Sofia Vergara only wanted a small role in 'Happy Feet Two'.

The 39-year-old actress voices a penguin called Carmen in her first ever animated movie, but and was reluctant to accept a bigger part because she isn't used to the genre.

She exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "I knew it was a small role when I did it. It was my first time doing a voice for anything so I didn't want it to be a big role because I didn't want to not be able to cope with it.

"I'm quite new to acting so I prefer to do little things that I think I will be OK to do, rather than bigger parts where people are thinking, 'What is she doing?' "

Despite 'Happy Feet Two' being her first taste at voiceover work, Sofia found the creative process "very easy" and accepted the offer "immediately" when she found out she would be acting alongside Robin Williams, Elijah Wood and Matt Damon.

The brunette beauty - who plays Gloria Delgado-Pritchett in TV sitcom 'Modern Family' - explained: "I wanted to do a film like this for kids and give out a nice message and it's not like I had to do hours and hours of research for this role. It was very easy. I knew I was going to be part of such an amazing cast so I said yes immediately."