Wagner Moura: "Hollywood must wake up to Trump"
Interview by Nicolas Schaller
Published on
Wagner Moura at the Cannes Film Festival, May 19, 2025. NATACHA PISARENKO/AP/SIPA
Subscribing allows you to gift articles to your loved ones. And that's not all: you can view and comment on them.
Subscriber
Interview: He needs no introduction since his masterful portrayal of Pablo Escobar in the series "Narcos." At Cannes, he returns in "The Secret Agent" by Kleber Mendonca Filho, which we'd love to see on the awards list. Interview with a great guy.
To date, this is our favorite of the festival. "The Secret Agent" by Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho plunges us into 1977 Brazil during the military dictatorship and follows the return home to his beloved city of Recife of a man with a troubled past who introduces himself as Marcello. Having come to find his young son, who is being raised by his in-laws, he reconnects with his past and discovers himself the target of mercenaries tasked with eliminating him. Having said that, nothing has been said about this superb epic, part chronicle, part political thriller, and many other genres, about the history of Brazil and that of Recife, the struggle between private money and public interest, murderous corruption, resistance to power, individual probity, transmission... and the importance of cinema in our lives. Mendonça Filho's beloved themes, whose every film we love, are vying for the Palme d'Or for the third time after "Aquarius" in 2016 and "Bacurau" (Jury Prize in 2019). We'd gladly award him this Palme d'Or. Or the Best Actor award to his lead actor, Wagner Moura, who needs no introduction since his portrayal of Pablo Escobar in the series "Narcos" . A great guy and a real cream of a man, in "The Secret Agent" (in theaters January 14, 2026) as well as on our microphone.
You were born in 1976, a year before the year chronicled in "The Secret Agent." What stories about that time and the military dictatorship have you heard?Wagner Moura I made a film, "Marighella," which takes place at exactly the same time, about Carlos Marighella, a leader of the communist resistance. So the subject was very fresh in my mind. But "The Secret Agent" is not strictly speaking about the military dictatorship, but rather about the…
Article reserved for subscribers.
Log inWant to read more?
All our articles in full from €1
Or
In the Cannes Film Festival 2025 section
Recap Meanwhile, in Cannes… Denzel Washington crowned, Julia Ducournau attempts a double, the Kevin Spacey controversy
Portrait 10 things to know about Julia Ducournau, in the running for a second Palme d'Or at Cannes
Meanwhile , in Cannes… Wes Anderson’s chic casting, Rachida Dati’s lesson and a “scapegoat” film
Meanwhile , in Cannes… Godard and Belmondo are resurrected, Pedro Pascal challenges Trump, Bono has a big head
Recap Meanwhile, in Cannes… A big first for Hafsia Herzi, a western under Covid, Poelvoorde teases Katerine
Portrait of the Northern Neighborhoods of Marseille at the Cannes Film Festival: Who is Hafsia Herzi, director of "La Petite Dernière"?
Topics related to the article
