'Narcos' Wagner Moura On His Role As Pablo Escobar | Los Angeles Times

[Music] hello welcome to our Emmy contender chat at the Los Angeles Times I'm Lorraine Ollie and I am television critic for the Los Angeles Times and I am here with Wagner Moura who's just come off two seasons of playing Pablo Escobar on Netflix narcos so welcome thank you thank you very much as a pleasure to be here so how often do you get the comment that you you look very different Wendy it is a great compliment I was I was a I actually lost a lot of weight and then I regain it again I mean I was when I'm in Rio with my kids I'm just eating things in them but I was I gained like 20 40 pounds to play problem and forth and I lost like 15 of those and I'm still working on it wow that's good than someone says that I don't look like him so did you like because you're doing him over two seasons so what is that like three years it was like two years and ask more than that because I had to arrive and I had I arrived in Bullitt in Colombia before everybody even the cool I mean because I when the director invited me to play this part and by that time that six didn't even know what was being considered to play Pablo another thing between the director and myself and then I decided to go to Colombia to learn Spanish and to be there too you know just so I spent like six months living there alone before everybody else arrived and so in total I think that I spent two almost three years to two years and a half of two thousand seven months awesome Wow and it's just it's amazing that you learned Spanish for this yeah you know it's not just like okay I had to get into this role I had to you know do some background on him no you actually had to learn another language yeah which is that must have been Don for every and yeah but at the same time at the same time it was probably the most difficult thing I have ever done as an actor because and I had to learn a language in order to play a character that was really really hard we should Portuguese in Brazil oh I didn't I mean I didn't I mean I had I mean I couldn't understand oh it was Spanish but it's very different right and but at the same time it was something that brought me in a very strong way into the character because it was like I was I was thinking I'm learning your language in order to play you so I was very yeah it started from the very basic ground right so it made me I dedicated a lot to it you know sorted to him so okay so I'm taking it like you agree born and raised and four so yeah correct okay so how much did you know about you know Escobar and the Colombian cartel because this is happening like 80s 90s I know from our perspective in the u.s. we saw it as part of our drug war and all of that like what was it like when you were growing up it was dope we are Brazil was kind of close to Colombia and we have the drug trade is a big deal in Brazil between South America because we are the countries that produce and export drugs even even though I I didn't know much about about Pablo iiiiii was my I remember the thing that I really remembered when I was a teenager I remember the fat guy dad in the rooftop remember the image of him and dad yeah and that was something that caught my attention so when whenever when I was invited to play him I the first image that came to my mind was was the image of him dad but I didn't know much about him actually I and in my trip to Colombia all my adventure in Colombia was also of course learning the language and learning how to speak Spanish which was like I said the basics the basic part of it yeah but I was also there studying you know more than column in history you know because Colombia is a country it very I had to understand the country in order to play that character because it said narcos is also a very very political show yeah in a way so I couldn't in Pablo Escobar was very involved in into the beauty politics while he was or no alive so yeah I had to had to I can't say now that and that was great for me because one of the things that for us Brazilians we're including the greatest things for me to but when I was playing Marcos was the the feeling that I could be part of something bigger than just being Brazilian Brazil is a culture that we don't feel that we are part of South America because we speak Portuguese we're this big country right we consume our own culture so being there and talking about the drug trade which is something that resonates a lot with my daily life again in Brazil and and just in working with actors from Chile Colombia Argentina Mexico all the way I felt for the first time there were I was part of something you know of a culture it was actually bigger than then then being Brazilian and it was really great for me very great part of it I mean that's what was so interesting about watching and which by the way the portrayal you did at him was just fantastic because here's this man that you know is knowing there's there's a lot of like duel images of him you know depending on in in Colombia like where you were some people viewed him as a hero ultimately others as villain vicious yet empathetic towards some of his own people you went into that role and brought an empathy to this character that you know I don't think many people could have done that and I just wonder for you going into it like how much background on him did you look at or was it just sort of like you were formulating this in your head ok like I'm a father I know what it's like to have kids just man Anka you know no it wasn't because I had a cell that I had to I I think I have basically read everything it was about Pablo Escobar both in Spanish and in English so I and like I said about Colombian history and so I observed a lot of that in order to forget all that and to create my own version of hablo Escobar yeah you know what I mean yeah I I didn't try to imitate him or to do but I knew so much about him that because in the end of the day that that's what actors do like I think that all of us even when you play a character that really existed you it's your version of him if another another actor playing Javier Bardem is going to play Pablo Escobar in a femme right and I'm crazy to see in his version of Raynham fine because it's such a great actor and and it's gonna be different like I don't want to compare Pablo Escobar with Hamlet but it's the same when I said I played Hamlet wasn't and I love to see other versions of Hamlet you know because it's a CH actor is going to bring something different to it and so for example I felt I tried all the time to make connections between my own life and the fact that I was away from my family and he was always running and you know I had children that I did then I'm not I wasn't seeing them all the time so there was those were things that I brought to my personal experience all right and because you know you're shooting this in Colombia and and as you're saying it with Pablo and with the whole cartel at that time it was so much more than just the drug trafficking it was politics it was law enforcement it was government what was the reaction of like the people there because everybody was affected if they had lived through that period in different ways were you getting like what was the reaction it is an open score in Colombia yeah it did this have Bobo Tom was the most dangerous city in the world 20 years ago 25 years ago it's so it's of its and now it's the Columbus a very Bobo ties very pretty it's a very modern and city there's they changed a lot the way they rebuilt themselves in it's amazing so it's many people in there they don't like the idea of being stereotyped as you know the country where the cocaine country did and I understand that but at the same time I personally feel that it's a it's important to talk about our past you know our in order to understand the future it's a it's a it's a I like political films and political and I'm directing a film in Brazil now about a Brazilian guerrilla called carlos marighella my guy who was a leader of the resistance in brazil against the dictatorship which is a subject that we avoid in brazil you know because they take a ship was a bad thing in our history but i feel that you have to bring those things the drug trade is a is a is a is probably the biggest problem in our countries you know in south american country in south american countries i unperson aliy i personally think that judge should be legalized because it's that's you know it's proved that the war on drugs is a big flop specially for us countries that produce and export trips because that's where the the war is taking place that's led said that's where poor people in poor neighborhoods are being killed in a war and and so i think that when you when you have a series like marcos when you bring a serious when you can really understand how this all began it it's it brings this subject to the you know to to our daily conversations you know yeah so I think it's it's in politically it's it's important in Colombia was divided I think many people didn't like it because it's it's a recent scar everybody knows someone who was killed right that's what I was wondering like like that would that fall out of it and and and more than that it's an American series I'm talking about them you know it's it's with the brazilian guy playing pub so it's it's not a it's not a it's not easy for them though for us in Anna and that I tell you like the our our concern since the beginning was we never want the narcos to be is serious about to American cool cops that go to a South American country to save people from a bad guy we really wanted it to be as real as possible and the DEA guys where we do real characters in it the United States were involved in basically everything that happened in South America in the last century right early so they are real characters but they are not the the idea of good and bad and evil and it's very like you said in public school Baro is for sure is bad people could see him as a human being and as a kernel that's right yeah yeah and that's how we try to portray all the characters in the show right and that's a really interesting point though to do about like representation of this is an American series and you know the concern that it was going to be viewed as like here come these Americans and Xavier yeah and it so didn't do that yeah well what I thought was really interesting too is that you know whereas in Brazil you're knowing after you are no you not so much here and I think with narcos that's definitely changed um but the whole cast as you were saying you've got people from all over Latin America and that's really fascinating what was it I say yeah that must have been very cool well he was fascinated it was really cool like I said well that was for probably one of the best things for me you know today back to work with Acuras from you know all those countries into and to feel the connections that we had as human beings as Latin South American we have Latin Americans it was really important for me yeah and so just in terms of American television American film farz does a very generic question but I mean just in terms of influences that you had I must let me back up a second growing up did you did you want to get into acting did you know this was like what you were gonna do or I'm a journalist I was agretti Wow graduated I went to yeah I worked but I've been acting since I was fifteen like doing why I was working on the newsroom the newsroom in my hometown and going doing theater at night but you know there was always my my thing my passion was was was you know do something with you know creative right no it's right right so then in terms of American film our American TV was there were there things that at that point were influencing your will you're like resiliency of course I mean we have beatings and so American movies are part of our culture we grew up watching them our concerns for sure is from Steven Spielberg - you know Francis Ford Coppola Martinez courses all the great American masters of films are very well known grain right and I know that you had done I'm just wondering like your path into narcos you had done was a to Brazilian films it was a series yeah we I did this films called it also directed by the same guy who directed narcos which is if Regina okay both very political also it was two films called the lead squad party wanting to those were films that try to understand how the police operated in in in Brazil and because again talking about this war that takes place is in the to take place in the favelas of both you know South American countries there are two ways three ways to three very major to major actors roles to understand this work the police the drug dealers and the people who live in the favelas those are the people who are involved in these in this work that's where people are dying the internet and in this war and padilha at that time decided to make film a film about the police about one of these three care he wanted to make a documentary about him but then the police would never go on camera and say ah we are corrupt and we kill with torture and so he decided to make a feature films and and those films became very very popular in Brazil because there was an immediate connection people would and it's shot in a very document to risk way the commentary like a black a dog with handheld and everything wrong so I can't write on the handheld cameras and you know we a lot of improvising and so people had in Brazil had a very strong connection that there's a social and political connection with those films and at the same time they appear entertainment and that's a very balance of difficult thing to Chucky to trick them to do and so yeah so this films were very very popular in there and also abroad the first elite squadron week we got a Golden Bear in in Berlin with the first film and became very well known even here in Hollywood yeah and you got the Golden Globe nomination for four nor goes right right so interesting because narcos kind of works along that that same prison prism of you know police it's not favelas but it's you know the people in that last episode and this is not a spoiler because I'm just assuming most of you know that look at all of our didn't make it out alive you know well and well for him yes right I was just reading about that you know the attention to detail in that last scene if I'm dying on that rooftop Europe can you talk a little bit about that crazy because we actually shot that scene on the very same rooftop where Pablo was killed so and that and I spent like I said two years doing this character and working with that with those people and the crew and everybody so we all knew that was the that was the end of the road for that character and the fact that he was shot I mean I fell at the very same place where public was what scripted there was a very emotional day III wouldn't know how to describe exactly what we felt that David something really there was an energy around around that that that scene there was and I like this you know I like the way we shot it and I very well directed by my biostat a Colombian director mmm yeah I mean there was something into some weird to say but there was something really beautiful and moving and tragic about it but there was this beauty to it which they did not expect yeah was there you know but also you know for you that the end of Pablo and Marcos narcos was going on crash yeah yeah they did I think that just wrapped the third season which is about the de Cali cartel the idea that the idea was always that - the idea was always to make a serious about the drug trade and we knew that Pablo would last like one or two seasons and if in the first season we we followed ten years of his life I think and a second I was like one year was really dynamic really fast and more second season world war was more was more I think it was more dramatic and first season was more epic in a sense that we were like really trying to explain how the drug trade work and in the second season we were really focusing on Pablo and Iran and in his emotion you know that did default the curve and the curve starts to go yeah go down so we don't see we couldn't see the the the powerful guy and which was very important for me as a Metro because I felt during the whole time that I was kind of making a big film you know that's uh because I knew how my generally actors when they are doing television they don't know how their character is gonna end right and I knew exactly what was going to happen to my character I could build this Ark this prank earth so the second season was very second thing was very important for me for all of us and but they are gonna move on so I think it's now Kali which is very interesting as well it's the Cali cartel they were really different from managing sophisticated drugs so like I said for us actually for everybody because the drug trade is a big deal all around the world but it resonates a lot for me as a Latin American man to understand how this thing happened how it began how the different shades of you know of layers and kinds of people who who who made this thing right where it is today you know you see Mexico now for example how crazy yeah the cartels in there and and I mean you know you brought this up a little bit earlier but like the responsibility of it too because sort of the stereotyping and the idea of I mean there's with that comes a great responsibility in playing Escobar I don't know because you know in terms of Brazil we had talked about this to people asking you oh the Olympics did you go to the Olympics and you're saying at least that's a positive way of thinking of Brazil now yeah I don't know I mean with that with playing Escobar did you feel a great responsibility in a way not to play into those I'd sure yeah I tried not to think about it again but I knew all the time it was a it was a big deal it was the history of Colombia is divided in yeah bit before and after and of the Paulo he was a horrible person he was he did he was a very the amount of people who were killed when he was alive is just crazy but again I think it was I always believed that it was important to tell that story trying to make people you know kind of know very well not even meaning there in Colombia where people basically are aware of everything good yeah Netflix is all around the world and I think it's oh yeah and we have actually questions from some viewers so here's here's from Rebecca what was it like living with an extra 40 pounds and that mustache which Rebecca the professional courtesies ins yeah poor paws were really sad really hard in the beginning was great because it was just eating deliciously and again I just guess it's just work and I just miss professionally I'm doing this for you know for what but at the end of the my body and and I couldn't my body this - I'm still chatty I mean it's I wrapped like I don't know I wrapped like a year ago and I still trying to go back to my former weight which is really how it's easy to gain weight it's really hard to to lose them and I felt anything about that and yeah girl in LA but I felt yeah and I felt that that wasn't my body you know no it wasn't my body so it was I felt like with a lot of lack of energy and you know it wasn't nice it wasn't healthy at all all my bloody the blood texts were they were all like crazy so no I would never do this again but it's like in a way and I think you said this is like shedding Escobar in a way with you're like shedding the pounds so yeah so when I rapped I did his diet like this vegan thing yeah just not only to lose weight but also to get rid of his weight I managed to lose a lot of weight I gained it again a little bit but that was really important to get you know weight of that yeah most morning getting rid of the weight was getting rid of the energy yeah which wasn't cool at all so okay we have another question from Rodrigo now that Pablo is out of the picture will you be involved with the show behind the cameras any chance for flashbacks no I don't think so you know no I would love to you know maybe at some point like it's season five to come back as another character I seen animation a guy with a great body very sexy and but uh clean shaven yeah yeah but no flashbacks no I'm done with Pablo right and you said um you were directing I'm sorry a film yeah are you acting in an hour you know you just directed me okay so this it also sounds a content subject matter have you thought now just also to just to do some light roll at the fun like you have these heavy deal I'll love to you know what one thing that I've ever after doing Pablo I have this absolute publicity in an assault by selfless talking about in a panel about stereotypes and how Latins are portrayed in films and I my goal is to produce content to produce films we're letting people are not seeing the way they are usually seen you know or sexy Latin women or drug dealers or violent things I really want I have this project about this Brazilian un guy called Sergio Vieira de Melo was a very important guy in the UN he was supposed to be the next Secretary General was killed in Iraq in a moment when they attacked the UN headquarters in Iraq so I'm trying my goal now is to produce things where Latins are seen you know with different models for all that nothing I think that representation matters and and I and I I'm into doing this and I wanted to ask you a couple of these little flash questions we asked towards the end of these interviews what was the last show you binge-watched aside from narcos I mean you watch stranger things mmm and I forget it oh dear white people Oh Kasich's that's really that's a great show yeah both early excellent shows what show that you love would you want to sit and watch they wait what show that you loved would you want to sit and watch someone else enjoy for the first time that's a really oddly worded question yeah okay I didn't get it yeah I know you know what let's just skip that one where I didn't write that question I just want you to know if you could go back and be on any classic show what would it be I listen ice I now I now I would love to be poorer sorry nightlife Saturday Night Live at some point of them there would be but I it's not it's already a classic for me though it's it's it's a new show house of cards I think it's a great show yeah yeah so yeah well okay well maybe SNL you can do that the Comey role we never know yeah I'd love to I can be funny thank you so much your this work is really funky commute and thank you for tuning in and you can see more of these chats on LA Times calm thank you

Channel: Los Angeles Times

Views: 2,237,875

Keywords: Pablo Escobar, Narcos, Wagner Moura, Netflix, Emmys, Lorraine Ali, TV, streaming

Id: it5FFr9EscE

Length: 28min 46sec (1726 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 08 2017