Sofia Vergara talks about her latest role as cocaine godmother Griselda Blanco
MIAMI BEACH - CBS News Miami's Lisa Petrillo's interview with Sofia Vergara, who lived in Miami back in the 1990s, began with a throwback surprise: A magazine with an article inside that featured both of them in a local magazine about "Mom's juggling fast-paced careers."
"It was 1998 Sofia and here you are pictured with your 6-year-old son Marcelo and on the next page, it's me with My one-year-old boy Dylan," said Petrillo.
"Oh my God," Vergara said after looking at the pictures. "Why do you have this magazine and I don't, I won't steal it from you, but I love it," she said laughing.
For Vergara coming back to Miami feels like home.
"I love it, of course", she said.
"You know, it's so close to Colombia. It's like my whole family is always here. So to me it's, you know, it's my party place, my happy place, everyone is here. I can eat Colombian food here. It's amazing."
Her iconic role as the sexy, goofy and endearing Gloria Pritchard on Modern Family made Sofia Vergara one of the highest-paid actors on television.
"My first really big acting job was Modern Family. I spent 11 years laughing, making people laugh having fun on set," she explained.
Tuesday night, Vergara graced the red carpet for the Miami premiere of "Griselda," where she not only stars in her first dramatic role but also serves as an executive producer.
She plays real-life drug kingpin Griselda Blanco, known as the Godmother of Cocaine, who created one of those most powerful and brutal drug cartels in modern history here in Miami.
"There were many similarities with her that I felt that I connected," she explained.
"I lived in Colombia during the 1970's, '80s and '90s when the narco traffic was crazy. My brother died in that era. He was killed because he was part of that business."
So, I kind of like had a lot of things, you know, I don't want to say I had things in common, but I have to."
Recently, Micheal Corleone Blanco, the only surviving son of Griselda Blanco, filed a lawsuit in Miami against Netflix and Vergara claiming he did not authorize the use of the family's images and wants to block the series.
Neither party has commented on the lawsuit.
Vergara told Petrillo it wasn't the 3 hours of daily prosthetics and makeup that made this role so difficult for her, it was much more.
"Sometimes they're choking you, sometimes they're hitting you or screaming at you or you're doing all these horrible things to someone. I was also like in almost in every scene."
"So, it was a lot, it was a lot of stress and a lot of work that I had to do behind the scenes. And I think by episode five, I totally became a monster and Griselda did too," she said.
A monster in this series for sure, but still a charmer in real life.
"What do you think is the best thing audiences are going to get out of this series?" asked Petrillo.
"They're going to be really entertained. They're going to be very surprised," she said smiling.
Griselda is currently streaming on Netflix.
