We’ve seen Wagner Moura in a lot of different roles. In his last movie, The Last House, Wagner is the dad in a family of four who suddenly find themselves sealed inside their home with no way out. Talk about a nightmare. And we talked to Moura about what he’d do in his character’s place, what kind of movie he wants to make, and yes, even what music he listens to.
“I wouldn’t be able to do half of the things that my character does in that movie,” Moura shared. “I would probably just gather the kids and go like, let’s read something. Let’s play some music and hope for the best.”
The movie shows the family watching some movies again and again. Moura shared that “a couple of years ago, I had the chance to show my kids a film that I really love, which is Cinema Paradiso, Giuseppe Tornatore’s film. Cinema Paradiso was something that they loved, and it’s a film that I adore. And probably E.T., which is a family film. Our film kind of pays homage to those 80s films.”
You know, the ones you watch over and over. Like Annie in this particular movie. “I can’t watch Annie again. It’s just that kids… I remember when my kids were little, they had this crazy capacity of watching a movie over and over. I remember one of my kids, he saw Disney’s Cars like a hundred times. I’m like, how can you keep watching this?”
To be fair, if we were trapped in our house, maybe we would.
Moura, however, did have an answer for what film or series he’d like to forget so he could experience again: “David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, the series. Because when I saw it for the first time, I was a kid and it had such a huge impact on me.”
But Moura has one desire now, to do a rom-com. “I think that the world needs more love and romance. I love to see people falling in love in films, and I’ve done a few things like that. But I have a particular interest in doing something for people my age. I’m 50 right now, so what it is to fall in love when you’re 50, when you’re not a young person anymore.”
Hollywood, now you know.
The actor also had time to recommend some Brazilian music to us: “Brazil has a generation of singers and songwriters that are now in their 80s, but they are probably the most important artists of the Brazilian cultural landscape. I would say Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Djavan, Chico Buarque, Maria Bethânia, Gal Costa, Tom Zé, Novos Baianos. Brazilian music is so rich. But these guys, they are just up there in terms of lyrics and song, and the way they use samba as being sons and daughters of the Bossa Nova movement.”
Music was a connecting thread between Moura and his co-star, Greta Lee. Perhaps that had a lot to do with the fact that the movie focused on a family trapped in their house with no way to go, but Lee told us that she and Moura share a love for Caetano, and the actor was responsible for introducing her to Clarice Lispector, a famous Brazilian writer. “There was a great cultural exchange between Brazil and Korea and America,” Lee said.
In general, Lee had nothing but good things to say about Moura. “I had never met Wagner before doing this. And it was one of those kinds of Hollywood moments where you say: ‘Hi, nice to meet you. Want to play my husband of many decades?’ And you just sort of have to hold hands and just take the plunge together.”
Lee also got to be with Moura on set as The Secret Agent was building Oscar buzz and Moura was getting a lot of recognition. “Getting to do the movie with him while he was starting his incredible ride with The Secret Agent was amazing. To get to observe that and watch him start that journey was really special for us.”
The Last House is now streaming on Netflix.