Emmy nominee Sofia Vergara has a painful connection to her role of real-life Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco. The 52-year-old actress, who earned a nomination in the lead actress in a limited series category for her performance in “Griselda,” will compete against fellow nominees Jodie Foster, Naomi Watts, Brie Larson and Juno Temple at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday night.
Ahead of the ceremony, Vergara sat down for an interview with Variety in which she opened up about how her older brother, Rafael, had been killed in 1996 by a Colombian cartel during an attempted kidnapping.
“It destroyed my family,” Vergara said.
“It destroyed my mom,” she continued. “It changed our lives completely. We didn’t know what was happening, why he had been killed.”
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Vergara has previously spoken out about her brother’s untimely death, which remains unsolved, and took place in her hometown of Barraquilla, Colombia.
“We come from a successful family, and he knew he was a target for kidnapping,” Vergara once said in an interview. “He always had bodyguards. Then one day he went out alone and was shot dead. I was devastated.”
While speaking with Variety, Vergara recalled that she was living in the U.S. when the tragedy occurred. A year earlier, the “America’s Got Talent” judge had relocated from Colombia to Miami where she was raising her son, Manolo, now 32, and working as a host for Univision.
After Rafael’s murder, Vergara convinced her mother, sister and her younger brother Julio to move to Miami and live with her.
“Mother was like a zombie,” she told Parade in 2011. “I wanted to be with them. So I got a big house and we all lived together. I am so grateful to be in this country.”
During her interview with Variety, Vergara admitted that it was a “hard” time for her since she “had to take responsibility for my whole family.”
However, the actress explained that her tragic link to the world of cartel violence later motivated her to portray Blanco. In 2006, Vergara watched “Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami,” a docuseries about Miami drug kingpins Willy Falcon and Sal Magluta, and was fascinated by Blanco.
Vergara told Variety that she found it difficult to conceive of “this Colombian woman with four kids being one of the most ruthless narco traffic people in history.” She felt drawn to play Blanco, but telling the “Cocaine Godmother’s” story was too dangerous while the drug lord was still alive.
Blanco was killed at the age of 69 in 2012 after she was shot while walking out of a butcher store in Medellin.
In 2015, Vergara watched the premiere episode of the Netflix series “Narcos,” which followed the rise of the infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. She later reached out to “Narcos” showrunner Eric Newman about creating a project that centered on Blanco.
After years in development, “Griselda” was greenlit by Netflix in 2021, with Vergara set to play the lead role and serve as a producer.
While the actress was thrilled that her passion project was finally moving forward, she told Variety that she was worried about taking on a character unlike any she had before.
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Vergara became a household name for her role as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on the ABC sitcom “Modern Family,” with her performance earning her four Emmy nominations and four Golden Globes nods over the series’ run from 2009 to 2020. She has also starred in a number of movies, including the 2011 ensemble romantic comedy “New Year’s Eve,” the 2013 action thriller “Machete Kills” and the 2015 action comedy “Hot Pursuit.”
However, she had not acted in a drama or toplined a show prior to “Griselda.” While speaking with Variety, Vergara said she had never taken an acting class before and decided that she “needed help.”
“I’m like, OK, who is a comedic actress that did good in a drama?” she recalled. “Jennifer Aniston!”
Vergara went on to enlist the help of Aniston’s longtime acting coach, Nancy Banks, but still found it difficult to master the dramatic acting skills she needed to play Blanco.
The actress recalled that she had never performed in a crying scene and didn’t know how to bring herself to tears on camera.
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“Nancy said, ‘If you want to cry, you just have to think of something,'” Vergara remembered. “And I did have a lot of horrible things to think about,”
Though she learned how to cry on screen, Vergara said that she continued to be troubled by her negative thoughts after filming wrapped. She told Variety that she became worried after she found it difficult to sleep during the production’s first three weeks of shooting.
“I was anxious. Nancy told me, ‘You’re killing, you’re screaming, crying — everything — during the day. You go home and your body doesn’t know that you weren’t doing those things for real, feeling those things,’” Vergara said.
She continued, “So I had to start taking a little bit of Xanax at night to calm down. I was not prepared for that. I didn’t know. That’s why actors go crazy! How do they do that for years?”
Another skill that Vergara found challenging was memorizing all of her character’s dialogue, which included lengthy monologues.
“Back then, my lines were easy,” she said of her time on “Modern Family.” “It wasn’t like monologues.”
“I’m going through pre-menopause; I can’t remember where my glasses are,” Vergara quipped. “And now I have to learn all these monologues?”
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In addition to learning a new set of acting skills, Vergara also had to contend with the physical aspects of transforming into her character. Achieving Blanco’s look, which included applying prosthetics and a wig as well as facial and body makeup, took three hours every day.
Vergara told Variety that while she had to hide her famous curves to portray Blanco realistically, she didn’t want her to be completely devoid of sex appeal.
“She was maybe not a Barbie doll, but the real Griselda Blanco had something — she had some kind of sex appeal that I needed to show,” Vergara said.
She continued, “I didn’t want the bouncing that is natural for Latin women to show. I would have to wrap myself so that my butt wouldn’t jiggle. I had to wear a really bad bra. I had to cover my arms, because I have very skinny arms, and you don’t look threatening when you have this stupid little arm.”
Additionally, Vergara said she relied on director Andrés Baiz to teach her other skills that she needed for the role.
“I had never smoked in my life. Andy would come to my house the month before we started. We would talk about the script, and he would teach me how to smoke and do cocaine and crack,” she recalled.
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When it came to creating Blanco’s character, Vergara told Variety that she wanted to portray the drug lord as “the bad guy that you feel bad you’re rooting for.”
Despite the tragic loss of her brother at the hands of a cartel, Vergara said she wanted viewers to have some sympathy for Blanco. However, she said she found herself empathizing too much with her character.
“I had to check myself, like, ‘Sofía, this woman just killed hundreds of people and kids.’ It was very difficult not to romanticize her or to make it seem like she was the hero,” Vergara said. “She’d become a psychopath.”
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Vergara’s commitment to her role paid off when her performance was met with critical acclaim after “Griselda” premiered in January.
After receiving her Emmy Award nomination in July, the actress shared a heartfelt message with her fans on Instagram as she expressed her gratitude and recalled “Griselda’s” long journey to the screen.
“Wow. Griselda was my first dramatic role ever, and it took us 15 years to bring her to life,” Vergara wrote. “I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who was a part of this series. I could have never done this without my director Andres Baiz, my costar @el_guerra , @ericnewmanofficial and the full creative team, my partner and producer @luisbalaguer1, @tedsarandos, @belabaj, and their team at @Netflix, and all of the amazing cast and crew.”
“I never dreamed that after ‘Modern Family’ I would be able to be a part of something as special as ‘Griselda,’ she added. “I’m honored to be recognized alongside Jodi, Brie, Juno, and Naomi, incredible women who gave us incredible TV this year.
“Thank you to the television academy for this incredible honor.”
