Becoming Grisleda | Inside Sofía Vergara's Incredible Transformation- Netflix
Sofia Vergara (Executive Producer/"Griselda") is joined by fellow EPs and crew in discussing her highly anticipated transformation into Griselda Blanco. Griselda debuts January 25, only on Netflix.
Transcript
00:00 [PHONE RINGING]
00:03 Hello?
00:03 Hi, it's Griselda.
00:05 I need a favor.
00:05 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:08 There are so many nuances to explore
00:10 in terms of who she was--
00:11 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
00:14 --as a woman, as a mother, and of course,
00:17 as a drug lord who created one of the most profitable cartels
00:22 in history.
00:23 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
00:25 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:35 Sofia is Colombian.
00:37 I'm Colombian.
00:37 So that was one of the aspects I love about working with her,
00:41 having the opportunity to work with her,
00:43 because she was redefining her work as an artist.
00:45 And it was my job to gain her confidence.
00:47 [SCREAMING]
00:50 Griselda Blanco is one of the great stories
00:53 in the narcotics trade.
00:55 A self-made woman coming out of such a male-dominated culture.
00:59 She's always trying to make it in her own way,
01:02 but the rug is always pulled under her,
01:04 and she has to start from scratch.
01:05 This is a superhuman feat that Griselda
01:08 pulls off to be able to navigate this world.
01:10 And we see that seeping into who she is.
01:12 She was not as famous as someone like Pablo Escobar,
01:16 but even he was scared of her at the time.
01:18 She stood on her own.
01:19 We're going to make the big money for ourselves,
01:22 for our families, and keep what is fucking ours.
01:25 [SCREAMING]
01:28 Her physical transformation.
01:29 That was one of the toughest aspects of the whole show.
01:31 What we decided was that she had to be different than Sofia,
01:35 but we shouldn't imitate Griselda Blanco.
01:37 Particularly at the expense of performance.
01:40 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
01:43 And she sat in makeup every day for hours.
01:46 She was in every scene.
01:47 It was in Miami in the '70s and the '80s.
01:50 Getting the look correct was very important to me.
01:53 Some of these clothes are just absolutely incredible.
01:55 The grittiness and yet colorfulness of Miami.
01:58 I cannot stress enough how incredible the job
02:02 that our department heads have done just bringing that to life.
02:05 I had an incredible hair and makeup design team.
02:08 It's a really complicated show.
02:09 It's got so many moving parts.
02:12 We have five wigs, different time periods,
02:14 like 1978, 1983.
02:17 Her posture has been changed, the way she holds her hands.
02:21 One of Sofia's signature features
02:23 are her beautiful eyebrows.
02:24 So she wanted to have that sort of tweezed out late '70s look.
02:28 She's wearing prosthetic eyebrow covers,
02:31 and then false eyebrows that are glued on, and then a nose,
02:34 and a plate of teeth, slightly bucked.
02:36 And we yellow out her bottom teeth even a bit more
02:39 because she smokes.
02:42 All the way through the show.
02:43 [SCREAMING]
02:45 I needed to disappear.
02:49 It's no longer the actor.
02:50 No one ever saw her on set as Sofia by the time
02:53 she left her makeup trailer.
02:54 She was Griselda.
02:56 And that's why Sofia is so perfect.
02:58 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:00 People are attracted to how she carried herself.
03:02 And that's a huge connecting point between her and Sofia.
03:05 We want the essence of Griselda.
03:07 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:10 It has a specific feel, a specific identity.
03:15 It has an integrity.
03:16 The truth is, as much as Griselda broke down barriers,
03:20 she's definitely not a hero.
03:23 That was a concern of ours.
03:24 How are we going to make an audience feel for a woman who
03:27 is so downright despicable?
03:29 It is not about a glamorous life.
03:32 No!
03:34 It was often bloody and terrifying.
03:38 And in the world she came from, she
03:40 did what she knew how to do.
03:42 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:48 [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
03:53 [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
03:56 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]