Sumith Prasad
In Netflix’s crime drama series ‘Griselda,’ Sofía Vergara plays the titular Godmother of the Miami drug scene in the late 1970s and the early 1980s. Throughout the series, Vergara’s Griselda smokes several cigarettes. Rarely do we get to see the drug trafficker without a burning cigarette in between her fingers. Even after she gets arrested, Griselda is allowed to smoke inside the interrogation room. Her unceasing smoking must have made the viewers wonder whether Vergara smokes in real life. The ‘Modern Family’ fame transformed immensely to portray Griselda authentically but the authenticity is not present when it comes to smoking!
Sofía Vergara is a Non-Smoker
Sofía Vergara doesn’t smoke at all. When she joined the cast of ‘Griselda,’ director Andrés Baiz had to teach her to smoke. “I didn’t know anything. He [Baiz] taught me how to smoke. He taught me how to do cocaine. He taught me a lot. […] It was amazing because I was 51 years old and I didn’t even know how to, you know, how to light a cigarette. I’ve never done cocaine. So, it’s like, it was amazing. It was, like, a great experience,” Vergara told Jimmy Fallon while appearing on ‘The Tonight Show.’
In the same interview, Vergara made it clear that the cigarettes and cocaine used in the show are nothing but fake. “The cocaine that I did was fake! It was not real cocaine. It’s fake cocaine, but I had to pretend. The cigarettes are also fake. Everything was, it’s fake,” the actress told Fallon. “But the acting was real,” the actress added wisely. Baiz, who directed all six episodes of the series, also opened up about helping Vergara to become Griselda.
Baiz and Vergara met regularly at the actress’ house for her to complete the transformation. “She wanted a Griselda that didn’t feel like Sofía Vergara. So, for example, she had to learn how to smoke. Sofía had never smoked in her life,” the director told EW. The experience was hard for the actress. “I had never acted in Spanish, nor performed anything dramatic. I went home from the set of ‘Modern Family’ happy in life. But in ‘Griselda,’ I had to kill, do cocaine, learn to smoke, wear a plastic nose, teeth, a wig… I mean, everything was a nightmare,” Vergara told HOLA!
Vergara has always been vocal about not smoking. In a 2011 interview given to CNN Health, she stated, “I don’t smoke, I’ve never done drugs. I think the most unhealthy thing is that I’m obsessed with dessert. And it’s very hard for me not to eat it at least once a day.” That’s also the reason why Vergara was surprised when she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2000. “I’ve never done drugs or smoked. And I don’t eat red meat. I felt totally healthy, and suddenly they tell me I have cancer? I was scared. I immediately thought of my child,” the actress told Parade in 2011. Vergara got into remission after radioactive iodine treatment and surgery.
