This is how the actor playing hitman Jorge Ayala in Griselda got into character

Martín Rodríguez loved digging into the “very attractive and very complex” role of the real-life hitman Jorge Ayala-Rivera in the Netflix mini-series Griselda.

Martín told the Mirror US: “There was an aspect of this character that I found very attractive and very complex to portray,” before he praised the quality of the script of the eight-episode starring Sofia Vergara in the title role of Griselda Blanco.

“The characters in the project were very, very, very well defined and with a clear intention of telling the story that is based on a true story,” he added to the newspaper.

Martín admitted that he didn’t want to consult the real Jorge Ayala, who is currently serving a prison sentence in Florida’s Suwannee Correctional Institution. He is being held there after being found guilty of killing three people in Miami in the early 80s, including a two-year-old boy. After a failed attempt to get out on parole, Jorge’s lawyer, Jim Lewis, declared that he would probably “die in prison”.

During his time with Griselda during her 70s and 80s Medellin cartel heyday, it is believed that Jorge was responsible for more than 30 murders. Instead of calling Jorge up, he opted to get more insight into his world by watching the Miami drug trade documentary Cocaine Cowboys.

Martín also consulted the work of the true king of drama, William Shakespeare, citing Iago from the play Othello as one of the keys that allowed him to lean into his inner hitman “because he was evil but at the same time he was always connecting reality with a superior force between light and darkness.”

Martin dubbed Jorge Ayala a “sorcerer” because he apparently he had a “mystical side” that he needed to be very careful about how much of himself he put into his work as an enforcer for Griselda.

Griselda is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

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