Wagner Moura on “secret agent” and breaking Latino stereotypes

Wagner Moura Is not a stranger with intense roles, but its most recent performance in Kleber Mendonca Filho “A secret agent“It can be the one that defines his career, at least in the American audience.

Brazilian actor, known to the American Festival in Cannes, in Political Narroma, Brazil, because the film at the festival, and now became Moura in Riera, and now it is on Festuride Goura asses Guzl Serious claim for the best actor.

Seted during the Refiree Carnival, a historic political thriller follows Marcel while trying to escape the persecution while connecting with its alienated son. For Moura, the role was also a refund and refund.

“It was relieved to do something in Portuguese again,” says Moura Variety. “The last time I behaved in my own language more than a decade. To go back to my home, to work with Kleber – it was like I was going back to the roots why I became an actor.”

Moura and Mendonca Filho’s connection date back for almost two decades, when the actor first encountered points and later, his breakthrough “adjacent sounds”. Moura remembers to meet him in Cannes in 2005. year, when Mendonca movily was still a critic.

“He is my cinematographic soulmate” “Moura action.” He is deeply politically, but also deeply Brazilian. He can handle the influences of American films in the 1970s – lens, structure – and do it only in Brazil. That’s rare. ”

This creative fusion paid off in Cannes. The “secret agent” was one of the most famous titles of the festival, conquering the best director, Fibresca award and ART House Cinema, together with his own honor of Moure. She would pick him up Neon and now gets full court campaign Oscar, looking for Noms for an international feature and even the best picture.

Although Marcelo is a central character, the emotional heart of the film lies in his broken relationship with his son Fernad. Moura admits that he approached the role in phases, first settled by Marcelo completely before the spacing of Fernand.

“I wanted people to feel like looking two different people,” he says. “For me, it was that it meant that the child didn’t know he didn’t know her father. My father passed away. That father’s father and son is what he’s moving me.
It compares the emotional intensity to play the hamlet in the early 30s. “It was the biggest behavior of my life. And this movie touched the same part of me.”

If Moura’s performance in the “secret agent” translates into the Oscar nomination, it would mark the historical milestone. In almost centuries of academia, only five Latin American people have ever been appointed the best actor – including Jose Ferrer, Anthony Kuinn, Edward James Olmos, Demian Bichir and Colman Domian. Moura not only joined his lines as six, but would ever be the first year after Fernand Torres “I was still here” Fernanda Montenegro, following her mother Fernanda Montenegro. “I’m still here” I also picked up a surprise (and earned) the nomination for the best picture and continued to win an international function, first for the country of Brazil.

Since “Narcos”, Moura was selective because of his roles in the United States. “Can you imagine the amount of offers I have to play drug dealers after that?” He says, shaking his head. “I felt responsible as a Latino actor not to strengthen stereotypes. I want the same type of role to be offered every white American actor. It is a real fight.”

He remembers constantly pushing whether the characters be Brazilian, not generically “Latino”. “It’s weird – people rarely think of Brazilians when they say Latino. But I insist on it. Why not Brazilian?”
Beyond acting, Moura stepped back behind the camera again. His feature 2017 year “Mariggella” was engaged in a dictatorship. The following is “last night on the lobster,” the adaptation of English on the novel Stewart O’Nan, produced by Peter Saraf (“Little Miss Sunshine”). The film, which describes the “anti-capitalist Christmas film”, will Zvezda Elisabeth Moss, Brian Tiree Henry and Sofia Carson. Adjust the red lobster franchise to close during a snowstorm per week before Christmas, the story of American holiday tradition with European realism.

“It’s about empathy and generosity. There’s no magic since Santa. Magic comes from people,” says Moura.

Topics of the “secret agent” – memory, truth and resistance – echoed outside of Brazil. Moura sees the echoes between the recent struggles of his country and the democratic challenges of the United States.
“Brazilians know which dictatorship is. Americans don’t,” he says sickly. “That’s why we were effective in defending democracy when our institutions were attacked. Here in the US, people sometimes take democracy for granted.”

He takes care of the truth that becomes transitive. “Facts no longer exist. There are only versions, narratives. It is dangerous.”

With the opening of the “secret agent” in Brazil this November through the display case, Moura stands at the new crossroads in his international career. Still, remains grounded. “It’s about fixing in hard times,” he shares. “This is about this movie. That’s what I want to remember my sons.”