Wagner Moura is pondering about his spouse of 25 years, his three boys, and the slow-growing serpent in the United States, not to mention the view or even the historic best actor Oscar nomination he earned for “The Secret Agent.” Everything Moura discussed is something that Americans still don’t fully comprehend, but Moura is intimately familiar with what authoritarianism truly is like.
In his interview with Variety, he explains the conundrum the Americans are getting into. When asked, “You told me that Americans are taking democracy for granted. Can you expand upon that?”
The actor elaborated with a shocking revelation, “When I was doing ‘Civil War,’ I was constantly thinking about how differently Brazil reacted to our insurrection — in a better way than you guys did, because Brazil was quick to do the right thing and send the message that you can’t mess with democracy. We sent people to jail. Bolsonaro is in jail.”
He added, “In America, it’s as if they’re testing, like a kid — they’re like, “I’m going to do it,” and if there’s no reaction, then what? I feel like the U.S. and its institutions are not responding with appropriate firmness — putting up boundaries, people facing consequences.”
He faced another question: “ What concerns you the most about this time — not just in the U.S. but globally?”
Moura replied, “What concerns me most about mankind nowadays is that there are no facts anymore. Facts don’t matter anymore. We used to fight — left and right — we used to have arguments, but we were fighting over the same thing. Nowadays, it’s not about facts. It’s about versions of the truth.”
While concluding his take on truth, he added, “When the president himself creates a universe where Renee Good is to blame — it’s not only morally horrible, but it’s not true. It’s crazy. The information that gets to your feed is completely different to the information that gets to your mother or that MAGA guy. And he’s not necessarily a bad human being, but he is being fed information that makes him think there’s a pizza place where Democrats are [abusing] kids. So how can you talk to someone who doesn’t live in the same reality that you do?”
