Sofía Vergara Said That She Had To Dye Her Natural Hair Color Brown In Order To Get Roles In Hollywood

Sofía Vergara spoke about dyeing her naturally light hair to book jobs in Hollywood early in her career.

The Colombian actor started her Hollywood career in 2002 with the movie Big Trouble. She previously said in 2013 that she was asked to dye her blonde hair darker, as Americans were “used to Latin women looking more Mexican.”

In a new interview with People, Sofía recalled, “The way that I looked was not the way that Hollywood really saw Latina women. They were expecting a more dark-haired woman. It was difficult because they were a little confused, like, ‘This woman sounds like a Latin woman but she’s blonde.’”

“I made the decision to change my hair color to dark, and that’s how I started working,” she continued, noting that it was a “hard decision” but not like she was “cutting [her] fingers off.”

Shortly after she dyed her hair, Sofía signed a deal with ABC — which ultimately led to her being cast as Gloria in Modern Family. As she recalled, “It was like, ‘I’m going to see if that works. I’m here, why not?’ And it changed my life because I got hired to do Modern Family, which I did for 11 years.”

“After the third season, I thought, ‘Maybe now that everybody knows Gloria is Latin and they know me, I could go back to my more natural hair color.’ So I did little by little, and it was fine,” she added.

You can read the full interview here.