Who is Rivi in ​​'Griselda'? Martín Rodríguez on playing the hitman

The following article contains spoilers for Netflix's “Griselda.”“

In 1998, convicted hitman Jorge “Rivi” Ayala reached a deal with the Miami-Dade County state attorney's office to testify against his former boss, Griselda Blanco, the famous Colombian drug trafficker who built a vast empire as a cocaine trafficker during the 1970s and 1980s.

But in a twist of fate, Ayala weaponized his charm by having sexually explicit telephone conversations with secretaries working in the prosecutor's office, resulting in a political scandal that made his testimony inadmissible and helped reduce the murder charges of White to second grade.

That real-life event serves as the final, stranger-than-fiction plot twist in Netflix's “Griselda,” a six-part drama series chronicling the meteoric rise and epic fall of Griselda Blanco (played by Sofía Vergara), a drug queen. she who was believed responsible for countless homicides during that violent period in Miami's history.

While many of Blanco's inner circle turned against her or were murdered over the years, Ayala, played by Argentine actor Martín Rodríguez in “Griselda,” remained one of her closest confidants. In 1993, Ayala pleaded guilty to three contract killings, including the murder of Johnny Castro, the young son of one of Blanco's former enforcers, but she is believed to be responsible for about three dozen murders. Ayala is currently serving a life sentence in a US prison and would be deported to his native Colombia if he is released.

“We like to think that Rivi did this on purpose as a gift to her, as a sacrifice, as a final act of loyalty. That happens? We do not know. But she feels good,” says Eric Newman, co-creator and executive producer of “Griselda.” “Here's this guy who had pure love for her and let her cum. And by the way, Griselda doesn't get off. She loses her children, she loses 20 years of her life and, a few years later, she is shot to death, so it is certainly a tragedy. But that gesture had, for us, almost kindness.”

Having grown up in Latin America, where Blanco is often compared to the likes of Pablo Escobar, Rodríguez says he approached “Griselda” with some preconceptions about Blanco, but recognized that the producers wanted to offer a new take on the typically masculine film. . narco history Rodríguez says he auditioned for a few roles in the series before being offered the role of Ayala, whom the actor describes as a bit of a mystic with a feminist side and an unconditional love for Blanco.

“I thought that this character came from living a very difficult life and is tired of a world where men exercise violence to become powerful, so that feeling of resentment leaves him ready to contribute to Griselda's work,” says Rodríguez, 45 years. in a Zoom interview. “She has, as we say in Spanish, blood in the eyelike a feeling of revenge.”

“I think Rivi's story (and I've thought about this quite a bit) is about a guy who for a moment thinks he has a heart,” Newman says. He is “a guy who begins to feel something that he has never felt before, which is this asexual connection with Griselda. I think he's a little confusing. I don't think it's as simple as, 'Oh, I want to join this person because I think she's going to go far.' …There was almost a kind of obsession there, and we liked that.”

Early in the investigative process, Newman says he and his longtime collaborator Doug Miro heard a story from a former Miami Police Department detective about how Ayala became involved with the Blanco cartel, which differs from how it is portrayed in “Griselda.” As Newman recalls from the conversation with the detective, Ayala had been caught stealing the car of Blanco's third husband, Darío Sepúlveda (played by Alberto Guerra in the series). To avoid being killed, Ayala agreed to carry out a hit on one of Blanco's enemies at a nightclub, only to meet a friend and reveal her plan. With one last shot, Ayala ended up killing not only her intended target but also the friend who blew her cover.

“Clearly, the things he does [are] almost without conscience, but we also love the idea of ​​this character without conscience on Griselda's shoulder,” says Newman. “You have a limited amount of sympathy for someone who is going to do these horrible things, and you just have to maximize it,” he adds.

Using transcripts of statements, news articles and interviews of Ayala in the 2006 documentary “Cocaine Cowboys,” Newman and his creative team were able to cobble together other details about Ayala's life. For example, he was born with a distinctive high-pitched voice, and his nickname, Rivi, was based on a Colombian cartoon character named Rivera, who was a roadrunner with a high-pitched voice, Newman says.

Instead of trying to be like Ayala, Rodríguez says he worked closely with executive producer and director Andrés Baiz “to create a character with a complex personality and a specific humanity that showed how he became her right-hand man” amid the turmoil of 80's years. . The character required a certain eccentricity, which according to Rodríguez is manifested through his image, costumes and behavior. The actor says he was especially inspired by the music and poetry of Jim Morrison.

Although “Griselda” is based on true events, Newman is quick to emphasize that his team exercised their creative license to tell this version of Blanco's (and Ayala's) story. The real-life Ayala “was practically raised in Chicago” and “speaks English without an accent,” while his on-screen counterpart speaks with a thicker accent. The writers created Ayala's association with Amílcar (José Zúñiga), a Venezuelan drug trafficker who partners with Blanco but is eventually detained by authorities in a shootout.

Martín Rodríguez says he was inspired by Jim Morrison for the character.

(ELIZABETH MORRIS/NETFLIX)

Ayala “was a kind of charming sociopath who helped us with a fundamental component of Griselda's character that seemed to have been neglected in every story we had heard, which was [that] “She inspired tremendous loyalty,” says Newman, who also co-created the “Narcos” series.

Previous retellings of Blanco's life story have portrayed her as nothing more than an “ugly, murderous, treacherous beast,” Newman continues. “What I discovered in my research, in all my years of chronicling drug traffickers – and certainly the big ones – is that it is usually a small part of her personality that usually manifests itself later in her career and then leads to the fall from it. But there is always a moment when you almost love them.”

Throughout the six months of filming, Rodríguez says he constantly asked himself, “If Rivi doesn't want power or money, why is he helping Griselda for nothing?” The actor compares the relationship between Griselda and Rivi to that of Bonnie and Clyde. “They are two people who are living consciously [through] dangerous situations,” he says. “There is an escalation of adrenaline that unites them, they feed off each other and cannot stop because it is their way of life. And even though they are criminals, they protect each other until the end.”

That kind of fierce devotion may also be a reason why many people felt compelled to do things they normally wouldn't do around Blanco, Newman says.

“There has to be a reason, in such a male-dominated world, why she was able to do this, and it's the same reason that was applied to the Marielitos, the Cubans,” she says. “I never met her, but for us it was something maternal. It was kind of, 'Unlike the men who want to subjugate you, I actually want to take care of you,' until, of course, that gets lost in the story, and I think Rivi gets caught up in that.”

When they learned about Ayala's phone sex scandal, the writers knew they wanted to follow up with her and Blanco's arrests in the series finale “Griselda.” Much like the real-life event, in the series, Ayala robs a bank after employees refuse to give him change to make a phone call, leading to his arrest by authorities.

“The cops who were chasing Griselda knew that if they found this guy who was missing, it would be a huge victory,” Newman says, “so when they got that photo and knew they had this guy in custody, it was a huge joy.” moment for them.”

While Ayala's motivations for his actions are unknown, the writers wanted to give him some ownership in the phone sex scandal, choosing to believe he did it to save Blanco from serving a longer sentence, Newman says. (Blanco was released from prison in 2004 and deported to Colombia, where she was fatally shot in 2012.)

“Given that we give him credit for getting her off of all these murder charges that he ends up being convicted of, I think he really feels [something about what he has done]and I think he barely finds his humanity,” he adds.

Vergara is the star of “Griselda,” but the series features a large cast with actors like Vanessa Ferlito (“CSI: NY,” “24”), Guerra and Christian Tappán, who each have a long list of Spanish-language credits. . soap operas, and even reggaeton artist Karol G in her acting debut. Newman estimates that at least 80% of the cast and crew were made up of Latin Americans, and there are several Colombians in particular, including Vergara and Baiz. Rodríguez is among the stars of the cast of newcomers (at least for American audiences).

“I don't think it could be done any other way because authenticity is too important to me,” Newman says. “All these millions of people are going to see 'Griselda' and they are going to discover Alberto Guerra, Christian Tappán, Martín and, of course, some of the Americans like Juliana. [Aidén Martinez]. “I'm delighted that they reach such a wide audience that it may encourage people to seek out other films and shows that feature them.”