Drag Race’s best season in years. Finale’s from both Schitt’s Creek and Homeland. *Weep* The return of Heidi & Tim with Making the Cut. It’s fair to say TV has been pretty good to us during Quarantine. But make way because a new YouTube show has just exploded on to your radar and it’s serving you laughs, love and…lentils.
We speak with Vasilios Filippakis about both creating and starring in his new ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ meets ‘Queer As Folk’ sitcom, Fak Yaass!
So Vas, give us the low-down on Fak Yaass….
This is a gay friendly show that will take you on the journey of Nico, an early twenties gay Greek kid who escaped his small town life to live it up in the big city. Thriving being away from his family and living out his truth, he is soon kidnapped by his mom to go back to his small town to care for his very homophobic grandpa.
And for the non-Greek readers, could you explain the title for us?
The title, FAK YAASS, ironically is a Greek dish! It’s spelt ‘fakes’ but pronounced ‘fah-kehs’ or ‘f%@k YES”. Haha…We just added a little flair to it with the “YAASS”.
Now, most importantly, if it were a Nana Mouskouri song, which would it be?
Oh god, I’m a bad Greek…I just had to YouTube some of her songs. Wow, she’s amazing! I’m sure I’ve danced to her music at the Greek dances I’ve attended over the years. It would be ‘Love me or Leave me‘ because the love the family has for each other is real and all they need to do is understand that love will win.
The process was amazing and also a HUGE learning curve. There are just so many moving parts. The best moments were on set. We were like a little family, it was amazing. Another stand out moment for me was hearing the final sound mix in studio. Matthew and myself worked tirelessly on editing the series. We sent our editing cuts off to the sound editor and. The team and I went over to watch the final mix and it blew me away and brought tears to my eyes. The cherry on top was watching it with the team that made it all happen.
To finish this off…the difficult stuff. Honestly, everything takes WAY longer than you think. It’s hard to be patient but things like doing taxes for a corporation have taken years…we just finished! God bless Leanne who took charge all of that fun stuff.
You play the lead Nico. Which moment of Fak Yaass is most similar to an event from Vasilios’ life?
Way too much of it! Haha…I really put myself out there. I would say that Nico was me five or six years ago. I’ve come a long way, my family has come a long way and I’m happy that they took it all with a grain of salt. Like I said, a lot is true – maybe 75% of it. It’s just heightened.
Were there any scenes that were emotionally difficult for you to film….without giving anything away!
Oh my, yes. There’s a couple scenes with the grandpa that were challenging. His character and Nico are just really in differed times of their acceptance of Nico’s sexuality. The struggle is real but what I will say is grab those tissues!!
Where would you like to go with Fak Yaass next?
We have SO much planned for FAK YAASS! We have a whole series planned, 30 minute episodes that dig deeper into this world and incorporate flashbacks that really show the struggles gay kids face when they’re alone and have nobody to talk to, trying to keep their sexuality hidden, etc.
Loverboy is named after the biggest selling single of 2001. So we ask everyone, what is your favourite Mariah Carey song?
Ha! ‘Obsessed’! There are some great memes about it and it’s a fun one to quote.
