00:00 "Everything, everything was, it's fake. But the acting was real."
00:04 Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're discussing how actress Sofia Vergara got ready for her role
00:11 as the titular Griselda Blanco in the 2024 Netflix series.
00:15 "I feel like they only changed your nose or something. I don't know what they did,
00:19 like they didn't, like they changed."
00:20 "Are you crazy?"
00:21 "No, I'm saying…"
00:22 From Gloria to Griselda
00:25 For over a decade, audiences grew to love Colombian actress Sofia Vergara as the fun
00:30 and fiery Gloria Delgado Pritchett on ABC's Modern Family.
00:34 "I want you to know this, where I come from, men cherish women. It goes wife,
00:39 mistress, dog, dog. Always at the bottom."
00:42 In 2020, the year the show came to an end, she joined America's Got Talent as a judge.
00:47 Over the years, the actress added entrepreneur to her resume, juggling several business ventures
00:52 in the fashion, furniture, and fragrance industries, among others. However, Vergara
00:57 had something of a passion project she'd been wanting to make about the famous and feared
01:01 drug queenpin Griselda Blanco. "You've been working on this for a while."
01:04 "Yeah, like for 15 years, but it was like a lot of things happening. It was like a very,
01:10 you know, controversial character."
01:13 Like a lot of people, especially fans of true crime,
01:16 Sofia Vergara learned more about Blanco from 2006's Cocaine Cowboys. And although she didn't
01:21 necessarily fully relate to the late queenpin, she recognized their similarities, notably that
01:27 they were both from Colombia and immigrated to the United States. Both women were also young mothers.
01:32 "The character is like insane. I mean, it was a woman that was raising four kids while she was
01:40 becoming, you know, a monster." Interestingly, Vergara named her son Manolo after a character
01:46 from Scarface. Blanco, meanwhile, got her fourth and only surviving son's name, Michael Corleone,
01:51 from a movie she was a huge fan of, The Godfather.
01:54 "Michael, is it true?"
01:56 "Don't ask me about my business, Kate."
02:00 Vergara knew this was a role she could take on. Next came convincing creatives and executives
02:06 that she was ready to make the leap from comedy to drama.
02:09 "I think in real life it's always funny. There are comedic moments, even when we're in pain,
02:15 even when we're in trouble, even when we're suffering. It's a comedy."
02:20 In 2015, she got in touch with Narcos & Narcos Mexico executive producer/showrunner Eric Newman,
02:27 along with series director Andres Baez, and they teamed up to bring Blanco to screen.
02:32 In addition to leading the series, Vergara also held the title of executive producer.
02:36 "What you need to know is that if you work for me, you're going to have a purpose and you're going to
02:43 have respect." Embodying the godmother. Sofia Vergara had already done extensive research,
02:50 but learning the facts was just the first step in her preparation to actually become Griselda Blanco.
02:55 "There's very, very little in the sense of pictures or videos, so I was able to create
03:03 something that suited me for the character." Physicality is always essential when it comes
03:09 to stepping into a character, especially one so different from the actor, and Blanco was relatively
03:14 unknown in the mainstream. Since she was so low-key, there were few visual references for
03:19 Vergara to study. But she wanted to be as authentic as possible and committed to crafting a different
03:24 body language for the character. "I wanted not to walk like me or Gloria, not to stand like that,
03:30 not to use my hands in any way that was sexy and very Latin." She even came up with mannerisms and
03:38 tics for Blanco, like how she fiddles with her ring when she's anxious. But one choice left
03:42 Vergara with a back injury during production. "I created this body position that after three
03:47 months got me in trouble. I had to get injected in my lower back from walking in this bad position,
03:55 and then I had to do it for three more months." Becoming Blanco also meant the actress needed to
04:01 emulate her behavior, which included smoking cigarettes, something Vergara didn't previously
04:06 know how to do. Obviously, we're talking about fake substances here, but even just learning how
04:10 to hold a cigarette was important. "When I was getting ready to play this character, and we
04:15 will see that he told me all these things, and you know, it was amazing because I was 51 years old,
04:20 and I didn't even know how to, you know, how to light a cigarette." Throughout the series,
04:24 she's rarely without one in her hand or mouth, which isn't surprising given the time periods in
04:29 which the story unfolds. Transforming Sofia Sofia Vergara is well known for her stunning looks,
04:35 which were frequently mentioned in Modern Family, but she didn't want people to see her or her past
04:40 work when watching Griselda, and needed to inhabit her new character. So when it came to playing
04:45 Blanco, she needed a total physical transformation that went beyond hair and makeup. "We decided was
04:50 that she had to be different than Sofia, but we shouldn't imitate Griselda Blanco." The masterful
04:56 team behind the scenes, headed by Angela Nogaro and Dennis Parker, altered her look using multiple
05:02 prosthetics on her nose and eyebrows. Particular attention went to Vergara's distinct brows,
05:07 which were covered with more silicone prosthetics. Makeup artist Todd McIntosh then gave her thinner
05:13 faux ones to reflect the beauty trends of the late 1970s. "I had plastic from here to here,
05:20 because we needed to cover my eyebrows are very thick, and I wanted me to disappear,
05:24 and I think that was one of my features that is very strong." Vergara's teeth also needed to look
05:29 less perfect and more like those of a heavy smoker. She was fitted with a top plate of fake
05:34 ones that appeared discolored, and since having a bottom plate affected her speech, her lower teeth
05:38 were yellowed to match. "Que tenemos que hacer? Darle una probadita." In the show, Vergara played
05:46 Blanco through many years, capturing everything from her early days making a name for herself in
05:51 the '70s, to her serving jail time in the '80s. McIntosh made sure to reflect the character's
05:56 growth and/or descent with darker shades of lipstick and eye makeup. As the miniseries
06:01 ends with her imprisoned when older, a prosthetic was added to the actress's neck to match the age
06:06 she was playing. "Who did this? We're not sure. We imagine that they were waiting until your time
06:14 here was almost done." Vergara also wore different wigs throughout the series. Making sure she looked
06:19 like a stylish but average woman of the time, hairstylist Kelly Kline removed some of the glamour
06:24 and volume. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to
06:32 get notified about our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional videos
06:38 or all of them. If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on
06:43 notifications. When it came to wardrobe, Vergara found another way to change her physical appearance
06:49 was by compressing her natural body shape using special figure-hugging undergarments like Spanx.
06:54 She and the rest of the cast were also decked out in vintage duds by costume designer Sarah
06:58 Evelyn Bram and Safawa Bright-Asare. "Some of these clothes are just absolutely incredible.
07:04 The grittiness and yet colorfulness of Miami. I cannot stress enough how incredible the job
07:10 that our department heads have done just bringing that to life." To complete the application of
07:15 prosthetics, makeup, hair, and wardrobe, Vergara reportedly sat through a roughly three-hour-long
07:20 process, not to mention the lengthy time it took to remove it all. It was all worth it in the end,
07:25 though, because she completely disappeared into the role. "It's no longer the actor. No one ever
07:31 saw her on set as Sofia by the time she left her makeup trailer. She was Griselda." What did you
07:36 think of Sofia Vergara's transformation? Let us know in the comments below. "It has a specific
07:42 feel, a specific identity. It has an integrity." Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other
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