From a young Colombian mother to a mature American television dream, Sofia Vergara has come quite the distance in the first forty years of her life.
Despite exotic beauty, a recent fairytale wedding to Hollywood hunk Joe Manganiello and becoming the highest paid actress on television, the siren isn't always rushing to watch herself back on the television screen, particularly after seven years as Modern Family's feisty Latin lady, Gloria.
"Watching myself age on screen is awful!" she told NET-A-PORTER.com's The EDIT. "There is nothing more disturbing than watching an episode of Modern Family from the first season, then one from seven years later. It just makes me want to kill myself, but what can I do? I'll be sad when the wolf whistles stop. I'm already sad that men have started calling me ‘Señora.'"
Well, very few Señoras—or any women for that matter—can replicate the hourglass figure Vergara was seemingly born with. However, the picture-perfect curves can be a blessing and a curse for the star.
"People will often say that I wear the same thing on the red carpet, but I know my body: it's very voluptuous and I've got the boobs of a stripper. They're a 32DDD and because they're real, they're everywhere, so I need my dresses to have structure—and under armor," she continued.
"There is so much going on under my dresses that I bleed at the end of award ceremonies. In ten years I think it would be good to have a reduction...just enough that I don't end up looking like an old stripper."
Don't mistake Vergara's complaints for whines—the former Hollywood unknown is nothing but grateful for the opportunities she's been granted in this exclusive industry.
"I'm really not one to complain. I mean, seriously, how dare I! Here I am on prime-time television with this stupid accent, I can't trash anyone. It would be so ungrateful of me because, trust me, I've been treated like a queen," she admitted. "Of course [the opportunities] can't compare to an American or Caucasian woman's, but things are changing."
In a sea of current concerns over diminishing diversity in Hollywood, Vergara has one potential solution: take control of the stories being told.
"The problem is not the networks or directors: it's that there aren't enough writers creating things for Latinos," she said. "Once we have more Latinos writing, that's when things may really start to change..."
As one of the few but very famous hispanic characters on television today, Vergara said she doesn't fight the stereotype—she embraces it.
"I'm not afraid of [stereotypes], and they don't have to be bad, either. I mean, Gloria is an amazing character: a really good woman with this hilarious accent, so why criticize her for being a stereotype?" Vergara said. "Plus, all the Latinas I know are loud, they dress sexy and are really involved with their families: that's Gloria!"
She also exerts little energy on the thought of being objectified—unless she's laughing about it.
"I've never understood why women get so offended. I just don't believe in all that drama, which is why I've made a whole joke out of it," she admitted. "I am secure enough not to take it all that seriously, and I like to laugh at myself. My husband was a male stripper in Magic Mike XXL—do you think he was offended by [the objectification]? I thought it was hilarious."
As a Barranquilla-born woman, Vergara also has trouble grasping pregnancy norms in the United States.
"I became a mother very young – at 20 – so I feel like I've been a mother my whole life, but I love that. Now that I'm 43 and my son is 23, it's funny to see some of my girlfriends raising young kids," she shared. "In the US, women postpone motherhood, but in Latin America most of my friends have kids my son's age."
With nearly two months of wedded bliss in the bag, she and husband Joe are juggling the thought of having a baby of their own.
"I wouldn't mind another child," she admitted. "My husband is younger than me and he wants kids so we're trying to figure out what we're going to do. The idea of doing it all again doesn't scare me but, hey, it's not like it's going to happen naturally, is it?"
To see The EDIT's full interview with Sofia Vergara go to www.net-a-porter.com/magazine/336/11 or download the free EDIT app at the App Store and Google Play.