Ali Fumiko Whitney—who stars opposite Harry Connick Jr. in the Netflix hit Find Me Falling—believes audiences are falling in love with the romantic comedy for a simple but meaningful reason: The movie is relatable.
“I think Stelana Kliris—our brilliant female writer-director—wrote such a genuine, beautiful story that it’s just so evident that so many people around the world relate to it, Whitney told me in a recent Zoom conversation.
“I really can’t believe that within our opening weekend, we were the No. 1 movie in the world for Netflix and that was beyond all of our wildest dreams,” Whitney added. “I am so thrilled for Stelana because she really deserves all the praise. I think it’s just a testament to her ability to create realistic scenarios that so many people have related to.”
Find Me Falling shot to No. 1 on Netflix’s Global Top 10 Movies chart only three days after its July 19 premiere. According to the streamer, the film was No. 1 on the global chart again for the week of July 22-28.
Find Me Falling stars Connick as John Allman, a fading rock star who moves from the U.S. to the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean after his comeback album falls flat. While Allman is unknown to some of his new Cypriot neighbors, he is recognized by Melina (Whitney), a talented local singer whom he encourages to pursue her dreams of a career in music.
While John seems to be settling fine into his new home that sits atop a massive cliff, his life takes a dizzying tumble when he encounters Sia (Agni Scott), a Cypriot he fell in love with before he became famous. Falling for Sia all over again, John is thrown for a loop when he learns of his old flame’s life after the two broke their romance off a couple of decades before.
Whitney Is Thrilled ‘Find Me Falling’ Is Much More Than A Standard Romantic Comedy
Ali Fumiko Whitney is well aware that the romantic comedy genre has its limitations, but knew from the get-go that Find Me Falling has something much different in that it appeals to a wide audience.
“The rom-com as a genre sometimes gets a bad rap for being not real acting or it’s cheesy, especially within a certain demographic, people might not even give it a chance,” Whitney observed. “What’s been so fantastic about Find Me Falling is I have had so many, not to generalize, but so many male fans who have reached out and said, “My wife made me watch this movie, but I’ve loved it so much, I’ve watched it multiple times.’”
Even better, Whitney added, is that the film has a multi-generational appeal. While Cyprus is not a part of Greece—but celebrates the Greek culture and the Greek language—she knows that Find Me Falling will inevitably be compared to Nia Vardalos’ blockbuster hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding. She said fans are sure to find similarities with both films’ yiayias, which is Greek for grandmothers.
“The yiayia in My Big Fat Greek Wedding is always running away because she left to escape the war, and they’re always finding her on the neighbor’s lawn in the movie and she’s got this tough but soft-shell interior,” Whitney said.
As for the yiayia’s behavior in Find Me Falling, Whitney said, “There’s a joke by the yiayia in our film where she’s always like, ‘Dang it, I’m still alive. Why won’t you take me, God?’ That’s very real, all of that in terms of the Greek yiayia. That’s a real trope that exists—even so far as packing a bag pre-death—that is a real thing that old Greek women do … They’re like, ‘You have to be prepared to die.’”
Ultimately, while Find Me Falling—which filmed on location in Cyprus—is different in story, it is very much related to My Big Fat Greek Wedding from a cultural standpoint, Whitney said.
“I would say just the cultural aspect of a Greek family really comes through in both films because Cyprus is its own country, but it’s Greek in its roots,” Whitney said. “So, I would say I think my Big Fat Greek Wedding and Find Me Falling really do have similarities in that way of this is what it’s like to be in a Greek family.”
Oddly enough, Whitney noted, one of her instructors in college was legendary actor Lainie Kazan, who starred as Vardalos’ mother, Maria in the My Big Fat Greek Wedding trilogy.
“She taught a cabaret class. I was a UCLA musical theater major and one of her classes as an adjunct professor was teaching a cabaret-style performance class,” Whitney enthused. “She was fabulous, and I was a fan of her work before that but even more so now.”
Connick Became A Father Figure And Mentor To Whitney
Ali Fumiko Whitney, who recently graduated from UCLA with a BFA in theatre, is relatively new to the film business, getting her start in the 2021 indie film The Road Dance, followed by a pair of other indies with Cabin Girl in 2023 and 2024’s Snow Valley.
So while the actor is no stranger to the movie business, she did admit being cast in a major role opposite music and film great Harry Connick Jr. was something that left her awestruck.
“You dream of this kind of stuff. When you’re just starting out in the business, you can only hope. Work is work. You’ll take Tree No. 5 if it means you get the paycheck and you get an opportunity to be on set,” Whitney said. “So, to be able to play this particular role with this particular cast—Harry Connick Jr. in particular—was insane to me and I still can’t believe it; especially given how lovely he is and how he’s really become sort of an off-screen father figure and mentor to me.”
For Whitney, perhaps the most interesting aspect of working with Connick was that while he’s a legend in the jazz music industry, he plays a rock musician in Find Me Falling.
And while playing a rock star in a film may merely be a role to some actors, for Connick, Whitney learned, playing John Allman in Find Me Falling was another valuable step in his life and career as an entertainer with no boundaries.
“Something about Harry I learned very early on—because obviously he’s a genius in the jazz world—is that he really doesn’t put any caps on his abilities,” Whitney recalled. “He’s given me advice multiple times. I’ve talked about, ‘I want to tell this story, but I’m not a writer,’ and he always said, ‘You don’t have to be a writer to write it.’ He was, like, ‘I’ve scored Broadway shows, I wasn’t someone who did that [before].”
Connick continued to stretch his creative wings for Find Me Falling by writing the title song for the film—demonstrating for the music business that jazz musicians are well capable of writing and recording rock ballads. The bonus for Whitney was that she got to share in the creation of it.
“The song is not where Harry’s music forte or background is, but he really has the ability to just put his brain towards anything and create stuff without putting a mental block there, if that makes sense. He really just goes for it,” Whitney said.
“He wrote this beautiful song, Find Me Falling, that I loved, and to record the song with him [which plays during the end credits] and also to get to sing it in the film was so special,” Whitney added. “It’s a career-high for me. I don’t know how you can go up from there.”
Find Me Falling is streaming exclusively on Netflix. Whitney will next star opposite Jojo Siwa and Jade Pettyjohn in the comedy-tinged horror thriller #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead—opening in theaters on Friday.
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