.

Suissa generously took the time recently to talk about penning, helming, producing and starring in ‘Greek Mothers Never Die’ during an exclusive interview over Zoom. Among other things, the filmmaker discussed how her mother was a big inspiration in making the dramedy. She also noted that she instantly knew that Miner was the perfect choice to play her on-screen daughter as soon as she sent in her audition tape.

Film Factual (FF): You wrote the script for the upcoming dramedy, ‘Greek Mothers Never Die.’ What was your inspiration in penning the screenplay for the film? How did you approach scribing the script for the movie?

Rachel Suissa (RS): Well, my mom was a big part of my inspiration. It started as a one-woman show that I wrote and I was performing when I was living in Paris. I was playing both roles, of me and my mom.

It was about how a young girl that dreams of becoming an actress but wasn’t able to because her mom wanted her to take over her Greek restaurant in Paris instead. Her mom was always ruling her life and mingling in her love life.

So it started as this one woman show. It took a long time before it became the movie that it is today because it’s such a personal project that I was developing it on the side. I had all these other projects, as I started as an actress in movies and on TV shows. Then I got hired to do some script doctoring with other scripts than mine.

Then when my TV show ended, I thought, it’s time for me to find some freedom and start more personal projects. So I wrote and directed a very special satire of what’s happening behind closed doors in the world of TV.

After that, I received an offer to adapt my one-woman show for TV in France. I was going to play the daughter, as it was10 years ago. (Suissa laughs.)

It was a very interesting process. But at the same time, it showed me how different it would be to tell the story with a big channel and big distributors. So I felt the need on the side to write my own version of what my relationship with my mom would be like.

So little by little, I developed ‘Greek Mothers Never Die’ myself. I then sent it to a big producer in LA. She read the script, and three days later, she said, “I want to buy it and you’ll direct it. It’s going to have a huge million-dollar budget and a very big distribution.”

But what happened is that the deal between that producer and the distributor fell off just before the movie was green lighted. But this producer introduced me to Eleonore Dailly and Edouard De Lachomette, two producers with whom I was immediately in symbiosis with on this feature.

So I put a pause on ‘Greek Mothers Never Die.’ As a result, I developed the (2022 screen) adaptation of the book of French literature called ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. It took me a while to make that movie. I read the book, adapted the book, wrote the movie and then direct the movie. It became a global release on Netflix.

That took me five years to complete. That’s actually the exact time frame that my movie was blocked because it stayed with the huge distribution deal.

Then I moved to America because I always wanted to be part of that world. Also, my husband and my kids are American, and so is my popular culture. So I always wanted to bring together this pop culture that I love and my Greek roots. So the perfect movie to do that was ‘Greek Mothers Never Die.’

So I moved to America and got my rights back. I also created my company, Rad Pictures, which stands for Rachel’s American Dream.

So I called Eleonore Dailly, who became my friend after she produced ‘Dangerous Liaison.’ I said, “I always wanted to be part of this maverick indie spirit and have this great freedom, and I would like my first movie to be ‘Greek Mothers Never Die.’ But I have nothing but a very small budget. Are you in? She said, “Of course.” Three months later, we shot the movie.

So what’s funny is that it took 10 years total to make this movie. But I think it’s because when I was writing it, I wasn’t a mom yet, so I was really seeing it from the point of view of the daughter. It was also going to be a million-dollar movie.

Then in the end, I become a mom myself. My mom also got older. So I recapped my life and I thought, it’s not about having a big budget movie; it’s not about the heart of the story that needs to be told while my mom is still alive. So I had to be the mom, not the daughter. So that’s how it happened.

So it was written fast, but it took 10 years to make. When I created my company, we started immediately on pre-production.

It was very poetic because it was the story of my mother moving to America from Greece at the same time I was moving to America from France. So I felt exactly what it’s like to immigrate from another country.

I also knew what it’s like to have an accent and have your daughter say, “Mom, we don’t say things like that.” I have my own expressions, just like my mom had her own expressions.

So I could really experience how my mom felt when she moved from Greece, as I was myself moving from France to America and making this movie about becoming her. So it was a full circle.

Then once I went into prep, I didn’t ask for anything. I used what I had. I also shoot the movie with a wonderful team in 17 days – that was it.

FF: Besides writing the screenplay, you also directed the movie, like you mentioned. What was just your overall approach to helming the film?

RS: Well, it was my second movie, so it was very interesting to go from a huge budget for my first movie to a smaller budget for this movie. For my first movie, I had six, seven million dollars, so I had access to a team of 150 people, with sets created for the movie. There was a different sense of pressure because a lot a lot of things were at stake with money.

So to go from there to a movie that is made by the heart with people who chose to be there really based on an emotional connection was a big change. But it meant a lot to me that people would give their time and their talent, even they were worth so much more than what I could give to them.

But at the same time, there a lot of more freedom on this set. Even if we were running around like crazy, I never felt as good.

But it was also very hard because I was directing it, acting in it and producing it with Eleonore. So I had three different hats.

I have to say that I love to direct actors, as that’s where I feel that my purpose is as a filmmaker. I’m an actress, so I can connect with actors, and we speak the same language. I love to push them in different realms. So I felt very comfortable directing them.

But then I was thinking, oh, I forgot to direct myself. How am I going to act? I never thought of it.

It was a miracle I figured it out. I would read the lines I wrote once because I hadn’t had time to learn them. I would be invested by the power of my mom, so I would just go for it. Sometimes I had to rewrite lines on set.

We always say it’s great to make a great a map of your movie so that you can describe the shots. Then when you know your shots, you go for it for real.

That’s what I did because sometimes a scene that was planned to be a breakfast scene, for example, had to be changed because we lost the light. Now it’s night, so now it’s going to become a dinner scene and we’re going to do it very differently.

Sometimes I also had to rewrite multiple different sequences into one. That was a great exercise because I had to find just the heart of what I wanted to say. I then had to put it together and shoot it in only one take. So being able to get the movie made in that way is why I believe the movie is a small miracle.

FF: ‘Greek Mothers Never Die’ also stars Abby Miner, Wade Hunt Williams Simon Rérolle and Carter Sirianni. What was the casting process like for the movie?

RS: Since the movie had a very small budget, we all had different hats. James Pearthree, who was my first AD (Assistant Director), was also an actor in the movie. He’s the one playing Lefterys, the young guy who always holds the camera for his documentary.

He also acted as my casting director, and we just went on Backstage. I didn’t even know how to get there, so he brought me there. Then we received a lot of wonderful responses from many actors from basically everywhere.

For Ella, I had a lot of young girls that did great auditions. But I only made one callback out of the 400 girls who auditioned, and that was Abby.

From the first moment I saw her, I knew it would be her. James, who also worked as my casting director, asked me, “Are you sure you don’t want to see this one, this one and this one? They are great.” I said, “They are, but she’s Ella.” So that was for her.

For Wade Hunt Williams, who played The Chief in the hospital, is a wonderful actor. He auditioned to play Jack, my husband. But when I saw him, I thought, he’s not Jack, but he has to be in my movie.

So I recreated the role for him, as it was originally supposed to be a woman’s role. I thought, he has to be in my movie, so it’s not going to be a woman’s role anymore; it’s going to be a man and it’s going to be a completely different energy. It worked wonderful in the movie.

So for every role we cast in the film, it was written in the stars.

FF: Gravitas Ventures will release the dramedy On Demand on May 9. The film is now available on Apple TV+ for pre-orders. How did you secure the distribution for ‘Greek Mothers Never Die?’ What does it mean to you that the film is premiering just in time for Mother’s Day?

RS: I think it’s wonderful that it’s being released just in time for Mother’s Day because it’s a love letter to not only my mom, but all mothers. I’m lucky that the movie is going to be released by Gravitas Venture and because they are a well-known distribution company.

It was my hope that the movie would be distributed on Mother’s Day. They said, “We have a wonderful idea. We would like to release the movie on Mother’s Day.” I was like, “Perfect!”

The movie is currently available for pre pre-order on Apple TV+. So my energy right now is campaigning to remind to people that if they want to support an indie movie, it’s very important to not wait for the release day to order the movie.

It’s very important for audiences to pre-order it because what they might not know is that if a movie reaches 200 pre-orders, then the algorithm kicks in and it pops up on the homepage. Then a wider range of people have access to it.

If it doesn’t pop on the homepage, then not as many people will see it advertise and know about it. Then only the friends of the people who made the movie or the people who read the news about it will think, “Let’s try to find that obscure title.”

But when more people pre-order the movie, even more people will see it on the home page of the digital platforms, like Apple TV+. So I’m making a lot of effort for that to happen.

I’m also having a lot of special screenings to create awareness for the movie. So now I have a very special screening in New York that’s going to be on the 21st of April. So we have very little time to create the event, but it’s wonderful to have the opportunity to do it.

Simon Rérolle, the actor who plays Nick, is coming from France for the screening in New York, which is going to be at the AMC Village 7. After the screening, we’ll have a great Q&A with him, as well as with our producer and me. It’s going be really fun.

Then we will have a very special screening on Amelia Island, which is where I live and where I shot the movie. Everyone here was so helpful. All the businesses let me shoot in their locations. The office of tourism also helped us. They’re now organizing this big premiere that’s going to be local, at the AMC Theater of Nassau County, and then we’ll have an after party.

What is also wonderful is that we are going to be programmed at the cinema for the entire Mother’s Day weekend. So the 9th, 10th and 11th of May, we are going to be at the Cinema 6 in Port Ritchey in Florida. I’m going to be there with the cast. All the mothers who are going to be there are going to have a present. So we have all those wonderful screenings.

We won wonderful prizes with the movie. I just finished the San Francisco Film Festival, and we created a family there.

It’s my first indie movie. But I think that all these things, including the love of the people and the special screenings, means that the movie is going to be fine when it’s released on May 9.