MOVIE NEWS – Sofia Vergara revealed what devastating tragedy inspired her to play Griselda Blanco…
The Netflix film Griselda debuted in January 2024 and was an instant success – we liked it too; read our review here. Its success was primarily due to Sofia Vergara’s epic portrayal of the real-life Colombian drug kingpin, which stunned audiences and critics alike. Now, seven months later, the Modern Family star is opening up about her personal reasons for taking on such a role.
Speaking to Variety, Vergara revealed that it was her late brother Rafael who inspired her to take on the role of Griselda Blanco. In 1996, when she was just 24 years old, her older brother was murdered after a failed kidnapping attempt by a Colombian drug cartel. “It destroyed my family,” she said, before elaborating further.
“It destroyed my mom. It changed our lives completely. We didn’t know what was happening, why he had been killed.”
They moved to the United States with her five-year-old son, younger brother, sister and mother after the tragedy. “It was hard, because I had to take responsibility for my whole family,” Vergara told Variety. It was only ten years later, thanks to the documentary film Cocaine Cowboys, that she found out about Blanco. Her story captivated Vergara so much that she knew she had to play her. There was just one problem: Blanco was still alive at the time and she was afraid of the consequences.
Sofia Vergara waited for the right moment to make Griselda
In 2009, she started filming the Modern Family series, but she never forgot Blanco’s story. With the connection to her brother being murdered, it was almost inevitable that she would one day find a way to bring her back to life. It took a while for this to happen, but both the 2012 assassination of Blanco and the 2015 premiere of Narcos were two events that led to the creation of Griselda.
After seeing what Eric Newman could do with Pablo Escobar’s story, Vergara knew she was the one to bring Blanco’s story to life. But Vergara says the most challenging part was not “romanticizing” the ruthless drug kingpin.
“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. She’d become a psychopath.”
The rest, as they say, is history, because despite Vergara’s apprehensions about playing Blanco, Griselda was a huge success and the actress was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award this year for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. This is the first time she’s been nominated for an Emmy outside of the comedy genre, proving that when Vergara sets her mind to something, she’ll do whatever it takes to get it right…
Source: Variety
