PANAJI: Actor Wagner Moura had shot to fame globally playing Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug lord, in the hit series "Narcos". He is set to return to the franchise as a director this time.
Netflix's "Narcos Mexico", a spinoff of "Narcos" has been renewed for a second season and it will have Moura behind the camera.
"I am going to direct 'Narcos' now -- the new season of Mexican 'Narcos'. They invited me to direct it and I was like 'I don't feel like a director. I am an actor who directed a film but I know the show very well and I love the guys. So I think I am going to direct it," Moura said at the ongoing 50th edition of International Film Festival of India (IFFI).
Talking about the character that put him on the global map, he said: "Pablo was a charismatic guy, not like he was the richest narco dude. He was the most interesting."
He also spoke about the physical transformation that he had to undergo to nail the look.
"I had to gain a lot of weight. I don't want to do it anymore. It's bad for my health. In the second season, I was feeling heavy and there was lack of energy. That was not my body," he said about the character that he played for two years starting from 2015.
He was so dedicated to the project that he even let go of a Hollywood biggie - "The Magnificent Seven".
"The director was a cool guy. He said 'no we will wait for you'. But I was exhausted. I had wrapped up the first season. And I had to lose weight for the film and gain weight for 'Narcos', so I passed. I said I couldn't do it," said Moura, who turned director this year with a film called "Marighella".
He is currently based in Los Angeles, but he doesn't have big Hollywood dreams.
"For me, of course Hollywood is big, so many things. Great working opportunity, especially after 'Narcos', I was getting so many invitations but I am not interested in having the Hollywood sort of a career thing.
"I have been working since I was 15. The film I directed it's here (at IFFI). It will screen in India. It's a political film. I also just produced and acted in a film about Brazil-born United Nations guy Sergio Vieira de Mello who was killed in Iraq in 2003. My goal is to produce movies and make movies about Latin people. Movies that don't reinforce stereotypes. I have a very political and ambitious agenda in that sense. That doesn't mean I am not open to working with so and so director. I am open to working with directors, actors, writers I admire," he said.