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Sofía Vergara has opened up about how the homicide of her brother helped inform her portrayal of infamous drug lord Griselda Blanco within the Netflix miniseries Griselda.
The 52-year-old Trendy Household star – who leads the six-episode drama primarily based on the real-life story of Colombian drug trafficker Blanco – misplaced her older brother Rafael in 1996 after he was murdered by the Colombian cartel in a botched kidnapping try.
Talking in a brand new interview with Variety, Vergara described the impression her brother’s demise had on her household, saying it “destroyed my mother. It modified our lives utterly. We didn’t know what was occurring, why he had been killed.”
It wasn’t till years later, in 2006, when she watched the documentary Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami, that she realized about Blanco and her years of operating a cocaine cartel in Miami within the Nineteen Eighties.
Whereas she stated she discovered Blanco’s story unlikely – “this Colombian girl with 4 youngsters being one of the ruthless narco site visitors folks in historical past” – she says she knew she needed to painting her.
Lastly, in 2015, after watching the primary episode of Narcos, Vergara linked with the showrunner Ed Newman to assist conceptualize Griselda.
“There are some actual similarities between Griselda and Sofía, and never simply their fatherland however their path: the unlikely rise of a single mom exhibiting up in America going, ‘All proper, right here I’m,’” Newman defined to Selection. “When you get into that, you understand how fated all of it is.”
Regardless of her brother’s homicide, when it got here to creating her character of Blanco, Vergara stated she wished to painting her sympathetically, make her “the dangerous man that you simply really feel dangerous you’re rooting for.”
Earlier than lengthy, although, she stated: “I needed to test myself, like, ‘Sofía, this girl simply killed a whole bunch of individuals and children.’ It was very tough to not romanticize her or to make it appear to be she was the hero. She’d change into a psychopath.”
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Following Griselda’s debut on Netflix in February, it grew to become the highest-rated TV present or film Vergara has ever appeared in, incomes a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 88 p.c. It presently sits at 87 p.c on the time of writing, which places it on par along with her 2014 culinary drama Chef.
“It’s been a pleasure and a torture on the similar time to be a part of this challenge,” she stated throughout a earlier look on Good Morning America.
Griselda is offered to stream on Netflix.
