Sofía Vergara dyed her hair a darker shade to help her land acting roles.
The Modern Family star, who is a natural blonde, has explained that dying her hair early in her career played a part in her success as an actress.
Sofía told People that when she started looking for work in the U.S. in her early 30s, she realised that she didn't look "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,'" she recalled.
The Colombian actress decided to go brunette to help her land acting jobs.
She told the outlet, "I made the decision to change my hair colour to dark, and that's how I started working."
Sofía, who is the latest global brand ambassador for haircare brand Schwarzkopf, noted that the transition from blonde to brunette was a "hard decision" but "worth the risk".
"At the end of the day, it was hair. It was not like I was cutting my fingers off," the Griselda star stated. "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."
Once she became well-known for playing Gloria Delgado-Pritchett in Modern Family, Sofía was able to experiment with lighter hair colours.
"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 colour.' So I did little by little and it was fine," she said.
