'Happy Feet 2' Star Sofia Vergara Talks Losing Her Colombian Accent

Let's face it: Dancing penguins with exotic accents are a lot more fun.

But Sofia Vergara didn't always have that mentality. In fact, she tried to "fix" her trademark Colombian accent when she first dove into the acting world. "At the beginning I thought I could fix my accent to make it sound like something else, so I spent a lot of money and time to change it," Vergara told BANG! Showbiz (via New Zealand Herald). "But I was going to auditions and I was putting all my concentration on changing the next word to a different accent so my acting completely disappeared. I was just thinking about the pronunciation. I was getting no response from directors or anything because it was terrible."

Luckily, the "Happy Feet 2" star, who voices the seductive penguin Carmen, had a change of heart. "I think my accent was getting worse and worse with time, so I decided to just try for things where I can use my own accent."

In addition to stealing the show during the Golden Globe nomination announcements with her priceless look of horror when she tried to pronounce "The Artist" and "Hugo" directors' names (Michel Hazanavicius and Martin Scorsese -- hey, they were tough ones!), "Modern Family" would be nothing without the volatile Gloria using the phrase "in my country" at least once an episode.

Nothing beats being true to yourself. Keep making your country proud, Gloria!