Sofía Vergara led Netflix’s ‘Griselda’ as the Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco following her role as Gloria Pritchett on ‘Modern Family.’ Vergara had concerns about her performance in the show as she moved from comedy to crime drama for the first time. She recently shared with Deadline:
“There were a million things that I was nervous about, mainly my performance. This was my first time acting in Spanish, my first time doing drama, and I was nervous if I was going to be able to convince people that it wasn’t just Gloria Pritchett with a plastic nose.”
The reception was well, though:
“It’s a risk to do something like this, because you never know. To realize people actually love it, it’s a gift.”
Vergara’s Performance Was Well-Received
The series followed Griselda Blanco’s climb to power in the Miami drug scene in the ’80s. Though it was criticized for some historical inaccuracies, Vergara’s performance was generally praised.
The actress was surprised by the positive reactions:
“I’ll tell you this, I was so surprised, because we did a press tour all over the world and when we got to the premiere in Miami — there were like 400 people — I was f-cking in shock when every time that she would do something horrific, people would go crazy. They’d clap and cheer. They wanted her to get away with sh-t. It was super crazy.”
She added:
“So, to me, that was a big, big reassurance that I was able to do what I always thought I wanted with the character. I always thought of her like Tony Soprano. I wanted people, even though it’s a bad guy, to relate to her, like her and root for her.”
The Actress Worked Hard To Get Into The Role
Vergara showed great effort to look like the real-life Griselda and ‘to disappear’ so that people wouldn’t see her under the plastic makeup. She even changed her walk to fit the character, but it caused her health issues:
“I decided to do this weird walk. I didn’t want to walk like me with my boobs in the air and my jiggly ass, like a Latin woman. So, I would have a lot of pads on, and I figured out this walk that I thought was not very feminine.”
She recalled:
“But when we were three months into it, one day I couldn’t get out of bed. My doctor got crazy. He’s like, ‘You can’t walk in a different posture like that for three months at 50 years old.’”
The actress ‘herniated a disc’ because she went on with the walk for another three months despite her doctor’s warnings. The damage is now permanent, according to her.
