‘Griselda’s’ Julieth Restrepo: Working with Sofia Vergara and chasing dreams

It’s crazy because I was pregnant shooting Griselda. It was a secret. Now promoting it - it’s real. Posters are everywhere, and people are talking about it. Karol G is in it, and I love Karol G too. It’s amazing seeing people excited about something so cool representing Colombia. Very cool. It’s been exciting, for sure.

It was early, but in my last week, I was very pregnant and very exhausted from shooting during the night. I didn’t want to tell anybody. I remember they were putting on my dress like, ‘It’s very tight.’ I was like, ‘wonder why.’ That last week was fun.

My most challenging scenes were in the middle of my pregnancy. I started not pregnant, and by the end, I was exhausted. But shooting while hiding was fun. I’m glad it was at the very end, and intense in the moment. But Sofia brought Colombian treats, which I was craving.

She’s incredible. I heard a lot of great things about her before coming to the show, and everybody said that she was amazing, that she was so fun to be with, and she was incredible and all of that. I kind of knew - you see her on TV and you’re like, ‘she must be amazing,’ but you never know. Then I met her and I started working with her and most of my scenes are with her. She brings light to the set. She’s always making jokes and she takes her job very seriously. She was very focused on her scenes and worked very hard. Plus, she had this amazing team with the prosthetics and the teeth and the wig and all of that. She was very committed to doing a good job, and I was very impressed by that too. Because, we’ve seen her doing comedy, but this one in particular was her in a dramatic role with heavy, heavy, heavy scenes.

Working with Andy, our director, was also very fun. ‘cause he would come sit and give us directions and all that. She was in it. I mean, she was in the zone, and she was working very seriously. And then cut, she was back to making jokes. She was eating all the time, the amazing stuff that she brought. We had a wonderful time. She’s one of the executive producers, and you can see how she wanted everybody to feel comfortable on set, ’cause we were working on heavy scenes, challenging scenes, so she brought this comedy and light and fun. So, I really appreciated that, and I was very impressed by that.

I remember my first day on set with her, it was very cold outside, and I was filming these scenes at a pool. So they had to make it look like we were in the Bahamas, and I was wearing this tiny bathing suit. She was just looking at me like, ‘Are you okay?’ Like, she was so worried about me. I was fine at the end of the day, but until the very end of the show, she was like, ‘Are you sure you’re okay? Because that was cruel. That was cruel. I’m so sorry’ Like, she was apologizing for that. They were all wearing amazing clothes and layers and layers, and all that, and I was trying to look cool in my fancy bikini, in the middle of LA. I believe it was Crenshaw or something like that. It was February, so it was freaking cold. I remember that well.

I brought this blanket that I always bring with me to every single show I’m on. I’ve been bringing this blanket for 10 years, and she made fun of it. So I remember Sofia seeing my blanket like, ‘Is that yours?’ I was, so proud like, ‘Yeah, I’ve had it with me for 10 years.’ She was like, ‘Hmm, I think you should change it.’ I’m like, ‘Nice to meet you, Sofia. I love you so much, .’ I felt as if she had been my friend for forever. We were just making jokes, but that was our first day, and I’ll never forget how worried she was about me. I’m always appreciative of that.

Yeah, because she was taking care of us, but she was also one of us, you know? And that was so awesome. And she was like that until the very end of the show. So it wasn’t like a front or something she was trying to do. No, that was her all the time, a hundred percent her. She is very unique, I remember that. I was in awe of how genuine and unique she is.

That was a self-tape. I knew before sending my self-tape in, that Andrés Baiz, the director, was working on something new. I worked with him 10 years ago on the Colombian remake of Breaking Bad in Colombia. They called it Metástasis. I don’t know if you watched Breaking Bad, but I was playing Jane in the show, so that was super fun. Also with drugs. What are the odds? I knew he was working on the show, and he was moving to LA because of the show and because we became friends, I said, ‘Hey, anything you need just let me know, and welcome to LA. I know you are working on something new, good luck with that.’ I didn’t even mention like, ‘Hey, give me an audition or anything. I wasn’t, worried about that. I just wanted to welcome him to LA.

Then a couple of weeks later, my manager, Devon, sent this tape, and I was very excited about that. I mean, of course, Sofia Vergara was in it, and it’s Griselda, and a mixed Colombian crew, a Colombian cast. Of course, I wanted to be in it, so I sent the tape but you never know. I put everything into it, and then I forgot about it, because I knew everybody in Colombia was going to be auditioning for this.

And so I forgot about it and had my ’fingers crossed.‘ Then one day I remember Andy, the director, saying ’Hey, so we’re very excited.‘ I said, ’Wait, what?‘ Then I got a call from my manager and it happened at the same time. I got the news from the director and my manager on the same day. I really was looking forward to working with Andy again.

Finally, when I got the scripts, that was very exciting. I got to see my role, the scenes, and all the amazing scenes that I was going to have with Sofia and Camilo Jiménez Varón, who plays Rafa, my boyfriend in the show. He’s in Colombia as well. And I mean, it was a blast from the very beginning, even the self-tape, I had so much fun sending those scenes. It was just like two scenes. I felt very lucky I got it.

Oh yeah. He’s helped me by playing Sofia Vergara, of course. He has been everybody in the show pretty much. He’s been mom, dad, daughter, like all of them. I remember him helping me on this one. We were still with Covid, and we were at our place. We didn’t have a daughter at the time, so we had more time .

That was one of the fun tapes we did. Sometimes, you suffer a lot with self-tapes, and you never know how that’s gonna come out. With this one, I said to myself, ‘I dunno what’s going to happen. But I did my best, and I hope they like it. If not, I mean that’s all I can do.’ It was a lot of fun anyways and my husband is my biggest supporter for sure. He has so much patience. .

Oh my God, it’s been a long journey, but I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. I remember that I was very shy when I was little, but being on stage was one of the places that gave me so much in general, that I loved it. I was in every play at school. I went to at an all-girl Catholic school, so I was played the role of all the boys. When they needed a male figure for the play, I did it.

I remember going to the theater when I was 13. For two years, every weekend I went...and long story short, I graduated, I was applying for university and college and still I was taking theater classes. One night when I was on my way home I saw a poster on the street, randomly. It said they were auditioning for a feature film. I didn’t even know what a feature film was. I auditioned for it. My dad was a taxi driver at the time and he took me to the audition. I was 17 by the time I auditioned, and I got the role. I was working at a retail store when I got the role, and my life changed pretty much from that point.

I moved to Bogota for the film, I did the film, and I won my first award with that film. After, I decided that I wanted to be an actor and didn’t want to do anything else. When I did the film, I realized that was a career, a real career. ‘Cause before that, ’theater, drama, I loved it, but it’s was hobby.‘ But this made me realize that I wanted to pursue acting. I started auditioning for everything. I even worked as an assistant for the wardrobe in commercials. I was doing, theater, TV, films, everything for 10 years nonstop until I moved to LA in 2015.

I moved to LA because I wanted to challenge myself in a different way. Up to 2015, I was doing everything I wanted to here in Colombia, and I’m so grateful ’cause I received some awards for my work on TV and film. I even started producing as well. So the challenge was I wanted to work in English, be part of amazing shows that I watch on Netflix. So for that reason, being on Griselda right now, is the reason why I moved to LA, and now that’s becoming a reality. You never know when that’s going to happen, but when it starts happening, you’re so glad that you followed your guts and instincts. Proud that I was just brave enough to challenge myself, and now here we are.

If you dream it, you can do it, for sure. That’s one thing that I witnessed with myself and that I always confirm. I had this dream of moving to LA because I knew the film industry was here. I had some friends in the city, but it was pretty much just me on my own. I sold everything I had in Colombia for me to make that dream come true. I had my O-1 Visa, I applied for it.

I knew it was going take some time, but I would tell everybody that ‘if you want do it, just go for it.’ It takes a lot of patience, but don’t give up. It’s so easy to give up. It’s so easy. I’ve been rejected so many times. That’s one of the biggest lessons that LA taught me. I was working nonstop in Colombia before I moved to LA, nonstop. In Colombia, they didn’t understand why I was leaving...‘You have everything here.’ And I felt like ‘yeah, that’s why I want move there. I want to open new doors, and this is the time for it.’

I started going to auditions and then I got a callback but I was rejected, and then I got another callback, and then another no. You hear so many nos, but every time you hear a no, you know the yes is coming soon. My dad said something great a couple of years after I moved to LA. He said, ‘You know what? I think now I understand what you’re doing there in LA.’ - I said ‘Okay, what am I doing here dad?’ He said ‘You are making the line at a bank. You’re just waiting for the cashier to see you, You can’t leave the line, you can’t go anywhere. You have to wait. There’s so many people in front of you, and there’s so many people behind you, but if this is the line you want to make, just go for it.’ So I was like yes, ‘I am the bank. I’m at the bank right now.’ So you just have to wait never knowing when it’s going to be your chance, your turn. You are going to have a chance, as I believe there’s a space for everybody, and that’s a beautiful thing about Los Angeles too. I’ve seen all the people who are dreaming as big as I’m dreaming too, and I want us to make our dreams come true, all of us. It’s possible, we just need to work hard and do it with our heart, and it’s going to happen eventually.

Oh, I’m very excited because, after the strike, we’re coming back to set for The Residence, the series produced by Shonda Rhymes. I am part of an amazing cast. The story is incredible, it’s a murder mystery in the White House. Uzo Aduba is the lead in this show, and I just can’t wait to be back on set. It’s an amazing character, and I can tell you it’s completely different from the one I’m playing in Griselda. I am very excited about this one. I auditioned for that one while I was nursing my baby.

I’m also still producing for Blue Rabbit Films, my company, we have some great upcoming projects. It’s been amazing being on the other side of the business too, not only in front of the cameras, also being able to give opportunities to people. I love people who inspire me, and I just want keep challenging myself, either in acting or producing.

I want to give voice to not only the women and the female roles that I portray but to the people who work in the industry that like me, believe, and want make dreams come true. For the dreamers, we’re still fighting and just like Sofia, I want to keep opening doors. ‘Cause I think she opened so many doors for us. That’s something that I look forward to.