Wagner Moura was the “surprise” Best Actor winner at the Golden Globes. That’s what awards-experts said, that it was a surprise. But it wasn’t a surprise to me – Wagner won Best Actor at Cannes, and he’s picked up several critics’ awards as well. The Secret Agent has completely edged out Sentimental Value as the foreign-language favorite and I would be shocked if Moura and the film didn’t get nominated in several Oscar categories. While Wagner is a known quantity because of Narcos and other shows and films, it does feel like he’s building momentum and this might be his moment. The NY Times recently profiled him and this interview is really badass. He talks about Brazil, Brazilian politics, American politics and what it means to be an artist. Some highlights:

He turned down so much work after Narcos: “They were like, ‘Oh, you are a Brazilian actor, you should be so happy with that offer.’ And there was a part of me that felt some sort of pleasure to say, I’m not going to do that.”

His late father: “He wasn’t politically active, but there was a matter of values, the way you should behave as a person. I don’t want to sell myself as a moral compass, but I stick to who I am and the things that I believe are right. That’s kind of a cocky thing to say, but I will say it anyway. I’m almost 50, so [expletive] it.”

He hasn’t lived in Brazil in years, and he knows Brazilians have mixed opinions: Just a few years ago, when Jair Bolsonaro was president, he helped turn much of the population against Moura for openly criticizing the right-wing government. “Politically, I’ve never shied away from saying what I thought was right, even if I had to pay the consequences of that,” Moura said.

Brazil’s diversity: “The Brazilian passport is the most wanted passport on the black market because everyone can be Brazilian. You don’t look at the passport and go, ‘I don’t think so.’ Everyone can be Brazilian — you, me, everybody.”

How he feels about Brazil: But for all he loves about Brazil — like the warmth of its people and cultural icons like the singers Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil — Moura will not hesitate to confront its problems or the politicians who exploit them. “It’s beautiful, but also Brazil is violent, it’s elitist, it’s misogynist, it’s homophobic. And Bolsonaro is a manifestation of all that.”

The right-wing backlash against him in Brazil: “When they say that we artists are this intellectual elite that’s against the people, people buy that. It’s like the old manual of fascism where they attack press, artists, universities, things like that. And [Bolsonaro] was very effective.”

On American politics: Moura pointed out that, like President Trump, Bolsonaro claimed the election was stolen from him and encouraged his supporters to storm the capital. The crucial difference came afterward, when the Supreme Court responded by sentencing Bolsonaro to house arrest and blocking him from pursuing political office until 2060. “It was fascinating how Brazil was super fast in sending people to jail, finding the financiers, and taking away Bolsonaro’s political rights. Are the institutions in Brazil stronger than the U.S.? I don’t think so. But in my opinion, that happened because Brazilians know what a dictatorship is.”

He doesn’t want to be typecast in American projects: “Maybe it’s some sort of anti-colonialism thing. I’ve never done anything for money or because it’s a big Hollywood thing that everybody’s going to see. And especially after ‘Narcos,’ I don’t want to do anything that would stereotype Latinos. I want to go for the same characters that white American actors my age are going for. I want to play characters named Michael who speak the way I speak.”

[From The NY Times]

“Are the institutions in Brazil stronger than the U.S.? I don’t think so. But in my opinion, that happened because Brazilians know what a dictatorship is.” I think this is an important point, and it also goes to how non-Americans view Americans. They think we’re all idiots for believing in the fairy tale of American institutions which cannot be dismantled. As Moura says, Brazilians were swift to act with Bolsonaro because they had already experienced versions of Bolsonaro before, and they recognized it. Americans saw January 6th and they “reelected” Trump four years later.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.