Sofia Vergara Reveals the Personal Tragedy That Inspired Her to Play Griselda Blanco

Upon its debut in January 2024, Netflix’s Griselda became an instant hit, due in large part to Sofia Vergara’s epic transformation into the real-life Colombian drug queen that stunned both audiences and critics. Now, seven months later, the Modern Family star is opening up about the very personal reasons she had for taking on such a role.

Speaking with 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, her older brother was murdered following a failed kidnapping attempt by a Colombian drug cartel. “It destroyed my family,” she said before elaborating further.

With her five-year-old son, younger brother, sister, and mother in tow, they moved to the United States following the tragedy. “It was hard, because I had to take responsibility for my whole family,” Vergara told Variety. It wasn’t until 10 years later that she learned of Blanco thanks to the documentary Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami, and her story captivated Vergara so much that she knew she had to play her. There was just one problem: Blanco was still alive then, and she feared repercussions.

Sofia Vergara Waited Until the Right Moment To Make Griselda

As she began filming Modern Family in 2009, Blanco’s story stayed with Vergara. How could it not? With the connection to her brother being murdered, it was almost inevitable that she would find a way to one day bring her to life. It took a while for the universe to sync up, but both Blanco being murdered herself in 2012, and the premiere of Narcos in 2015 were two events that led to the creation of Griselda.

Executive produced by showrunner Eric Newman, the first two seasons of Narcos told the tale of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, and was a chilling look inside the drug trade south of the border. Once Vergara saw what Newman was able to do with Escobar’s story, she knew that he was the one to bring Blanco’s tale to life. For Vergara, however, she says that the hard part was not to “romanticize” the ruthless drug queen.

“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, as despite Vergara’s trepidation about playing Blanco, Griselda proved to be a massive hit, with the actress earning a Primetime Emmy Award nomination this year for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. This marks the first time she’s been nominated for an Emmy outside the comedy genre, proving that when Vergara sets her mind on something, she goes above and beyond to do it right.

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Will Vergara take home the trophy for Griselda when the Emmy Awards air on September 15? That’s still up in the air, but if she does, you can expect one of the most emotional award speeches in history as she will no doubt pay tribute to her late brother, bringing us all to tears.