Lucky Break

However that wasn’t to be. After being spotted on a beach at the age of 17, Vergara was cast in a Pepsi commercial and gave up her dental studies to pursue a career in show business. She moved to Miami with her son and amicably divorced Joe after two years of marriage. “To be in the entertainment industry, I had to persuade my parents,” she says. “That [career] was not regarded well 20 years ago in South America.”

In 1998 though, her life was rocked when her older brother Rafael was shot and killed in an attempted kidnapping in Colombia. Vergara brought her mother, sister and younger brother to live with her in Miami. “When I was growing up, Colombia was very dangerous,” she recalls. “We are very fortunate that all the narco traffic has been kind of eradicated now. The country has completely changed so we were lucky to survive all of that. There was a lot of kidnapping at that time. Anybody who had money was a target.” Did the family have armed guards? “Yeah, for some time,” she replies, cautiously.

I’m not surprised this is a sensitive subject. Vergara has tough skin, though; she has to. Her brother Julio battled drug problems and was deported from the States, and in 2000 she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer (she’s currently in remission). Now, aged 43, she’s engaged to actor Joe Manganiello, star of Magic Mike and True Blood, but her former partner, businessman Nick Loeb, recently filed a lawsuit against her, wanting to use the embryos they had frozen while they were together to have a child with a surrogate. If all that doesn’t make you stronger, I’m not exactly sure what would.

And besides, strength in adversity and doing a good job were ingrained. “I’ve always been resilient and tried to keep moving forwards. I always saw my father [a cattle rancher] working. My mother never worked – she was a housewife – but I was always a very responsible person so I knew what I had to do.” Does she feel she grew up too quickly? “I’ve always been well-behaved,” she smiles. “Too responsible. But I think I’ve lived my life to the fullest. I’ve had a pretty fun time.”

Those times have taken her from a Mexican soap and Spanish language travel show, to roles in Big Trouble, Four Brothers with Mark Wahlberg and a small part in Entourage. Years ago she took speech classes to soften her accent but then decided to embrace it, which ironically was when her career really took off. She also dyed her hair darker – she’s naturally a lot blonder – to fit with the American idea of what Latin women looked like. In 2005 she moved to LA and, after appearing in a couple of sitcoms that never got past a first season, landed Modern Family in 2009.

While her career trajectory is impressive, what’s particularly notable is that everything that came with it was meticulously planned. “I always knew I wanted fame and recognition,” she reveals. “So I’d be able to do all the other things I wanted to do like endorsement deals, clothing lines, furniture lines, a perfume. I knew I had to be famous first and I ended up acting and enjoying it.” It’s an incredibly candid statement for a Hollywood actress to make. It’s also very refreshing.

Sofia Vergara on being fearless, building an empire and the importance of laughing at yourself