Penultimate episode, second season of Narcos: Pablo Escobar arrives in Medellin and observes it all from above. He feels the end is in the air but he would never want to abandon his city, the city that protected him.
In fact, his home is all of Medellin. This is the last one Wagner Moura, in the Escobar series, filmed.
This is a perfect way to say goodbye to the series, a series that after two years brought him great fame. Moura, Brazilian by birth and Portuguese native speaker, has completely immersed himself in the character since he got the part in October 2013. The actor had taken Spanish lessons and six months before filming began he left for Medellin alone, to refine the language and learn all the habits and customs of the people who protected Escobar until his last breath. Then, once filming began, he had his family move, bringing the immersion in the character to a physical as well as psychological level: the actor in fact gained 20 kilos for Escobar's role.
Narcos will therefore continue even without Moura, an actor who confessed to Hollywood Reporter to be proud of the work he did on the series, and also a little relieved to have left behind such a complex character as Pablo Escobar.
This is the interview:
What was it like living with a character like Pablo Escobar?
“We started shooting the first season in September 2014. Preparations for the second season took place in June. During this time, I couldn't do anything else. I devoted myself entirely to Pablo and Narcos, I didn't have the opportunity to take part in other projects. Yes, I have started preparing the film that I will direct next February [on the Brazilian revolutionary Carlos Marighella, ed] but it was phone calls and Skype conversations, nothing more."
When did you know that Escobar's story would end in season 2?
"I always knew that the main topic of the show was drugs, not Pablo Escobar. And we all knew that Pablo was going to die. At the end of the first season I did the math and realized that we had covered at least 15 years of his life in drug trafficking, while one was missing from his death. It wouldn't have made sense to drag his character until the third season. There was little time between her escape from La Catedral and his death. In short, I understood that there was only one season left to shoot."
Now that you've seen the final product, do you think it's a wise move to have Pablo Escobar for the first two seasons and then continue beyond that? Eric Newman, showrunner of the series, has made it clear that he wants to continue until cocaine is stopped.
"Yes, it's the right move. I dedicated everything to my character, and yet, when it was finished the first thing I felt was relief. Two years with twenty extra kilos, living in another country, the character's psychology inside mine... it was time for it all to end. Narcos, however, from the beginning was a story about drugs and not about Pablo. Two seasons is perfect for him, no more. He is just the beginning of the drug trade. It is important to continue the show both artistically, because it is an original and beautiful show, but also politically. As a Latin American I can say that the drug problem is quite serious. I look forward to seeing and learning more about the Cali and Mexican cartels, and what connections the American government has with them. A country that has declared war on drugs, but which is the largest consumer in the world. I want to see and know even more. I want the show to generate discussions and debates on a topic that is particularly close to my heart, especially since I have been part of it."
You are a supporter of drug legalization. Narcos did it influence you?
"No, I have always supported this position, since before I was in Narcos. After reading and studying everything there was to know about Pablo Escobar I strengthened my idea. The war on drugs is a flop. It's a flop for the people who live in the countries that live and produce drugs, because that's where the war takes place. In the poor neighborhoods of Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil. There the youngest and poorest boys are killed because of this war. And I say this fully aware that drug abuse and addiction is a huge problem. But in my opinion, it is a health problem, not a police problem."
The second season of Narcos is more introspective. Pablo is a more human character, from this point of view. What kind of challenge was it to humanize him?
"It was the initial idea, I couldn't approach the character except by humanizing him. I am one hundred percent convinced that Pablo Escobar was a human being, a very interesting one. He wasn't an alien, just a very very very bad person. But a person. He had friends who laughed at his jokes. And he was a very contradictory person. The bad things he did, according to him, he did for Fr
opolo and his family. One thing I like about Narcos is this: it's not all black and white. All the characters are complex, all make moral compromises. Especially the DEA agents, who become almost like him in order to capture Pablo. All the characters live in grey, that area that makes us all people and human beings."
This season ends with the death of Escobar who, historically, still has some dark points. How much did you know about this event before consulting the screenwriters and the real Pena and Murphy who acted as consultants?
"I read everything there was to know about Escobar and drugs in Colombia. There are many different versions: that of Pablo's family, with his son and his
brother who believe that Pablo committed suicide, which is unreal for me. Some say it was an American sniper who brought him down first. Don Berna claims that it was his brother who killed him, one of Los Pepes. The Colombian police also have their own version, and there are many others. Yet I really believe in the version we brought to the screen. Eric Newman, the showrunner, studied a lot and was helped by the real Steve Murphy who was there at the scene of the event. He was a great help to us in allowing us to create the scene in the most realistic way possible."
The scene of Pablo's death was reconstructed on the same building. What was it like to rebuild it exactly? How is she represented in the photograph taken at that moment on that building on December 2, 1993?
"It was exciting. It was one of my last days on set, and not only I but the entire staff knew that these were the last moments of a character who had been with us for two years. We were all emotional precisely because we knew that his death had occurred there, and that gave us extra energy."
I imagine that in these two years there were times when he didn't leave your side even when you were at home. Has losing weight made you lose character too?
" Yes, I'm relieved, I'm free (laughs, ed). I can no longer work as an actor for at least a year. In fact I will be a director, because everything I could do as an actor would carry Pablo's influence. I need time to get rid of it - it's a good feeling to move on. I look back at these two years and feel proud and also happy, of course, of what we have created."
