How Sofía Vergara Hid Her Curves for 'Griselda' Role

Actress Sofía Vergara was introduced to households across the country with lighthearted sitcom Modern Family , but earlier this year, the Colombian star took on a much more serious project: Playing the famous drug lord Griselda Blanco in the Netflix miniseries Griselda .

Vergara opened up about the process of taking on the character in an Aug. 14 interview with Variety . In order to become a menacing drug kingpin, Vergara had to change or conceal nearly every part of her body.

"She was maybe not a Barbie doll, but the real Griselda Blanco had something—she had some kind of sex appeal that I needed to show," the America's Got Talent judge said.

Of utmost importance was ensuring that her body was as covered as possible.

"I didn’t want the bouncing that is natural for Latin women to show," she explained. "I would have to wrap myself so that my butt wouldn’t jiggle. I had to wear a really bad bra. I had to cover my arms, because I have very skinny arms , and you don’t look threatening when you have this stupid little arm."

It was certainly a personal project for Vergara, who also served as executive producer on the series. Her brother was murdered by a Colombian cartel in 1996. "It destroyed my family," she said. “It destroyed my mom. It changed our lives completely. We didn’t know what was happening, why he had been killed."

When playing Blanco, she was actually tempted to portray a more human image, but had to remind herself of the evils people like her brother endured.

"I had to check myself, like, ‘Sofía, this woman just killed hundreds of people and kids,'" she recounted. "It was very difficult not to romanticize her or to make it seem like she was the hero. She’d become a psychopath."

Griselda is streaming now on Netflix.