JOIN OUR WHATSAPP CHANNEL
Why Was It Important For Sofia Vergara's Griselda To Have Its Own Space Detached From Narcos? EP Reveals
Netflix executive producer Eric Newman has opened up about why it was important for Sofia Vergara's Griselda to have its own space detached from the Narcos franchise. Read on.
Netflix executive producer Eric Newman expressed a desire to tell Colombian Queenpin Griselda Blanco's story and considered incorporating her into the Narcos franchise while working on the flagship series and spinoff Narcos: Mexico.
Speaking with Hollywood Reporter, he said, “The challenge that I found immediately with Griselda [Blanco] is that her story is so compelling; she’s such an anomaly.”
He added, “She’s someone who needs some real explaining to understand, given how male-dominated that business is. She needed her own space, her own real estate separate from Narcos.”
Blanco never appeared in the Narcos universe which ended in 2021. However, it was announced that Newman would be collaborating with Vergara on a Griselda Blanco project with Netflix having a deal.
ALSO READ: Who Was Griselda Blanco? Find Out Everything About the Drug Lord Kingpin As Sofia Vergara Gets Sued For Her Upcoming Biopic
Eric Newman reveals why it was important for Griselda to have its own space detached from Narcos
On January 25, during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Eric Newman was asked if he ever considered putting Griselda in the Narcos universe as he once claimed that Griselda was a cousin to Narcos. Newman replied, "As I’ve talked more about it during this release process, I’ve come up with what I believe is a better word for what it is. I don’t know that it’s a cousin as much as a descendant."
Newman also said that the challenge he found in her story was compelling and needs some real explaining to understand, given how male-dominated that business is. He said, "She needed her own space, her own real estate separate from Narcos."
"And it’s a much more intimate telling for Griselda. Narcos was a bigger canvas and required a lot of storytelling to fill it all, and this was a much more focused approach, which I really enjoyed. Coming out of Narcos, evolving into this felt like the right thing," he added.
Newman was then asked if any other Narcos descendants could come out, to which he laughed and replied, "You know, I always hope so." Adding further, he said, "It’s such an area of interest for me. Painkiller was also sort of about a drug cartel. So I’m always thinking in the space and it’s really just about the character, as it always is. And if I find another one that speaks to me in that way, I love this world."
Eric Newman talks about whether the pitch process was different with a woman as the main narco
During the interview, Eric Newman was asked that after working on Narcos and Narcos: Mexico with men as the starring villains, was the pitch process different with a woman as the main narco. Newman replied, "Actually, no. Because it was so unique. The most obvious answer to what’s different here is that there’s a woman at the center of it."
He continued, "If you know anything about that world, you know how exclusively male-dominated it is and has always been. Not just the narcotics trafficking world, but Latin America. There’s an impossibility here. She is such an anomaly. No woman, despite the occasional story to the contrary — none of which are true — has ever risen to that level of prominence in the narcotics business." He also said that no woman has ever achieved that level of respect, fear, or success which made it almost irresistible.
Newman further claimed that Sofia Vergara was very much the reason for behind the project. He said, "She was convinced that she could do it and that she needed to do it. And in my first meeting with her, I came away thinking: She can do this. And I never doubted from that moment on. I know there are people who are sort of surprised: “How did Gloria Pritchett get to Griselda?” And to them, I would reference Tom Hanks and Robin Williams and people that I knew who were comedic; they were on TV shows."
He added that having a woman as a leader was the right thing. "Sofía was one of the great collaborators I’ve been able to work with, and I think she made the idea of a woman running a drug empire much more believable to all the people involved when she walked on the set every day and after three hours of makeup was like, 'Let’s go.' There was something slightly meta about it."
ALSO READ: Why is Sofia Vergara Being Sued By Griselda Blanco's Estate? Controversy Over New Netflix Show
Latest Articles
