Eric Newman (‘Griselda’ executive producer) on Sofia Vergara: ‘We wanted people to say, ‘Wow, can you believe she did this?” [Exclusive Video Interview]

Ray Richmond
·5 min read
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Eric Newman was the showrunner for the Netflix series “Narcos” in 2015 when Sofia Vergara – then in the middle of her run starring as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on the multiple Emmy-winning comedy “Modern Family” – invited him to her home to pitch him on the idea of her fronting a project where she portrayed the Colombian drug “queenpin” Griselda Blanco. “Obviously I knew her work and was a fan of hers,” Newman recalls. “I also knew she (Vergara) was Colombian, which is an important distinction. And I knew a lot about Griselda Blanco and was fascinated with her as a character. I felt that if Sofia was willing to take the risk…just the thought that she was interested in doing this was appealing. So I went into the meeting very excited and hopeful that I would be met with a level of passion and conviction that would help make my decision very easy – and I was. From that first meeting almost 10 years ago, Sofia was like, ‘I have to do this.’ To me, that is what it required for her to pull it off to the degree that she did.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.

The ultimate result of that meeting was “Griselda,” the six-part Netflix biographical crime drama starring Vergara as the notorious cartel leader responsible for starting the flow of cocaine into Miami in the 1980s and ’90s. Through the course of the six hours, Vergara undergoes a transformation at once spiritual, physical and dramatic. Her portrayal required three hours daily in the makeup chair as she concurrently poured her heart and soul into every frame. “It was transformative in a lot of ways I think for her,” Newman confirms. “When you set out to redefine someone out in the world and make it the very heart of your mission, it requires a lot. We wanted people to watch her and say, ‘Wow, can you believe she did this?’ Obviously, there was the risk involved, to depart from a comfort zone, but also just the rigors of doing this kind of part. All of the makeup and also playing a person who’s distasteful at times.”

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SEE‘Griselda’ reviews: Sofia Vergara gives ‘the performance of her career’ in Netflix limited series

Much has already been made of Vergara’s courage in tackling a drama genre in which she had no previous acting experience and pulling it off so convincingly. Newman points to the fact there have been numerous performers known exclusively for comedy who were able to change up and ex[and their career narrative. “There is a precedent for people in comedy moving into drama,” he emphasizes. “I’m old enough to remember ‘Bosom Buddies’ with a young comedic actor named Tom Hanks who would go on to win two Academy Awards. There’s also Robin Williams. Even the first thing I ever saw Emma Stone do was the comedy ‘Easy A’ in 2010, and she’s an Oscar winner and one of the best actors working today. Sean Penn was Jeff Spicoli in ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High.’ One of my favorite performances ever is Jerry Lewis in ‘The King of Comedy’.”

What made Newman believe the real-life Griselda was a sufficiently multi-layered person to justify being the subject of a six-hour examination? The mere fact she was the lone woman operating in such a male-dominated profession, as it were, in a Latin culture dictated by abundant machismo made her a fascinating study and a victim to a large degree of sexism. “There has never been a woman in the business who rose to her level of prominence,” he observes. “The fear that she instilled, the respect that she commanded, the money she made…And what was interesting was that in every research source, it always came back to the same thing: what a demon she was, what a bitch she was, what a terror. And I’ve found that’s never how it is.”

SEESofia Vergara interview: ‘Griselda’

No, what Newman has discovered is that no matter how psychopathic and murderous a human being is, “there is always a healthy contingent of people who loved them and respected them and would have followed them anywhere. And unlike her contemporaries who were men, (Blanco) never really received the benefit of an objective lens that wasn’t trying to diminish a woman.” Indeed, while the real-life Blanco was suspected of being involved in more than 200 murders before being shot dead in Medellin, Colombia at 69 in 2012, she was also a devoted mother of four and someone who took sex workers under her wing to rescue them from that life.

“People do monstrous things,” Newman concludes, “but monsters don’t spring forth from the womb. They’re created and in reaction to their circumstances. If you ask them what they’re doing and why they’re doing it, they’d have an explanation for why they are the way they are. I think to be able to show that in this story is, for us, endlessly appealing.”

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