Aliya Abreu
Wagner Moura, known around the globe for his role as Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar on the Netflix series Narcos, on Tuesday told his fans at the 50th IFFI that he now going to direct “Narcos: Mexico.” Moura’s announcement was met with cheers from the audience at the Maquinez Palace, where Moura was “In-Conversation” with Indian film critic Rajeev Masand for the session The Magnificent Artists on the seventh day of the international film festival.
Although Moura is at IFFI to promote his film “Marighella” which he has directed, much of the discourse with Masand centered around Narcos, given the magnitude of the series.
Speaking more about his new role in Narcos: Mexico as director, Moura said, “I don’t feel like I’m a director. I’m an actor, but I know the show very well. I love the guys there, we’re friends, so I think I’m gonna do it.”
Masand then asked Moura whether it felt strange to be on a Narcos set and not acting his role as Escobar, but Moura responded with, “I don’t think so.” He also recounted a “weird” moment in Narcos : Mexico where he had to come back after a one year break. Physically, he had already gotten out of character a bit, and lost his Escobar moustache. “I didn’t have the moustache, so they put a wig on me, and a moustache. I felt like I was an imitation of myself. That was really weird. But the scene ended up good,” he recalled.
Moura further added that after playing the role of the Colombian drug lord, he is not recognised practically everywhere he goes. “Narcos was a great journey for me. Anywhere and everywhere I go, people have seen Narcos,” he said.
Speaking about how Netflix has changed the movies and series scene, Moura said that Netflix changed the way audio-visuals are being perceived all over the world. “Narcos is probably the first series not in English that made Americans read sub-titles. I remember when we were shooting the series, we were like, this is not gonna work. Probably Hispanic-speaking countries are gonna like it, but we never imagined (this rate of success),” he recounted.
“The best part about moving to Columbia to shoot Narcos was that I felt for the first time that I belonged to something bigger than Brazil. Usually, Brazil is isolated “These are the countries where the war on drugs are really taking place. I learnt a lot about that. For the first time I felt I was more than just Brazilian, I felt Latin American.”
The star also said it took him a considerable time to get out of the Escobar character.
