Vergara accents her comedic role

By MARIA ELENA FERNANDEZ

HOLLYWOOD — Sofia Vergara, the Colombian former Univision TV host who became famous in Latin America for her flirty personality, voluptuous physique and Latin lovers, never intended to be a scene-stealing funny girl on American TV. But that’s exactly what she is on ABC’s new hit- comedy “Modern Family.”

Q. How do you like pretending to be married to Ed O’Neill?

A. That was a surprise. I thought people were going to hate my character because, definitely, if this girl is with this guy, it’s for money. But then you realize, the characters are perfect for each other.

Q. Were you drawn to comedy from the beginning?

A. I’ve always been the class clown in my school. I love making people laugh. So it was a natural thing.

Q. Beautiful women aren’t usually associated with being funny.

A. It was something I had different from other actresses, so they kept pushing for me.

Q. Do they let you improvise on the show?

A. They can’t control me! Now what’s happening is they’re getting my rhythm, my language and my mistakes, but sometimes they’ll write something and it’s impossible for me to say it because I have a very strong and bad accent. I don’t even ask. I just do it the way I know I can say it.

Q. But you do make your accent stronger on the show.

A. Yes, now I don’t even know what my accent is.

Q. You also darken your hair.

A. I started auditioning here and I had the accent, the body and the attitude for the Latin woman, but they don’t associate “blond” with us. I went for a screen test, and they asked me to come with dark hair. I thought it looked better because I have darker eyebrows. So now they believe me that I’m Latin. I always joke that if they throw me in a chlorine pool, all my Latin is going away — my hair and my self-tanner!

Q. Your son will be going to college soon. That will be hard?

A. It’s going to be horrible. I was 19 when I had him. I literally left my family and got married, had my son, so I’ve never been alone. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m always after him, “What are you doing? Where are you going?”

Q. I’m sure he likes that.

A. Yeah, whatever. He was so excited when I learned to text because he doesn’t have to deal with me really on the phone in front of his friends.

Q. Has your son brought any girls home?

A. Yeah, he has a girlfriend.

Q. I can’t imagine you being my boyfriend’s mother.

A. No, but I’m not like this at home. I’ve got no makeup. I’m in sweat pants.