The highly anticipated Sofía Vergara-led Netflix drama series “Griselda” will debut Thursday.

The based-on-real-events crime series follows the life of a Colombian woman named Griselda Blanco, played by Vergara of “Modern Family” fame. Blanco, a devoted mother, created one of the most profitable cartels in history and became known as “The Godmother” of the underworld.

The series will introduce viewers to actor Martín Rodríguez, who plays Blanco’s right-hand man and enforcer, Rivi Ayala. Rodríguez sat down with Spectrum News recently to discuss the series, his role and what it was like working with Vergara.

“My experience was amazing,” Rodríguez said. “There was a lot of learning. And then scripts were very well written, which makes everything very exciting and challenging. I met a lot of truly creative people who really wanted to tell a different story about the world of drug trafficking.”

Actual events inspired the series. It is set in Miami during the 1970s and ‘80s cocaine boom and follows Blanco and Ayala as they create one of the largest drug empires, he said. Together, they achieve power, wealth and respect while eliciting unmatched fear.

“When Rivi meets Griselda, he is fascinated by her and is willing to do anything for her,” said the Argentina-born, Spain-raised and Los Angeles-based actor. “So my character supports her in everything she wants and wants to accomplish.”

His character is based on a real person, who is also the only person from within Blanco’s intimate circle who is still alive today. 

Rodríguez said, “We didn’t try to resemble the real person behind the character.”

He explained the series stays true to the facts, but they wanted to differentiate his character from the typical narco man.

“My work with the director was to create a character with a specific humanity to show that he was more than just a hit man,” Rodríguez said. “And that he had a complex personality, and we wanted to convey the complexity of the social situation in Miami in the ‘80s.”

To create his character, Rodríguez said he thought about how a person gets to a certain point and why Ayala would get involved in the crime world. He had to create the character through empathy, he said.

“This is a guy who carries deep pain in the middle of his search for the American Dream in the ‘80s,” Rodríguez said.

Miami in the ‘80s is the backdrop to the story, which Rodríguez described as an attitude of rebellion at the time and styling that The Doors’ frontman Jim Morrison’s music and poems embodied.

“The way the story is told is very attractive,” Rodríguez said. “It’s told with great roundness. All the scenes have something interesting.”

All that is juxtaposed with the violent scenes that come with a series of this type. Rodríguez said the scenes “left us totally astonished” because the cast realized how those situations actually happened in real life.

Rodriguez said that the series was a collaboration among many Latin people and he got to work with actors from Colombia, Spain and Mexico.

“To work with Sofia, it was amazing,” Rodríguez said. “She is amazing. And for me personally, as an actor, there was a synergy that came with working with Sofia and the strength and precision she poses.”

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Days after Rodríguez spoke to Spectrum News, Vergara and Netflix were among the people sued by Blanco’s family to stop the airing of the series, claiming they did not authorize the use of their images. The series is still scheduled to be available on Jan. 25.