SAYS SOFIA VERGARA
(THE STUNNINGLY GORGEOUS HIGHEST PAID TV ACTRESS ON THE PLANET)
appeared in Baywatch in 1999 before her US TV break in Hot Properties then hitting pay dirt in 2009 as Gloria in Modern Family, as the wife of patriarch Jay (Ed O’Neill, star of Married...With Children). Sofia now earns an estimated $41.5million (£31.5million) a year, $14million (£10million) more than the second highest earning actor, Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory, thanks to beauty endorsements and other deals. Sofia said: “I just feel so lucky to end up on a show like Modern Family, that everybody really likes, and to get a character like Gloria. “There’s nothing not to like about her. She’s amazing, so passionate and so crazy. She reminds me a lot of my mother and my own family.” Loud and brash, her character has come in for criticism for being a Latina stereotype.
But Sofia said: “When I think of Gloria, I think of my aunt and my mother. They are intense and they are passionate, they dress sexy and colourful, they are loud.
“What is wrong with that if it is a stereotype? I don’t think it is an exaggeration. It’s comedy.”
In Modern Family as well as being a younger wife to an older man and super sexy, Sofia reckons being funny could be why both men and women warm to her.
She said: “They get less scared of you because if you approach everything with humour and you don’t take yourself too seriously, everybody’s going to like you.”
The envy of many a 45-year-old woman, what is her beauty secret?
She said: “Part of being Latin and growing up is putting ourselves together really often.
“For example, I don’t really like going out without lipstick, some blush or mascara. I don’t even think about it. For me, it’s like brushing your teeth – it’s not really an effort.
“I have a closet full of products and I use them all.” Reluctancy, Sofia also hits the gym. She said: “I know that with age, you need to keep things where they were initially. I know that I have to work out.
“I don’t love it that much but it has become part of my life.
“I do it also because of my job, and I am in a place in my career where I need to have energy and look good and fit into those tiny little dresses.”
The part of her body she has to work on most is: “The butt of course, I’m Latin!”
The ninth series of Modern Family has started on Sky1 and Sofia can’t believe the writers keep coming up with such funny storylines each year.
She said: “We are so lucky because every time we go to a table read we are waiting like, ‘This is going to be the one that is so-so.’ But we are always laughing.
“It is a family. I spend more time with them than my real family, thank God! It’s a delight for me to go to work every morning because everybody gets along.”
And like fans of Modern Family, she doesn’t want the show to end.
She said: “I never want to say goodbye to Gloria. I want to play her forever and ever, for eternity.” ●Modern Family is on Sky1 on Friday at 8.30pm.