IFFI 2019: Wagner Moura reveals he’s going to direct 2 episodes of Narcos Mexico

Actor Wagner Moura shot to global fame 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.

Actor Wagner Moura shot to global fame 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.

Actor Wagner Moura attends the Wasp Network premiere during the 57th New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Netflix's Narcos Mexico, a spin-off of Narcos, has been renewed for a second season and Moura has said that he has been approached to direct two episodes.

"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."

Actor Wagner Moura poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Wasp Network' at the 76th edition of the Venice Film Festival. (Arthur Mola/Invision/AP)

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.

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