How a skinny Brazilian actor transformed into Pablo Escobar

HIS character is instantly recognisable, but you wouldn’t notice if you walked past this actor on the street. His transformation is incredible.

Famous actor you won’t recognise

BRAZILIAN actor Wagner Moura couldn’t believe it when he was asked to play the role of infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar in Netflix’s Narcos.

“I freaked out. I thought it was a huge miscast. I’m a skinny Brazilian actor who didn’t even speak a word of Spanish,” Moura tells news.com.au

“So I flew to Medellin, booked myself into a university course to learn Spanish and Iived there for five months. And of course, I had to gain a lot of weight.” he sighs.

“If you go to the internet and see a picture of Escobar, you will see that he’s fat. It would have been weird to have a skinny guy play the role so I had to do it. The first few weeks were delicious. I was eating ice-cream with my kids but then I had my cholesterol tests which were very high. So now in the next season we’re using prosthetics and fake bellies. I’m still 20 kilos heavier than I was, and that’s not good, but I don’t intend on changing my body again.”

WESTWOOD, CA - AUGUST 07: Wagner Moura arrives at the "Elysium" - Los Angeles Premiere at Regency Village Theatre on August 7, 2013 in Westwood, California. (Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage)

Escobar’s Medellin drug cartel was once responsible for 80 per cent of the imported US cocaine supply, with its kingpin at times worth as much as $50 billion. He was also a murderous criminal who orchestrated untold deaths including those of presidential candidates and judges, and who bombed an airline in 1989.

What did Moura know of Escobar’s escapades when he got the role?

“The only thing I remember is the dead body of a fat guy on the roof of a house,” he says of Escobar’s death after he climbed onto the rooftop of a safe house.

The show has garnered excellent reviews but also much criticism about perpetuating the drug-related stereotypes that still plague Colombians. Narcos is shot on the streets of Bogota, which allows Moura to experience the local’s reactions first-hand.

“It’s interesting. Some people are really excited to see Pablo Escobar. They’re like, ‘Hey Pablo!’ but in general, I understand that this is a delicate issue for Colombians. And as a Latin American man I want to be as respectful to the Colombian history. And although I’m very obviously not Colombian, I never felt like a foreigner there and I found the actors and the people to be warm good people. It’s crazy. And I mean, sorry Shakira, but Escobar is the most non-Colombian in history.”

TV STILL -- DO NOT PURGE -- NARCOS S01E06 " Eplosivos" -- Narcos - Season 1 - Producion Stills 02 Wagner Moura as Pablo Escobar in the Netflix Original Series "Narcos." Photo credit: Daniel Daza/Netflix

As awful as he was, Narcos also shows Escobar’s human side. “He was a great father,” says Moura. “He was a person. He wasn’t a classic psychopath. He had subjectivity and he cared about people and that’s what made him such a great character to play.”

Off-screen, Moura is married to journalist Sandra Delgado with whom he has sons. In his spare time he practices Transcendental Meditation. “It occupies my time and connects me with something I believe in. And I do this every day with my kids. It’s changed my life.”

Playing a drug lord has apparently not changed his strident views on the legalisation of drugs.

“I have a very personal opinion about drug policies. I think drugs should be legalised and I think that killing drug dealers doesn’t work. You kill someone, like they killed Pablo and dismantled the Medellin cartel and then the Cali cartel took over. And now Mexican cartels are killing people, so the reality of the drug trade is pretty much the same, probably worse.

“Drugs shouldn’t be a police problem with people killing each other — it should be treated as a health problem. It’s a business that should be ruled by the government with programs to treat people who are addicted. It’s a tragedy, and in my opinion, it’s not that different from drinking which is bad as well.”

Playing a tightly-wound character such as Escobar must be draining on Moura. How does he decompress? “I have a beer with my friends, or I’m with my kids. I try to be a good father and my kids are the most important thing in my life.”

BERLIN, GERMANY - FEBRUARY 11: Actor Wagner Moura attends the 'Praia do futuro' photocall during 64th Berlinale International Film Festival at Grand Hyatt Hotel on February 11, 2014 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Clemens Bilan/Getty Images)