Sofía Vergara: Female stars need to push themselves

Sofía Vergara urges female actresses to take risks, as it's not like they're performing "brain surgery".

The 42-year-old actress' role as Gloria on award-winning show Modern Family has landed her the title of highest paid actress on TV three years in a row, with the star earning $140 million between June 2013 and June 2014. She has also made her mark on the big screen in films such as Fading Gigolo and Chef, and encourages women in the industry to branch out with their choice of projects.

"You really don't have anything to lose if you are in the entertainment business, because it's not like we're doing brain surgery where you can actually kill someone," she told Time magazine. "The worst thing that will happen is nobody goes to your movie. So I try to take risks and have fun with it."

In Modern Family Gloria is a mom to teenage son Manny (Rico Rodriguez) and another baby boy. Sofía's alter ego is fiercely protective of her eldest child, and the star can relate to her mother's intuition. Sofía has son Manolo, 22, with ex-husband Joe Gonzalez.

"Yes, of course. I'm a Latin mother, so it's like we never let go of our kids," she smiled. "My son is almost done with college now, and I'm already like, 'So you're coming back home, right?'"

Sofía has overcome a lot in her life, such as suffering from thyroid cancer. She had her thyroid removed and still takes medication to control hypothyroidism, and remembers how difficult it was to tell her son at the time.

"It was scary, because I was only 28 years old. When they tell you you have cancer, you don't know that much about it and think you're going to die immediately," she recalled. "That's why it's important to educate yourself. When I told him, I tried to not panic him, because it's your kid and you don't want him to have a horrible time dealing with it. I tried to make it as light as I could."