Wagner Moura breaks down his key roles, from Elite Squad to The Secret Agent • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

That one is growing, for sure. But it’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

That’s great. I love that film. I love, love, love that film.

Joel Crawford, when we first talked to him, said that he envisioned the wolf as Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men. Did you get that note for your performance?

He said that a lot when the film was done, but I don’t remember if he said it to me before. That was such an interesting film for me, because I didn’t have experience doing voice work. Sometimes, we lose the joy of what acting is supposed to be. In doing Puss in Boots, I was consciously saying [to myself], “Go there and have fun.” Because no one is really seeing you, there are no cameras on you; you are less self-conscious about your performance. You just go and have fun. And that’s what I did.

I was really trying different things with my voice. After Puss in Boots, I was consciously like, “Whatever you do, do it like that. Go [to work] and enjoy it and have fun.” And it’s a very good film—it’s also about the importance of living your life fully, and giving back. Because death is a thing that really gives meaning to our lives. In the end, that’s a very interesting character, Death. It’s not a classic villain, because [he becomes] someone who teaches something to Puss in Boots.

You have probably become aware that the iconic voice and look of the wolf influenced Ryan Coogler’s vampires in Sinners.

Yeah, I saw that in an interview, and I was like, Wow. I was so happy, and I had the chance to talk to him about it. He just loves cinema, man. He said, “I saw Puss in Boots and thought about the eyes of the vampires; I had to have that.” Life is crazy, man. Awards season is unique in that way. [For instance,] Jafar Panahi is another person I’ve spent a lot of time with throughout the campaign—you end up meeting so many people that you admire, and you get to see them in so many different places.

When we were in Telluride, Jafar said to me, “When I was in prison in Iran, this guard had a pen drive with some TV shows that he would put on [the TV], so that the prisoners could watch something. The thing that I was really into on that pen drive was Narcos.”

So, Jafar Panahi was in a prison in Tehran watching something that this Brazilian dude did in Colombia. These things are fascinating and great.