Sofía Vergara is still reeling from the first murder she’s ever acted out on screen.
The “Griselda” star sat down with Netflix on Thursday to commentate the scene for their “Shot by Shot” series. Vergara, who portrays late Colombian cartel leader Griselda Blanco in the show, said acting out a particularly violent scene in episode six felt almost too real.
“This is one of the scenes that was a little bit more nerve-wracking for me to film because I had never killed someone in a scene, or in real life,” she told Netflix. “I think my face here, it was not acting. I was actually horrified about the scene that was coming that I had to film.”
Vergara’s comedic chops have never been in question, as her performance in “Modern Family” proves. But her role in “Griselda” shows her in a new light: fans on social media are calling for her to “receive all the awards” as a dramatic actor.
The murder scene shows Blanco — one of the biggest cocaine dealers in history — paying her competitors a visit after they decapitated several of her employees. Blanco returns the favor by taking a machete to a man who’s tied up and pleading for his life.
“This scene is one of the points in the series that really, really transformed her more into this ruthless monster,” Vergara told Netflix. “They just killed one of her favorite persons in the world, one of her best friends — a girl that she loved and protected.”
“She needs to prove to the people that are supporting her that she will defend them no matter what, with her own hands,” the actor continued. “More than respect, she wants them to fear her — for them to know that she’s gonna defend herself.”
Blanco’s real-life exploits, which ended in 2012 with her yet-unsolved murder, were chronicled in the 2006 documentary “Cocaine Cowboys.” At one point, the series shows Blanco trying (but failing) to behead a man, only to repeatedly shoot him in the face.
“When I was filming this scene, I thought it was great that she didn’t go all the way and chopped him with the dagger or whatever that thing was,” Vergara said Thursday. “Because that’s what people were expecting. When I first read it, I thought it was genius.”
“I think that was the beginning of the end for her,” she continued. “She starts losing control. She starts getting very emotional and starts doing all the wrong things and taking the wrong decisions … and then by episode six this woman has become someone else.”