An Interview with Sofia Vergara

Colombia-born TV star Sofía Vergara is an international sensation, although you might not know it yet. Vergara co-hosted the Univision travel show Fuera de Serie (Out of Sight) with Fernando Fiore and co-hosted the Univision show A que no te atreves (I Dare You). The longtime Miami resident first went into American film with a pivotal role in the movie Big Trouble, starring Tim Allen and Rene Russo. That led her to more big trouble in Chasing Papi and then crashed and burned in Soul Plane. Some people have even went as far as calling her the Pamela Anderson of Latin America. A few weeks ago I got the chance to talk to her about her upcoming role as Sofi (Go figure) in Four Brothers. Sofia Vergara shares the latest on her life and her role in the new film.

How was the scene on the staircase?

Vergara: It was fun for me. I had the opportunity to curse in Spanish.

And you enjoyed that?

Vergara: Yes. It came very natural to me. It felt very good [Laughs]. But it was fun. The whole movie, shooting the whole movie with John [Singleton] and all of the guys was great. I had fun doing my character because she was fun and just a crazy maniac.

When you read the script were you at all concerned with how Latina women were being portrayed in the film?

Vergara: You know, the first thing that made me want to be in that movie even before reading the script was John Singleton because I wanted to work with him. And then I don't know why everyone thinks, I mean I'm Latina.

I know.

Vergara: I thought maybe you thought I was European. But I read the character and I didn't feel offended or stereotyped and I'm that woman. That's what the other women will relate to and I think that she was just fun and she was great to do. She had to be like that and you have to be in her position. I mean, she was about to have a nervous breakdown. Maybe an American woman wouldn't have been like that because they are a little more keeping everything for themselves, but Latin people are like, 'No. We explode and we scream and then you turn around and you forget.' You say, 'What do you want to have for dinner?' That's how it is. I'm not afraid that she looks stereotyped because she had a good reason to be like that. She thought that she was going to lose her man. She was in love and she was in this house with all these men, with all this testosterone, this crazy mix of personalities. This was the only way that she was going to be able to survive. If she was like a shy, quiet girl you wouldn't have even noticed her in the movie. So I think that's why John wanted this character to be like over the top to break a little bit of the toughness up in the movie and the drama and the violence. It was something a bit light, the comic relief.

How has this particular film resonated for you personally because I know that your brother was assassinated in Colombia? How much did working on this remind you of that?

Vergara: Well, it was for me, one of the last scenes at the shootout was hard. But you know it's part of life. You just keep living and it becomes part of you, but it doesn't stop you from doing anything. It's just something that you have inside. I understood totally why the movie was this crazy thing about the revenge because once you're in that situation, when you lose someone that you love and you know who did it, you want to do something. Maybe I wouldn't go and shoot them myself, but you want justice. So I understood why these kids were doing the wrong thing, but for the right reason.

As the lone actress in a lot of the scenes how did you deal with all the masculinity of your costars?

Vergara: Didn't you see it. I had to scream and get crazy [Laughs].

Is that what you had to do?

Vergara: Yes. Of course. No. But it was great working with the guys because by the end of the movie I was one of them. I made friends with all of them and it was a pleasure coming everyday to the set.

Did you have a back story for your character because we only saw her coming into the family like that?

Vergara: They were like high school sweethearts. They knew each other her whole childhood and they were always girlfriend and boyfriend and suddenly he leaves. He leaves Detroit. He leaves her for, I don't know, seven years, but he's the love of her life. She's living with some other guy, but once she sees him it's like, 'That's it.' I want him again.' And that's why she's about to have a nervous breakdown because she thinks that she's going to lose him again and this time for good. He might even die. So she gets crazy.

How does it feel to be getting all of this attention?

Vergara: It's crazy, but I come from the Latin market where I've been working for many, many years and maybe it's not the same level of Tom Cruise and the international press, but it's the same tabloid thing where you appear in every magazine. You have a hundred million paparazzi everywhere. It's to another degree, but it's the same thing for me and so it wasn't a big surprise or anything that I haven't been through before. Of course you can't compare the amount of press that Tom Cruise can create, but it was funny for me to see that that one set of pictures could create so much craziness. People see pictures and they immediately imagine, 'Oh my God, they're having sex.' Or that there's some romance or whatever. Maybe they were doing business. Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe anything.

Do you find that there are more opportunities for Latinas or for you in particular?

Vergara: Well, there aren't as many as there are for American actresses, but it is getting better. I mean, for example, for me it's harder because I have an accent and the roles have to be very specific. You can't just play a Latina with a crazy accent anywhere. She can't be a scientist.

She could be a scientist.

Vergara: Yeah, but that's not how they write the characters. Usually, they write the Latina woman in a different way. They don't write her like that. So it's hard to find those characters, but it's getting better. That's why I think that Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz and them doing such a great job because they have thick accents, but they've been working for a long time. So it's not easy.

Are you focusing on breaking out in the states or are you going back and forth between the states and Latin America?

Vergara: Well, usually, I didn't work that much in Colombia. I've been a TV host for ten years on Univision. Univision is a Hispanic network here in the United States. I mean, it's national TV. For example, I have a clothing line in South America and so I do go back and forth and I try to keep doing things because those are the markets that I come from and for me the American market is like any other thing. I don't know how it's going to go. Next week I start filming a sitcom for ABC. It's called 'Hot Properties.' It's going to be on Fridays at 9:30pm primetime and it's also very exciting for me because that's the first time that a Latina woman with an accent on primetime television.

What's your character and what's your situation?

Vergara: I'm a realtor in New York, and she was happily married for ten years and she got a divorce because she found out that the husband was gay. Now that she's ready to start dating again she's obsessed with every man in the world being gay. So she can't relax and is always looking for the gay clues. She's obsessed with this. It's comedy.

And that's in January?

Vergara: No. September. The Fall.

Who are some of your costars on the show?

Vergara: Nicole Sullivan. She used to work at 'Madtv.' Gail O'Grady and Evan Handler from 'Sex and the City.' I can't remember that name.

How did you like shooting in a cold weather climate?

Vergara: I didn't like it. It was horrible. My first scene was running in my underwear and it was like minus twenty degrees. It was torture. It didn't make any sense to me why they wanted to do this in the movie. I'm like, 'Is this necessary? Why the torture?' But then when I saw the movie I was like, 'Yeah. It looks cool.' It was worth it.

Are you shooting the sitcom in New York?

Vergara: No. L.A. It's there because, I mean, my son is from Colombia. And we can't go all the time from Miami, from Miami to L.A. He's fourteen and so now he has really close friends and he doesn't want to move. So I think that I'm going to be stuck there for awhile.

How is he handling mom's success?

Vergara: He's used to it because I've been working since he was a little baby. So he doesn't know anything else. He knows that I have to work. He just laughs with me when he reads the gossip and stuff because he's the one who knows where I sleep every night and what I really do. So he laughs with me.

Has he seen this movie?

Vergara: Yeah. He saw it with me. He loved it. He said, 'This is the best thing you've done.'

What did he like about it?

Vergara: Him? What did he like? He thinks he's like Quentin Tarantino. He writes already and has written three screenplays. He wants to direct. So I'm always like, even when I get a script, I'm like, 'Read this. Do you like it?' He's like, 'Yes. No.' Whatever. He's like a nerd because he knows everything, every director, every movie. I mean, it's incredible. So when the movie ended I'm like, 'So what do you think?' He said, 'I love this movie. This is the best movie that you've done because there is comedy. There are people laughing and crying. The shootouts and the drama and the violence. It's everything.' I'm like, 'Yeah. You're right.'

This energy that you have, is that the kind of energy that you had to seduce all of these men on this movie?

Vergara: Yes, of course. What's funny is at the beginning I arrived on the set and they were all sort of flirtatious like, 'Sofia, sit here.' Everything like that. By the end of the movie it was like, 'Get out! You've been sitting there for too long.' I became one of them and they ignored me.