Sofía Vergara Wanted to ‘Test’ Herself by Playing Queenpin Griselda After Brothers’ Crack Addiction and Murder

Playing cartel boss Griselda Blanco didn’t just require Sofía Vergara to transform physically — it also prompted her to work through some emotional touchstones from her past.

The Colombian actress, 51, reflected on having “a lot of similarities” to the drug lord and how her own family’s experiences with grief influenced how she approached Netflix’s Griselda.

Vergara’s older brother — who had been involved in the drug “business, unfortunately, for some time” — “was killed in Colombia in the ‘90s,” she shared on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Dinner’s on Me podcast.

“So a lot of those things, I thought I understood. I understood that business, I understood that woman, and so I thought it was a really interesting character,” Vergara said.

The actress didn’t approach the role looking for “a character to prove that I can be a dramatic actress,” but, rather, thought Griselda was “so interesting” and a way to “test myself.”

“I thought it needed to be somebody that I kind of, like, knew who she was,” she said of what kind of “dramatic” role she was interested in.