Wagner Moura Is Making Oscars History with The Secret Agent

"Wagner Moura makes no bones about what in the world makes him angry. The star of The Secret Agent, and first Brazilian to be nominated for a best actor Academy award, is the face of the fury and compassion coursing through the simmering political thriller from Kleber Mendonça Filho, set amid the Brazilian military dictatorship of the 1970s. "My temperature in life is more explosive when it's about injustice," Moura tells me when we sit down to talk at the London Film Festival in October, months before the Academy chose its nominees. "I'm more like fuck you, kind of thing.""

"In the film he plays Armando, a widowed technology expert evading persecution from corrupt officials and loathsome hitmen. In 1977, he sneaks back to Recife under the alias Marcelo to reunite with his son before fleeing the country. "[Armando] couldn't be like that because he has his son to take care of. He's being more stoic because he's been suffering, he lost his wife and [has endured] so many injustices, but there is an ultimate thing that matters more than himself, which is his kid. I think that's a very important thing.""

"Before The Secret Agent, Moura was familiar playing cops, criminals and spies wedded to their specific historical and political moment. His stardom in Brazil was launched with José Padilha's controversially badass Elite Squad films; he played Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar for two immensely popular seasons of Netflix's Narcos; and in Olivier Assayas ' mostly forgotten period espionage film Wasp Network, Moura played Juan Pablo Roque, a Cuban exile in Miami who worked as a spy for the Castro administration."

Wagner Moura channels anger toward injustice in a 1970s-set political thriller, portraying Armando, a widowed technology expert hiding from corrupt officials and hitmen. Armando returns to Recife in 1977 under an alias to reunite with his son before fleeing the country, balancing stoicism and paternal devotion after losing his wife. Moura's performance is principled, melancholic and charismatic, matching Kleber Mendonça Filho's script that blends 1970s paranoia-thriller influences with reflective commentary on Brazil's dictatorship. Moura's prior roles include Elite Squad, Narcos' Pablo Escobar, and Wasp Network's Juan Pablo Roque, marking this as his richest character yet.

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