Do we like Wagner Moura?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Decent and on the right side of the harm test, with a long record of using his fame for others; held back from a 9 or 10 by a thin record on LGBTQ+ issues specifically.
Wagner Moura grew up in the north-east of Brazil near Salvador and started doing theatre as a teenager. He has said actors from his region copped prejudice over their accents, and that the roles on offer were mostly stereotypes. After Narcos made him a household name abroad, he knocked back drug dealer and tough-guy parts and waited for something better.
That patience paid off. The Secret Agent won him best actor at Cannes, then the Golden Globe in January, the first for a Brazilian in that category. He added an Oscar nomination (another first for a Brazilian) and a spot on Time's 100 most influential list, though he didn't take the statue home.
His political fights are the story. His directing debut Marighella, about an anti-dictatorship figure, was condemned by then-president Jair Bolsonaro, which effectively stalled its release in Brazil until 2021. Moura says his film was blocked by the government of the day, and told TV Cultura he would not accept the shutting down of debate. Bolsonaro was later sentenced to 27 years for crimes tied to a planned coup, per TheWrap.
On the harm test he comes up clean. Everything we found is aimed at authoritarianism: he called a Bolsonaro family win this year a tragedy, called himself a person of the left, and said in Lisbon that facts seem not to matter any more. In Democracy Now he also warned the left is disconnected from ordinary people, which is not the line of a bloke who thinks he's always right. On LGBTQ+ issues specifically, honestly, nothing turned up either way.
The recent stoush is with pastor Silas Malafaia. The day after the Globes, Malafaia posted that Moura was a “cretino” who should live in Cuba, and argued public culture funding amounts to buying consciences. Moura has filed a defamation and insult complaint seeking R$100,000. Malafaia has told the press he would have to sue hundreds of thousands of people who think the same, and says his criticism was political. No ruling yet.