Latin and American movie star Sofia Vergara, 51, stars as Griselda Blanco in the new Netflix series: “Griselda.” To portray the Colombian drug lord, she underwent an extensive physical transformation.
The six-part series showcases the life of the “Godmother of cocaine.” The series shows her start in Miami, Florida as a single parent in the 1970s. The series premiered on Netflix last Thursday.
Because this role is so different, Vergara and the producers wanted to separate her from her “Modern Family” role, Gloria Delgatto-Pritchett.
“We had a couple of tests, some that perhaps had not been enough, but we found our way to a great place,” said the series creator and executive producer.
“Getting the look correct was very important to me because I needed to disappear,” Vergara stated.
Makeup artist Todd McIntosh and hair department head Angela Nogaro gave Vergara a prosthetic nose, thin eyebrows, and covered her straight white teeth with “a plate of uneven, slightly bucked veneers.” The character is a heavy smoker, so they went as far as to “yellow out” Vergara’s lower teeth.
Getting Vergara into character took up to three hours. Hairstylist Kelly Kline flattened out Vergara’s hair (discarding the popular 70’s big hairstyle) to make her look more authentic.
McIntosh used makeup techniques he used in the 1970s. He used the “triangular eyeshadow shape” technique on Vergara for this film. He “put tissue against the corner of her eye and lined it up at the end of her eyebrow.” Vergara also rocked burgundy red lips throughout the series giving her look a more 70’s aesthetic.
Griselda’s looks throughout the series display the pressure and stress of being a drug lord.
“She was getting lots of black around her eyes, and we were sinking underneath her eyes with shadow, making her cheeks a bit more hollow. We did go through a transformation as she was getting paranoid,” McIntosh told Elle Magazine.
