Sofia Vergara reflects on how her family's experience with grief and adversity influenced her approach to 'Griselda'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Sofia Vergara candidly spoke about her transformative experience portraying drug lord Griselda Blanco in the series 'Griselda.'

In her conversation on Jesse Tyler Ferguson's podcast 'Dinner's on Me', the Colombian actress delved into the emotional journey of embodying the cartel boss as she revealed how her family's experience with grief and adversity influenced her portrayal in the Netflix series.

Sofia Vergara opens up on having 'a lot of similarities' to Griselda Blanco

The 'Modern Family' alum drew parallels between her life and that of Griselda Blanco as she revealed that her older brother who had been in the drug business "unfortunately, for some time" was murdered in Colombia in the ‘90s, according to People.

“So a lot of those things, I thought I understood. I understood that business, I understood that woman, and so I thought it was a really interesting character,” she said.

Vergara shared that her approach to the part was not about "a character to prove that I can be a dramatic actress,” but, rather, thought the drug lord was "so interesting" and was also a way to "test myself."

"I thought it needed to be somebody that I kind of, like, knew who she was,” she said.

Sofia Vergara reveals why her family had to leave their home country

Vergara further shared that the tragic murder of her older brother was a devastating event that propelled her family to flee to Miami for safety.

"When my brother was killed in Colombia in the '90s, we didn't really know what the situation was and the whole family was in danger. We weren't clear who had done it,” she said.

The 51-year-old actress who was already a mother to her then three-year-old son Manolo left their home country along with her mother and two other siblings. It was "a lot. Very hard," she recalled.

“Now that I'm 51 years old and, you know, I see the new generations and I see younger people, I'm like, ‘I don't know how I did it at 23 years old’.... Taking care of a kid, of a family that was not really very stable," Vergara said.

The "trauma" of her older brother's killing left her family struggling with instability and her other brother slowly turned to drugs.

"He became an addict," which was "really bad for years," she added, offering another connection between her own life and Blanco's life.

"He became a crack addict, which is like the worst thing that could happen to a person. And, you know, he changed. He kind of ruined his life and it's been hard. It's been very hard,” said Vergara.