Just two days ago, Wagner Moura was dancing the samba at a Golden Globes afterparty. He’d beaten the likes of Michael B Jordan and Oscar Isaac to become the first ever Brazilian to win the award for Best Actor in a Drama. Still a bit delirious, he was shoved on a plane to London the next day – and now he’s speaking to me over Zoom. In a matter of hours, he’ll be gone again, on to the next stop of the press tour. “It’s brutal, man,” he says, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands.
The 49-year-old is on the campaign trail for The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s blackly funny drama about an academic attempting to flee Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s. Moura doesn’t know it yet, but there’ll be no respite. It’s become an unexpected awards magnet, earning four Oscar nominations (including Best Picture and Best International Feature Film) since our conversation.
