Actor Wagner Moura, 49, called former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) the “Brazilian Trump” in an interview shown on national television in the United States this Wednesday (4), in the final stretch of the Oscar campaign.
The program “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, on ABC, dedicated a good part of the eight-minute conversation to Brazilian politics and the context in which the film emerged, which won Moura Best Actor, and is also competing in three other categories, including Best Film.
When commenting on Jimmy Kimmel’s speech at another award ceremony, at the Critics Choice Awards, in January, Moura said that he considered thanking Bolsonaro if he won the Oscar, in reference to the ironic thanks that the American presenter made to Donald Trump.
“I thought it was a brilliant idea and that I should basically thank Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro is our Brazilian Donald Trump”, said Moura, drawing laughter and applause from the audience.
Then, Kimmel reinforced the comparison by remembering that, in his view, Bolsonaro is “anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-everyone”. And “anti-democracy”, recalled Moura.
The Brazilian actor said that “The Secret Agent” was born from the estrangement that he and the film’s director, Kleber Mendonça Filho, felt in relation to what was happening in the country during the Bolsonaro government (2018-2022).
According to the protagonist of the Brazilian film, the film arose from the way the two observed the political and social environment under the Bolsonaro government, and that is why he states that the film “would not have happened” without this context.
When talking about the institutional reaction to the attacks on January 8, 2023, in Brasília, Moura compared the Brazilian situation with the events of January 6, 2021, in the United States.
He stated that the two countries experienced similar episodes, with contested election results, invasion of public buildings and vandalism. “We had exactly the same thing, an election denier encouraging people to invade institutions and destroy everything.”
In Moura’s assessment, however, Brazil responded more quickly. He stated that the country was “very quick” to arrest participants and financiers of the acts, in addition to holding Bolsonaro responsible.
“Brazil was very quick to send people to jail. Bolsonaro is in prison. The financiers are in prison”, summarized Moura.
For the actor, this reaction has a direct connection with the memory of the military dictatorship in the country. “This happened because Brazilians know what a dictatorship is.”
At another point, Moura said that he was born in 1976 and that, although he did not fully grow up under the military regime, he feels that “the echoes of the dictatorship are still very present in Brazil”.
He said that the dictatorship formally ended in 1985, but that, in practice, many traces remained. In his speech, Bolsonaro is “a manifestation of these echoes”, both for the public praise he gives to the authoritarian period and for the way he deals with issues linked to civil rights and democratic institutions.
The interview also covered “Marighella”, a 2019 film directed by Moura about the militant who led the armed resistance to the dictatorship.
The actor said that he shot the film in 2017, before Bolsonaro’s election, and that the world premiere took place in 2019, at the Berlin Film Festival. According to him, after Bolsonaro assumed the Presidency, the government “did everything it could” to make the launch in Brazil difficult.
Moura reported that the film only reached the Brazilian commercial circuit in 2021, two years after the international premiere, and said that public interest grew precisely because of this resistance to the film.
In the conversation with Kimmel, he recalled that Bolsonaro “praises the dictatorship” and considers that period a “great moment” in the country’s history.
Debate in the USA
Kimmel also asked how Moura sees democracy in the United States, where the actor currently lives, citing the American tradition of seeing itself as a country in which “justice prevails”.
Moura said he was afraid that some Americans would take democracy for granted, but mentioned recent episodes, such as the protests in Minneapolis, where two Americans were killed by immigration police, to say that the country still exerts influence in the fight for civil rights.
He stated that many values linked to rights and democracy “were exported” by the United States and helped guide debates in Brazil.
The conversation ended on a lighter note, with Kimmel highlighting Moura’s popularity by showing the giant dolls from the Olinda Carnival that represent the actor and other well-known figures.
