Sofía Vergara is most known for her role as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on Modern Family and for being a judge on America’s Got Talent. For her most recent project, however, the actress went in a completely different direction by stepping into the persona of Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco in Netflix’s Griselda. But it wasn’t a straightforward process to make the physical transformation.
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Director Andrés Baiz and executive producer Eric Newman, the same duo behind Narcos, teamed up for Griselda. During an interview with The New York Times, Baiz explained how Sofía’s physical transformation was essential to the role. "She wanted to feel like a different person, but not to the point in which the prosthetics or makeup took over her performance,” he said. “It had to be subtle.” Let's take a closer look.
For ‘Griselda,' Sofía wanted a complete departure from her ‘Modern Family’ character.
When it came to preparing to portray Griselda, Sofía was all in. "Getting the look correct was very important to me because I needed to disappear," she told The New York Times. "I wanted no one to think of me or my last role as Gloria Pritchett. I wanted to get inside Griselda's head and really understand her mentality, where she was coming from."
Sofía shared a behind-the-scenes video of her transformation into Griselda.
On January 26, Sofía took to Instagram to share a time-lapse video of her makeup and hair routine for the Netflix limited series. “Gracias for making Griselda the most streamed @Netflix show worldwide in just 24 hours ,” she captioned the post. The process looks like it was intense!
Sofía wore a prosthetic nose and fake teeth for the role.
Makeup artist Todd McIntosh told The New York Times that he and Angela Nogaro, head of the hair department, opted to use a prosthetic nose for Sofía. Additionally, they gave her thin eyebrows and covered her teeth with uneven veneers. "We even yellow out her bottom teeth a bit more because she smokes all the way through the show," McIntosh explained.
Makeup took three hours each day.
Makeup was another major factor in Sofía’s transformation. "It's all about taking her absolutely exotic face and turning it into an average face," McIntosh explained. According to Sofía, she sat for three hours each day in the makeup chair for Griselda.
Her hair took some trial and error.
Getting Sofía’s hair just right for Griselda took some trial and error. "Every time we tried to make her hair bigger or more exactly period, it just made her look too beautiful," hairstylist Kelly Kline told The New York Times. Ultimately, a flatter hairstyle is what ended up working for her character.
Instagram users are lauding Sofía for her ‘Griselda’ performance.
For those who are on the fence about watching Griselda, a quick scan of the comments section should convince you to grab the remote. One Instagram user wrote, “You are amazing in it, even though it was very difficult to watch the cruelty in that woman, your acting kept me going .”
Another person commented, “Im sooo hooked and so proud of you Sofia ❤️.”
Yet another Instagram user declared: “@sofiavergara you are incredible as Griselda Blanco! The perfect attitude and ruthlessness!”
Meanwhile, someone else wrote: “The only issue I have about shows like this is that I want so much more I really want to season two but I don’t think we’re gonna get it but overall, it was absolutely amazing. I couldn’t stop watching it!”
All six episodes of Griselda are now streaming on Netflix.
