It’s easy to forget that characters on our screens are different people in real life because we get used to the way they act, think, listen and speak. Wagner Moura has proved that when working on the series Narcos, he has learnt many things and worked with so many different people.
Wagner Moura, the lead actor in Narcos, started an Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit which was followed by fans saying how much they enjoyed the show and his other work. It all started with a personal message from Moura reminding us all that the 2nd December is International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. This is a date the actor keeps close to his heart because, as stated by him, Brazil is the leader in the fight against modern slavery.
Narcos is a series that you definitely have to constantly concentrate on considering the use of Spanish. However, one major thing I picked out from this AMA was that Moura did not speak Spanish before starting the show. He also goes on to tell his viewers that accents are not his main concern when filming but learning Spanish was difficult. Well, he convinced me, but perhaps that’s because I only speak one language.
One person questioned Moura over what state of mind he had to be in to play a ruthless and powerful character, which is understandable considering how deep the series gets into death and Pablo’s ease of making things happen. The actor responded by saying that you have to be able to deal with your own energy to make sure you don’t get drawn into the character you play. He went on to say how he dealt with ‘bad vibes’ when playing Pablo and it makes me wonder how different this could be when filming. This is because in the series Pablo is mostly seen telling other people to carry out his dirty work for him.
As many of you may know, Moura had to gain weight to play the part of Pablo Escobar. One viewer decided to question him on whether he could now lose the weight and Moura replied saying that for now he will ‘keep on eating delicious Colombian food’. I guess this comes as no surprise, considering Pablo went into hiding. So what comes next? The question looms about whether the next season will be much of the same or whether Pablo ends up in more of the physical action, not just the background noise.
Undoubtedly, Moura is faced with personal difficulties when filming a series that moves location. In the AMA he said that the hardest part about filming Narcos is being away from his wife and 3 children. In the series, it often feels like Pablo only cares about power and, to some extent, his family. He would go to extreme lengths to protect his family but he never seemed to be around them. It’s nice to see the soft side of the actor himself and we know how sincerely he meant that response as he added ‘definitely’ on the end of his comment.
When considering the theme of the series, the rise of the drug trade, it’s difficult to gage what the reaction would be. You either love it or you hate it and in this case, Moura accepted that the show was different to many other series currently out there.
What Wagner Moura Taught Us
- He could not speak Spanish before the show
- Actors from Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Chile worked on the show
- Moura’s favourite scenes from the first series were in La Catedral in episodes 9 and 10
- There is a tradition in Brazil in doing political films
- There is no country in the world that has the laws against slavery that Brazil does
- Despite the subject of the series, there is a fun environment when filming
- Moura didn’t know anything about Pablo Escobar or Colombian modern history before he arrived there
- The actors tried to learn the ‘paisa’ accent
- His next big project involves directing a film about a Brazilian guerrilla called Carlos Marighella
