After dedicating eight years of preparation, Sofía Vergara is ready to tackle her most challenging role yet as notorious Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco in the upcoming Netflix bilingual crime series Griselda.
Vergara, 51, and the streaming service shared a new trailer for the forthcoming series on their Instagram pages last week. Many fans of the America’s Got Talent judge were impressed by her transformation and expressed their admiration in the joint post’s comment section. Some even commented on how “different” Vergara looked while portraying her infamous criminal character.
For the role, the Colombian actress traded her signature long, straight caramel-colored tresses for more auburn, collarbone-length wavy locks. As seen in the trailer, Vergara can be seen sporting glamorous 1970s-inspired makeup looks under the show’s dark, gritty and mysterious lighting.
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Fans Are Doing A Double Take After Seeing Sofía Vergara As Griselda Blanco In New Netflix Trailer
As an executive producer alongside Luis Balaguer and Andrés Baiz, Vergara worked with the team behind Narcos to bring Blanco’s story to life. Blanco, also known as the ‘Black Widow,’ ‘The Godmother,’ and ‘Godmother of Cocaine,’ established a cocaine empire in Miami during the 1970s and 1980s and is allegedly responsible for numerous murders.
With a January 2024 release on Netflix, the promo pictures and trailer demonstrate the Modern Family star’s incredible transformation into Blanco. “Sofia looks so different,” one fan commented on Instagram as another added: “I’m happy to see a Colombiana playing a Colombiana.” Someone else wrote: “Holy shiii it is Sofia! At first I thought it was someone who looked just like her.”
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According to Director Baiz, portraying the character with such a drastically different appearance and behavior was a difficult task for Vergara, who recently ended her seven-year marriage with Joe Manganiello.
However, Baiz commended Vergara for pushing herself out of her comfort zone to bring to life a role that she had been studying for almost ten years.
"This was a chance to reinvent herself and step out of her comfort zone, which was very brave of her," Baiz told Entertainment Weekly.
"She knew she had to dive in completely into this role and feel insecure and afraid, but she knew that all she had was her work, that she had to push herself to the limit."
"She wanted a Griselda that didn't feel like Sofía Vergara," Baiz added. "So for example, she had to learn how to smoke. Sofía had never smoked in her life… We came up with a bunch of questions. What are Griselda's dreams? What does she think about at night? What drives her? What car does she drive? What cigarettes does she smoke? What is her favorite food? Where does she want to go on vacation again? How does she move? Does she like to dance or not?"
Even back during the filming of Modern Family, Vergara reportedly approached Eric Newman, the creator of Narcos, expressing her interest in portraying Blanco.
As Newman told Entertainment Weekly: "She had collected tons of images and stories and people who knew [Griselda Blanco.] And she had really gone deep on someone who felt the pressure that she felt. I think that she really understood what it was like. She's got a son and she came to this country as a young mother with not much of a plan."
