Wagner Moura’s moment is now. He wants to bring all of Brazil with him

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The stakes are high for the characters that Brazilian actor Wagner Moura takes on.

I’ve always been struck by how the actors this director chooses—often intense, troubled men—seem to actively resist the world around them. Whether they’re playing leaders, ordinary people, rebels, or those in charge, they’re always challenging things as they are. And honestly, that rebellious spirit is a big part of what makes him such a compelling filmmaker.

Wagener Moura says he often portrays characters with a fiery response to unfairness, which comes through in his performances. He explains that many of his roles embody a powerful drive to challenge and dismantle injustice, reflecting his own passionate reaction to it. He shared this while speaking from Neon’s offices on a rainy afternoon in Los Angeles last November.

After finishing a performance run of the play “A Trial – After An Enemy of the People” in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, Moura has returned to Los Angeles. He’s now spending time with his wife, photographer Sandra Delgado, and their three children. The play is a contemporary adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s classic, “An Enemy of the People,” and was directed by Brazilian director Christiane Jatahy.

He was performing in a play while also promoting his Brazilian thriller, “The Secret Agent,” at fall festivals. The film, set in Recife in the 1970s, explores life in Brazil during the time of a military dictatorship.

I just finished watching this incredible movie by Kleber Mendonça Filho, and I’m still thinking about it! It’s about a man named Armando, played by Moura, who’s running from a painful past after losing his wife. He ends up joining this group of people all trying to disappear, and he takes on a new identity. He’s desperately trying to build a future for himself and his son, but there’s this really awful, powerful guy – someone he confronted back when he was a scientist – who’s hunting him down. It’s amazing to see this ordinary guy transform and basically become a spy just to protect himself and his family. Seriously, it’s a must-see!

Moura appreciates that his character isn’t focused on political upheaval; he’s simply a man staying true to himself and his beliefs. Moura himself projects a mature, handsome, and rugged look with his short, salt-and-pepper hair and beard.

Wagner Moura, age 49, is known for playing a variety of compelling characters, including Pablo Escobar in the popular Netflix series “Narcos,” a brave journalist in the film “Civil War,” and diplomat Sérgio Vieira de Mello in the biographical movie “Sergio.”

Moura doesn’t want to be seen as a revolutionary figure in the film world, understanding he’s still building his career. He’s drawn to politically charged projects, but ultimately, he identifies first and foremost as an actor.

Wagner Moura’s powerful performance in “The Secret Agent,” which opens this Friday, earned him the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Director Kleber Mendonça Filho also won a prize there. The critically praised film has been chosen as Brazil’s entry for the Oscars, and it’s considered a strong contender, recently receiving two awards from the New York Critics Circle.

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I went in with incredibly high hopes, and honestly, the festival delivered! We walked away with ten films that absolutely blew us away – including amazing new work from directors like Lynne Ramsay, Jafar Panahi, and Nadav Lapid. It was a fantastic experience.

According to Mendonça Filho, speaking from New York via Zoom, Wagner is a remarkably insightful person with a deep understanding of life, society, and how people behave. He explains that Wagner is a gifted actor who naturally embodies life’s complexities, which meant Mendonça Filho didn’t need to give much direction. They had spent a long time discussing the film, the character, the current state of the world and Brazil, and even topics like drinking, smoking, and interacting with others – including children – beforehand.

Wagner Moura and Kleber Mendonça Filho first connected at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005. Moura was presenting his film, “Lower City,” a realistic and intense love story. Meanwhile, Mendonça Filho was at the festival both as a film critic and as a new director showcasing a short film.

Discovering they both came from northeastern Brazil – Moura from Bahia and Mendonça Filho from Pernambuco – quickly created a bond between them. There’s a significant divide in culture, race, and wealth between northern and southern Brazil, with the south being the richer and predominantly white part of the country.

As a film lover, I’ve always been fascinated by the subtle layers actors bring to their roles. Director Kleber Mendonça Filho put it really well – when you meet an actor who hails from Brazil’s Northeast, it’s significant. It’s not just about where they’re from, but a whole cultural background and perspective that adds a unique dimension to their work. It’s a complex thing, but meeting someone from that region definitely feels meaningful in the context of Brazilian cinema.

Moura recalls that, as an actor in the 1990s, he used to avoid television work. He explains that actors from his region were often limited to stereotypical roles, like doormen, and their accents were a barrier to getting more substantial parts.

Over time, the two individuals had expressed a wish to collaborate. However, it was their mutual willingness to speak out against the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro – who was recently sentenced to 27 years in prison – that truly brought them together. Their open criticism made them targets of the country’s extreme right-wing groups.

Mendonça Filho explains that the film’s success unexpectedly made them a target for Brazilian fascists. He and other filmmakers started regularly checking in with each other, sharing how they were coping with the resulting attention and forming a strong bond through the shared experience.

“We both paid the price for this,” says Moura, referring to the difficulties surrounding his first film as a director, “Marighella.” The movie, a political drama about the life of Carlos Marighella – a Black Brazilian writer who became a revolutionary – first shown at the Berlin Film Festival in 2019, wasn’t released in Brazil until 2021. “My film was censored,” Moura explains. “They created obstacles that prevented its release.”

“The Secret Agent” marked Wagner Moura’s return to Brazilian cinema after more than ten years. Due to commitments to projects abroad, the Bolsonaro administration, and the COVID-19 pandemic, he hadn’t been able to take on a significant acting role in his home country, in Portuguese, until this film.

Mendonça Filho was initially concerned that Wagner Moura, having spent a long time working outside of Brazil, might arrive on set with a demanding, Hollywood-style attitude. However, the director says Moura quickly proved those worries unfounded, demonstrating a willingness to adjust to the needs of the project and a sharp intelligence.

Despite achieving success in English-language movies and TV shows—starting with the 2013 film “Elysium,” where he acted with Matt Damon and Diego Luna—Moura has remained grounded and hasn’t changed his personality.

Moura recalls an agent once advising him to make certain compromises for success, but he refused. He’s proud that throughout his career, even when struggling financially, he’s never taken a role he felt ashamed of or done something just to advance his career or pay the bills.

Not every actor can say that about their career, I suggest.

I’m not saying I haven’t made mistakes, but my heart was always in the right place. You can’t always predict the outcome, and I’ve always pursued things because I genuinely believed they’d be amazing. I’ve never been motivated by money, or using something as a means to an end, or worrying about how many people would see my work. That’s never mattered to me.

This approach held true even for some of his more unusual roles, such as voicing the Wolf in “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.” He saw even that animated film as a chance to develop his skills as an actor.

I used to worry about how naturally I spoke English – not my accent, but whether my word choices felt authentic,” Moura shares. “Eventually, I realized I just needed to be myself, and playing Wolf in ‘Puss in Boots’ really helped me with that.

Animator Ricardo Moura is gaining recognition, even among his heroes. He recently met director Ryan Coogler, who confessed to studying Moura’s work on “Puss in Boots” when designing the vampires in his film, “Sinners.” Moura was understandably surprised and delighted! His own children are also big fans of the movie.

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Whether you’re interested in potential Oscar winners like “Marty Supreme,” featuring Timothée Chalamet, or a fresh take on the classic “Anaconda,” the last part of 2025 promises a variety of entertainment options.

As I’ve become more connected to life in the US, I can’t help but see some really unsettling similarities between what happened back home in Brazil with Bolsonaro, and what’s going on in American politics right now. It’s something that’s been on my mind a lot.

According to Moura, we’re seeing a rise in authoritarianism in the United States. However, she believes these moments actually highlight how crucial democracy is. Americans often assume democracy is guaranteed, but when a government starts to act in an authoritarian way, it serves as a reminder that protecting democracy requires constant effort and vigilance. It’s a wake-up call to actively fight for it every day.

Growing up in a modest household with a mother who stayed home and a father who served as an Air Force sergeant, Moura attributes his strong sense of fairness to the hardship he saw during his youth. He now works with the International Labor Organization as an advocate fighting against modern slavery.

He began acting at fifteen with a teen theater group, but he also pursued journalism in college and briefly worked as a newspaper reporter.

I have a lot of friends who are journalists, so I enjoyed playing one in both ‘Civil War’ and ‘Shining Girls.’ I really believe journalism is incredibly important, particularly today.

Though he initially enjoyed the social scene, acting eventually became Wagner Moura’s true passion. He’s particularly well-known in Brazil for his role as a morally ambiguous businessman in the hit 2007 soap opera, “Paraíso Tropical.” He fondly recalls his time working on soap operas, saying it made him feel deeply connected to his Brazilian identity and culture.

José Padilha’s intense 2007 crime thriller, “Elite Squad,” and its follow-up, “Elite Squad: The Enemy Within,” feature Wagner Moura as the formidable Captain Roberto Nascimento. Padilha himself notes Moura’s natural understanding of political dynamics.

While reviewing the footage in post-production, it became clear that Wagner was the standout performer,” Padilha explained during a phone interview from his home in Los Angeles. “Because of this, I had to re-record the narration to shift the focus from one character to another.”

Wagner Moura’s character, Captain Nascimento, wasn’t initially intended to be the central figure of the film. However, Moura’s performance was so compelling that the director gave the character more focus. Director José Padilha first noticed Moura in the comedy film “God Is Brazilian,” and despite the vastly different styles of the two movies, Padilha believed Moura was a remarkably versatile actor.

Moura and Padilha connected again after both ended up working in the United States. When Padilha spoke with Netflix’s Ted Sarandos about the show “Narcos,” Sarandos asked who he envisioned playing Pablo Escobar. Padilha immediately said Wagner Moura, confidently telling Sarandos that Moura was fluent in Spanish. In reality, Moura wasn’t.

Padilha laughs when recalling how easily he made his decision. He explains it was a natural choice, like automatically naming Pelé as the best player for the No. 10 position on a soccer team – he didn’t even need to consider other options.

Wagner Moura personally funded a trip to Medellín, Colombia, to learn Spanish at the university once attended by Pablo Escobar. According to director José Padilha, Moura always follows his instincts when making decisions, rather than planning things out in advance.

Padilha insists that Wagner is uncompromising. He believes no amount of money could ever influence the group’s artistic vision.

Moura tends to speak quickly, especially in English, almost as if he’s eager to share his thoughts but also unsure of himself. When I told him I was from Mexico, he briefly started speaking in Spanish. He commented on the irony of two people from Latin America conducting an interview in a language that isn’t native to either of us.

He playfully scolds me, calling me ‘cabrón’ and pointing out that I’m Mexican and we’ve been speaking English the whole time, saying it all in Spanish with a bit of frustration and amusement.

He’s currently working on being more authentic and genuine in his performances, and he wants to explore this idea even more.

Moura says his characters increasingly represent his own thoughts and actions – how he would react in similar circumstances. He also notes that because Kleber specifically wrote ‘The Secret Agent’ with him in mind, both he and Kleber are heavily reflected in the character.

He describes Kleber as being very reserved. From the start, he envisioned the character as someone who keeps his emotions hidden, fiercely protects his child, and avoids drawing any attention to himself. Everything the character experiences happens internally.

Moura, with experience in multiple languages and cultures, observes that professionals from other countries hoping to succeed in the U.S. frequently feel pressure to fit in, sometimes at the cost of their own identity.

When I first began working here, someone suggested I try performing with a typical American accent. But I always responded that this was simply how I naturally speak. I believe bringing my Brazilian background to my work makes me a more compelling artist, rather than attempting to conform and be someone I’m not, as Moura explains.

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2025-12-03 14:05