An actor in the mirror

Approaching his 50th birthday, Wagner Moura , owner of one of the most emblematic faces in contemporary Brazilian cinema, looks at his success with serenity. "I have a much greater awareness of what I want for my life, of the kind of artist I am," he says, having just finished playing two related roles.

In theater, he debuted in Salvador in October with "A Trial – After the Enemy of the People," an adaptation of a text by Henrik Ibsen in which he plays the doctor and scientist Thomas Stockmann, a man persecuted for seeking to defend the truth.

In theaters, he can be seen, since Thursday the 6th, in The Secret Agent , by Kleber Mendonça Filho. In the feature film, he plays the role of Marcelo, a professor who, during the dictatorship, finds himself threatened simply for living according to his values. In both, the actor sees a bit of himself – and of his life.

His solid career, which began in theater in his native Bahia and solidified in films such as Deus É Brasileiro (2003), Saneamento Básico, o Filme (2007), and Tropa de Elite (2007), led him to the international market in the last decade. His debut in Narcos in 2015 opened doors for international projects that have kept him based in Los Angeles ever since.

"Art and culture educate the spirit, the soul, the mind, and allow you to see the world in a more empathetic and courageous way."

Therefore, his presence in the country has a certain taste of returning home, both for a return to the stage with "The Trial," which had a short run in Salvador and Rio, and for the launch of "The Secret Agent." It was during the film's screening, at a session during the 49th São Paulo International Film Festival, at the Teatro Cultura Artística, that Moura spoke with CartaCapital.

CartaCapital: The Secret Agent marks your return to a major role in Brazilian cinema after a long time, and your character, Marcelo, is also someone returning to his hometown. What's it like to come back? Wagner Moura: Returning to Brazilian cinema and doing it with Kleber, in the Northeast, in Recife, was very special. This was a project we spent a lot of time on, and I love when things are like that. We nurtured the desire to work together, thinking: "What are we going to talk about?" This film, in some way, happens as a reaction to what we experienced between 2018 and 2022. Both Kleber and I suffered the consequences of the things we did and said (read text on page 50). It's great to be in a more democratic Brazil today, one that values ​​culture more and with a lot of other films premiering. Anyway, this is a question full of meaning for me. In this film, I returned to Recife, a very important city in my life, because it was there that I premiered The Machine (2000). I also started speaking Portuguese again, I started speaking my language again. It was a very happy filming experience from beginning to end.

Journey. “Life is good in the sense that I’m getting to know myself better,” says Moura – Image: Bob Wolfenson

CC: It's a film about your return home, but at the same time it brings you back to the world. The Secret Agent started its career outside of Brazil, in Cannes, with Kleber and you winning awards, and now it's campaigning for an Oscar. WM: It's curious indeed. I'm going back. I came back, and then what? Then it went out into the world. I think that's beautiful. The most important award I won as an actor was this one from Cannes, and winning it with a Brazilian film, after a time working in English and Spanish, is very special.

CC: There's been talk about the good moment Brazilian cinema is experiencing abroad, with *Ainda Estou Aqui*, *O Último Azul*, which won an award in Berlin, and *O Agente Secreto*. What have you noticed in the United States regarding Brazilian cinema? Is there greater interest? WM: *Ainda Estou Aqui* won the Oscar, and that opens people's eyes to Brazilian cinematography. I think the reception of *O Agente Secreto* abroad has to do with the film's merits, which are many, but it also comes in the wake of *Ainda Estou Aqui*. And how beautiful that is. Now, I'm tired of the attacks made by the right wing. Isn't it important for a Brazilian film to travel? A film that, incidentally, generates jobs, income, and drives an industry? If I'm here talking to you today, it's because there were public policies in Salvador in the 1990s that fostered theater. Our film was approved, back then, in a call for proposals from the Audiovisual Sector Fund, and without that, even with several co-productions, the project wouldn't have been made. Then I see a headline, "Wagner Moura receives 7 million reais from the government," as if I had pocketed 7 million. It's such an ugly thing... In the midst of all this, seeing films like Manas and Ainda Estou Aqui representing Brazilian cinema abroad is a relief.

"If I'm talking to you, it's because there were public policies in Salvador in the 1990s that fostered theater."

CC: Marighella (2019), which made you a target of the Bolsonaro government, seems to have marked you deeply. At the time, you told CartaCapital that it was as if the film “marked the end or the beginning of something.” WM: I think I'm still in that territory. The Secret Agent is about someone who wants to remain true to their values ​​when everything around them is the opposite of those values. I talked a lot with Kleber about A Trial, an adaptation of Ibsen that I wrote with Christiane Jatahi and Lucas Paraizo. The play is about someone who goes to the end for the things they believe in, despite the lies, the fallacy, the infamy. I think the characters are always an amalgam between yourself and what was written, and I feel imbued with these characters. Thomas Stockmann, the Norwegian doctor in the play, and Marcelo talk a lot. The play is about truth, and presents a dichotomy between moral imperative and economics. There's a guy who discovers something and says, "I need to tell the truth about this." And another says, "Look, if you tell the truth about this, the community won't survive because the city's economic base is this lake that you say is contaminated."

CC: Do you have any desire to return to directing? WM: I have a project in the United States called Last Night at the Lobster, in which I will direct and act. The film is based on a book by Stewart O'Nan, about a group of employees of a popular restaurant chain who are fired a week before Christmas. It's an anti-capitalist Christmas film.

Back on stage. A Trial – After the Enemy of the People premiered in Salvador – Image: Caio Lírio

CC: What has it been like living in the United States under Trump? WM: It's a bit like the air is heavier, but that's a subjective feeling. What I've seen, more pragmatically, is immigrants being treated like criminals. People go to school and church wearing masks, and if they see someone who looks Latino, they stop them, ask for their ID, and deport them. There's a clear authoritarian escalation in the country.

CC: Your career there went very well… WM: I don't like the word career. It's my life. And it's neither there nor here. It's everything: The Secret Agent, the play… Life is good in the sense that I'm learning more things, as an artist, a citizen, a father; I'm not stuck on screens, on social media; and I'm getting to know myself better. Art and culture educate the spirit, the soul, the mind and allow you to see the world in a more empathetic, sensitive and courageous way. Today I have a much greater awareness of what I want for my life, and of the kind of artist I am.

A country and its labyrinths

“I began to understand that I was writing a period film, but several elements of contemporary Brazil were already present,” says Mendonça.

by Ana Paula Sousa

Release. Director Kleber Mendonça Filho has been traveling the world to present The Secret Agent, winner at Cannes and now showing in cinemas in Brazil – Image: Victor Jucá

When he began developing The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho envisioned a period film set during the Brazilian dictatorship. Little by little, however, he saw the present emerging before him. Echoing Wagner Moura's words, the filmmaker says that the fact that he and the actor became "targets" of the right wing during the Bolsonaro government ended up subtly influencing the conception of the feature film.

“Everything we went through was very instructive, I would say, for writing the script,” he says in an interview with CartaCapital. “There was, for example, the thing about social media, suggesting that we are communists. And then there’s a line in the film: Are you a communist? No, I’m not a communist. Then you’re a capitalist? Okay, then maybe I’m more communist than capitalist.”

While creating the film, he saw the resurgence of words he thought were outdated, such as torture and "soft dictatorship," as well as attacks on the Northeast of Brazil. The filmmaker then realized something that is now evident to anyone who sees The Secret Agent: "I began to understand that I was writing a period film, but several elements of contemporary Brazil were there."

The setting in which the plot unfolds is one of suspicion and lurking violence. The film begins in 1977, when Marcelo (Wagner Moura), a university professor, arrives in Recife, fleeing something unknown to the viewer.

Characterized by a labyrinthine structure and a way of being that we consider typically Brazilian, The Secret Agent has been very well received abroad. Selected for the Cannes Film Festival competition, the film left in May with four awards – including best actor and director.

Although Mendonça didn't understand it at the time, the Oscar campaign was beginning there. Upon returning to Brazil last week for the film's release in the country, the director posted on his Instagram: "38 days away from Brazil, seven countries, an important stage of the travels for The Secret Agent completed."

The film's nomination to represent Brazil at the Hollywood awards was the green light for Neon, the film's distributor in the United States, to reinforce its efforts: "Neon created an agenda, a roadmap, aimed at making the film increasingly well-known and placing it in prestigious situations."

The director says he derives great pleasure from traveling to promote the film. According to him, there are the meetings, the conversations with critics, and also the opportunity to see his work projected in some of the best cinemas in the world.

Among them are the Grand Théâtre Lumière in Cannes; the State Theatre in Sydney, a listed building from 1929; the Alice Tulley Hall, which hosts part of the New York Film Festival program; and the Teatro Cultura Artística itself, in São Paulo, where the film was screened on Tuesday, October 28th.

Even before the Cannes Film Festival ended, The Secret Agent had been sold by MK2, the film's French co-producer, to 94 countries. "Bacurau and Aquarius also had very broad international distribution, but The Secret Agent has the widest of all," says the director who, starting this week, will finally know how his new story, once again so relatable to us, will resonate here.

Published in issue no. 1387 of CartaCapital , on November 12, 2025.

This text appears in the print edition of CartaCapital under the title 'An actor in the mirror'.