MANILA, Philippines — “The only man I was ever afraid of was a woman named Griselda Blanco.”
So declared Colombian narco king Pablo Escobar of Griselda Blanco, the larger-than-life but “not much talked about” Colombian drug “queenpin,” in focus in the new hit Netflix series “Griselda.”
In the titular role is Sofia Vergara, who is riveting and unrecognizable as she transitions from comedy to drama, shedding all residual hints of her longtime, beloved character Gloria from “Modern Family.”
The mini-series set in the ‘70s to ‘80s starts off with Griselda’s desperate escape to Miami with her three sons after killing her husband. This after she was reduced to “sexual payment” for her husband’s debts, despite being the brains behind her husband’s drug trafficking operations in Medellin and New York.
With no money, except for a kilo of premium cocaine, and an assassin ordered to locate her, she tries to start anew in Miami. She’s given a fresh opportunity to leave the drug trade behind, just like her friend Carmen (Vanessa Ferlito), who offers her a regular job at her travel agency.
She, however, scores a chance to meet kingpin Amilcar (José Zúñiga), getting a close-up view of the dangerous game in the Miami drug world. Despite warnings and physical threats to exit before it’s too late, Griselda doesn’t back down and instead brazenly presents herself as the new supplier.
Backed by old friends and newly arrived “associates” (sex workers as her “sales people”) from Medellín, she sets up shop at a rundown motel. But facing obstacles from rivals, she targets wealthy white people as customers. Within three months, business is booming.
The rest of the series shows how both her femininity and ferocity, as a mom and self-made woman, work to her advantage. Tactics like the power of sisterhood and nurturing maternal gifts inspire loyalty, gaining her an army to expand her domain and battle turf wars. One moment she’s a ruthless businesswoman consolidating power and eliminating enemies, and the concerned mom who shops for her children’s requests or warns against the “sex workers” going near her sons in the next.
Interestingly, also one relentless woman and mom on the side of the law, June Hawkins (Juliana Aidén Martinez), who’s facing her own fight against misogyny in the police force, who will serve as her biggest threat and tormentor.
In the end, Griselda’s ascent to the top, being ultimately called Godmother in a male-dominated business that can’t stand a woman in command, will only be as spectacular as her downfall.
At the time of writing, the series is No. 1 on Netflix Philippines and the highest-rated film or TV show of Sofia after getting a Rotten Tomatoes score of 88 percent.
The hard work paid off for Sofia, who devoted six months of her life doing this series as its lead star and executive producer.
Creator and executive producer Eric Newman shared how Sofia became on board for this series, recalling on receiving an unexpected phone call from the actress’ manager, expressing her interest in playing the drug lord.
Eric, already immersed in the drug world space through the “NARCOS” franchise on Netflix, found Sofía drawn to Griselda’s story as a Colombian, a mother, and a self-made woman navigating a male-dominated culture. Their working relationship began with a commitment from Sofía, despite challenges posed by her involvement in other TV shows like “Modern Family” and “America’s Got Talent.”
Despite delays, Eric said that Sofía remained committed to showcase a different side to what the public has been used to seeing from her.
And as Sofia mentioned herself in the production notes, she went for this role with the goal of no one thinking of her or of her last role as Gloria Pritchett.
This was actually 10 years in the making. Besides other commitments, she shared why taking on this project became “a very long process” for her. “About 10 years. I was on a plane one time, and I read in a magazine something about this Colombian woman, which, even though I grew up in Colombia in the ‘70s and ‘80s, I never heard of her.
“And most of the people that I know had never heard of her either. I thought immediately that this was a very interesting character. As a Latin woman, and someone who sounds like me, there aren’t many projects that are perfect for me. It’s hard to find roles.
“I thought that this was a role that I could play, because she’s a strong Colombian woman. It took many, many years, and also she was still alive which bothered me because I didn’t want to tell this story while she was still alive.”
But when started filming, she was all in, including embodying an aesthetic — from nose to hair to eyebrows — that would make her feel she was someone else.
Talking more about “Griselda” over a Zoom one-on-one interview with The STAR, she said, “My focus was on the role, on playing the role. The production part was his,” referring to Eric was seated beside her during the virtual chat.
“Because once I had to go on set, I mean, I had three hours of makeup every morning and then one hour at the end of the night removing it. So it was a lot; I had to run out, smoke, do fake cocaine, I had to, you know, act in Spanish, do drama — all new things for me.
“So, for six months, that was my life. I was in every scene, the amount of lines that I had to prepare were incredible. It was a lot of work. prosthetics that were very difficult to have on for hours and hours a day. Very uncomfortable.
“But I wanted to do a good job because I had a lot of insecurities; it was my first time doing drama and also acting in Spanish, so I was completely focused on being Griselda for six months of my life.”
Being a Colombian as well helped her understand the character, Sofia said, “That’s why I got so fascinated with this character when I realized that she was a real woman who achieved the level of the biggest narco traffickers in the world.
“I was obsessed with this character because I could not comprehend how a woman, a Colombian woman, who usually is very protective, would want their kids to be okay and will sacrifice everything for her kids would end up becoming one of the biggest cartel heads. I couldn’t understand it and that fascinated me.”
Nevertheless, she clarified that they’re not out to glorify Griselda’s criminal acts.
Sofia said, “We were very careful not to glorify her in the series. But we also wanted to take time to uncover the deeper story of Griselda, how beyond all odds, a poor uneducated woman from Colombia managed to create a massive, multi-billion dollar empire in a male-dominated industry, in a country that was not her own, through tactics that she devised that were both ingenious and cruel.
“The truth is that, as much as Griselda broke down barriers, she’s definitely not a hero and she should not be idolized. So, what I loved about the project was getting to explore Griselda’s origin story, the making of a monster.
“When you then look at someone like June, a mother trying to fight a male-dominated culture in her workplace, I think more than drawing a comparison, you see more and more why Griselda’s self-justification is so wrong. Griselda and June are different sides of the same coin, the two different paths a person can take in order to take care of their family.”
Asked what she wanted audiences to take away overall from the series, Sofia said, “I want the audience to take away how easy it is for power to corrupt people. Beyond sex, beyond politics, gender norms. Every element that contributes to the uniqueness of this story, the reality is that this story is about someone that was so blinded by power that it overcame any other motives that ever existed.
“She stood up to a lot of scary and powerful men. But none of that matters because she ended up becoming one of them.”
As for co-creator Eric, he said that while the show is meant to be entertaining and fun, it doesn’t gloss over the ugly stuff.
“Obviously, the drugs and the global war on drugs continue to be an important topic,” he reflected on TV audiences’ sustained interest in stories about narco figures.
“But I think there’s something about the anti-hero, about someone who is reacting to powerlessness. These gangster rise and fall stories have always worked, and they will always work because there is, in the beginning, an aspirational quality to them,” he said.
“Griselda is a victim; she has three children that she needs to protect, and we’re all along for the ride as she builds her empire, and it’s supposed to be fun. And I’m not ashamed of that; it’s supposed to be fun until it’s not.
“At some point, there is, you know,for every rise, there’s a fall, for every crime, there is a punishment. I think that these stories continue to speak to people because you can enjoy the rise knowing that there is a price to be paid.”
Directed by Andres Baiz (“Narcos”), “Griselda” is streaming on Netflix.