The Last House Star Wagner Moura Talks the Netflix Chart-Topper

When an actor delivers a breakout performance in a Netflix hit, the streamer tends to keep them in the family. The clearest example is Millie Bobby Brown, whose star-making turn on Stranger Things is now the first of six projects she’s released on the platform. Others, including Joey King, Lana Condor, and Noah Centineo, have also racked up multiple Netflix titles. Yet another performer has quietly emerged as an in–house favorite after a career-altering role over a decade ago, and that actor is Brazilian star Wagner Moura. His portrayal of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar helped launch five more projects including Louis Leterrier’s current chart-topping sci-fi thriller known as The Last House.

Moura plays Jason Delgado, an engineer whose family home is mysteriously sealed shut by an unknown force. Together with his wife Ann (Greta Lee), they do everything they can to protect their two children and survive this hopeless situation amid dwindling resources.

Delgado — named after Moura’s real-life partner, Sandra Delgado — is the latest in a wide range of characters he has played since his run on Narcos ended in 2016. At the time, he deliberately steered clear of any roles that echoed the infamous cartel boss who had instantly become his signature part. Thus, from his Reuters journalist in Alex Garland’s Civil War to his Oscar-nominated dual role in The Secret Agent, Moura attributes this diverse post-Narcos body of work to two primary factors.

“It’s a mix of [saying no to being typecast and societal changes]. I think the world is evolving, and it’s inevitable that Hollywood will stop seeing a Latino as the violent dude or a Latina as the sexy Latina, blah, blah, blah,” Moura tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re in a moment where the industry is starting to look at us as who we are, which is an important part of American society. We’re people who can have different roles in that society: doctors, engineers, everything.”

Moura will never forget one particular day on The Last House because it somehow merged the most prestigious moment of his career with one of its most humbling. The Cannes premiere of The Secret Agent coincided with the Last House’s production schedule, and although Moura was able to attend the film’s debut screening on May 18 of last year, he could not make the awards ceremony a week later.

So, on the very day he received the call informing him that he had won best actor, he was on the Last House set shooting close-ups of his hand picking up dog excrement and flushing it down the toilet. Moura can only laugh at the absurd timing, though a hint of understandable frustration still creeps into his recollection.

“I shot that scene with the third unit. It wasn’t our [main] crew or even second unit. It was people that I had never seen, and they didn’t even know which film they were doing,” Moura recalls. “It was just a closeup of my hand, and it could’ve been anyone’s hand with a plastic bag wrapped around it, picking up dog shit. So that’s what I was doing [on the day I won the Cannes best actor award].”

Below, during a conversation with THR, Moura also discusses his upcoming slate including Margot Robbie and Bradley Cooper’s Ocean’s prequel, as well as Panos Cosmatos’ long-waited follow-up to 2018’s Mandy.

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The Last House is now your sixth project with Netflix after making Narcos together a decade ago. From my perspective, they’ve always been loyal to actors who’ve done great work for them in the past. Do you see it this way? Or is it more random than that?

I’ve never thought about it, but yeah, I’ve always had a very good relationship with them. After Narcos, they produced a film called Sergio that I wanted to make, and I felt very lucky. I pitched the film to them, and they made it happen. When you say six projects, there’s also The Gray Man …

Wasp Network and Narcos: Mexico.

That’s right. I directed [and cameoed] on Narcos: Mexico. So I like to think that I have a very good relationship, and I really like to work with them.

I just spoke to an actor named Tony Dalton, and he said he’s had to decline a lot of cartel roles after Better Call Saul. And it reminded me of how you operated post-Narcos. Do you think being selective at that time has a lot to do with all the varied roles you’ve had in recent years? In other words, do you think you’re now enjoying delayed gratification from that decision a decade ago? 

Yeah, it’s a mix of that. I also think the world is evolving, and it’s inevitable that Hollywood will stop seeing a Latino as the violent dude or a Latina as the sexy Latina, blah, blah, blah. We’re in a moment where the industry is starting to look at us as who we are, which is an important part of American society. We’re people who can have different roles in that society: doctors, engineers, everything. So it is, of course, a decision of the actor and artist to accept or not accept certain roles, but I also think the industry is inevitably evolving.

At age 11, a dam flooded your town in Brazil, and you had to relocate. Do you think that had some influence on your decision to want to help the Delgado family survive the flood in The Last House?

(Laughs.) Of course, that had an impact on me in terms of who I am and how I see the world and social justice and how I position myself politically. But it did not impact me for this particular film. I wanted to make this film because I have never done a film like this before. It has the flavor of the ’80s and ’90s American films that I grew up watching: E.T., Goonies or Poltergeist. They were thrillers with a sense of adventure, but they were all family films. So The Last House pays homage to those.

Were you responsible for the family’s last name being Delgado? Or is it just a coincidence? 

Yeah, Delgado is my wife’s maiden name. There was a moment where they were like, “Oh, what’s the family’s name?” Then there were some options, and yeah, I think, for sure, it was me [who suggested it].

Considering you were once in a The Cure cover band, did you also lobby for the family’s “Close to Me” dance party? 

(Laughs.) I might have suggested that. But it’s complicated because you’ve got to have the rights for the music. So we had to decide that prior to filming, but I must have had something to do with it because I love The Cure so much.

Greta Lee told THR that on the day you won best actor at Cannes for The Secret Agent, you couldn’t attend because you were picking dog poop on the London-based set of this movie. That story really shows the grit and glamour of show business, doesn’t it? 

(Laughs.) I shot that scene with the third unit. It wasn’t our [main] crew or even second unit. It was people that I had never seen, and they didn’t even know which film they were doing. It was just a closeup of my hand, and it could’ve been anyone’s hand with a plastic bag wrapped around it, picking up dog shit. So that’s what I was doing [on the day I won the Cannes best actor award].

The Last House makes the COVID pandemic look like a walk in the park, but did you still channel a lot of the pandemic anxiety and isolation into this movie? 

Yes, that was actually what really resonated with me when I read the script. The pandemic time was very complex to me because there was an external threat to all of us. In Brazil, specifically, it was really hardcore because we had a president that basically denied the pandemic and didn’t buy the vaccine. So, many people died there, and it was a true tragedy in Brazil. That really moved me. 

At the same time, I was lucky enough to have the resources to feed my kids and pay the rent. I had this very intimate and beautiful moment with my family in a way that I had never had before. I really had time to be with each one of them, and because it was a very complex moment, that was what resonated with me when I first read the script.

If there was ever a movie to shoot in sequence, it’s this one, and I was glad to read that you did in fact shoot sequentially. Considering the extreme arc you go through, was that a blessing?

As an actor, that’s always great. I’ve had the chance to shoot some films in chronological order, and that’s always great for us as actors. But this film was unexpectedly tough to shoot, and I wasn’t expecting it to be as physically demanding as it was. In hindsight, if I could choose, I would shoot the water part of it all at the beginning when I had more energy. The last two weeks, we were underwater after doing the rest of the film, and that was really tough.

The Delgados are literally stuck inside with dwindling resources. So there are stretches where food and water are minimal, and you can see the effects of starvation and dehydration on the characters. Did you ever skip meals on those days to help sell that state? 

We didn’t do anything radical, but we did make an effort to lose some weight. The makeup helps a lot too. But I was at least two or three kilos lighter than I usually am.

The family is quite resourceful. Your patriarch character, Jason, is an engineer and a fisherman, so they’re able to survive longer than most people. If you were stuck in a similar situation, would you trust your own survival skills to get you far? 

Dude, my family would be in extreme danger if I was responsible to take care of them. I would probably come up with some books to read and music to listen to — and then just hope for the best. I’m nothing like Jason. I can’t build anything, I can’t fix anything. I’m an actor.

Their Netflix account no longer works, so they alternate between two DVDs: Annie and Air Force One. It’s a lame question, but what two movies would you opt to have under similar circumstances?

I recently showed Cinema Paradiso to my kids. It’s a film that I love. When I was promoting The Secret Agent, [director] Kleber [Mendonça Filho] introduced me to Cinema Paradiso’s director Giuseppe Tornatore. It was an honor. So I’m very glad that my kids love it as much as I do. And the other one would maybe be E.T., which is a beautiful family film.

You’re slated to work with Margot Robbie and Bradley Cooper in the upcoming Ocean’s prequel. Are you excited to time travel to Monaco in the ‘60s?

Very, yeah. They’re already shooting it. I’m doing a play [A Trial – after An Enemy of the People] here in Europe, and as soon as I wrap that, I’m going to join them.

Are you playing the heavy? 

I’m playing a part that I can’t really talk about, unfortunately. 

I have to give you credit for Dope Thief. It couldn’t have been easy to join a moving train, but you still managed to create the impression that you and Brian Tyree Henry, as characters, had been friends for ages. I don’t know how you pulled that off given the circumstances, but it was impressive. 

I don’t either, bro. That was insane, I got a phone call on Friday, and on Monday, I was shooting with Brian. I have to give credit to Brian because we really became good friends. He’s going to see my play in Edinburgh, and we’ve become really close. I don’t want to sound cheesy, but it was meant to be. We really connected as actors, as human beings and as friends. And I think that’s what made that relationship believable. It was very interesting. 

When I met him, we were walking to set dressed as our characters, and I was like, “Wait, dude. Wait a minute.” We then went to the green room, and I sat in front of him and said, “My name is Wagner. I come from Brazil. I’m 48. I have three kids.” So I told him something about myself before we shot, and then he said, “My name is Brian …” Then we went to set, and we shot that very first scene in a van.

Aren’t you trying to direct Brian in something called Last Night at the Lobster?

Yes, that’s happening, and I hope Brian can still make it. He’s actually doing another film right now, and we only got fully financed two or three months ago. It’s a film that I’ve been trying to direct for a while. So I really hope that Brian can be in it because it’d be a dream for me to have the amazing actor and friend that he is on set. I’m going to be directing my first film in the U.S., and it’s the first time that I’m going to be acting and directing. So I want to gather not only great artists around me, but all the people that I really love and care about.

Panos Cosmatos’ Flesh of the Gods has been on my radar for a while. How did that experience turn out? 

Amazing. It was so cool. Panos Cosmatos is amazing. Kristen Stewart is amazing. It was such a great experience, honestly. I really loved it. That’s going to be a very unique film. Panos is a very, very unique artist. His aesthetics are very particular. He creates a very particular world, and it’s interesting when you see a director like that. When you see a Wes Anderson’ film or a Tarantino film, he’s like that. He has that thing that’s very unique.

I love Civil War so much, and Cailee Spaeny told me about a day in which the two of you, plus only a couple crew members, just drove around screaming the whole time.

(Laughs.) Yeah, we did some crazy shit there. Alex felt that he needed something more in the car after the mass grave scene. So Cailee and I were in the backseat of the car, vomiting and screaming and doing crazy shit. I really like Civil War as well.

Lastly, besides the dog poop day, what day best sums your experience on The Last House? 

(Laughs.) I’m not sure if there was a particular day. I adore Louis Leterrier, and I want to keep working with him. It was also great to work with Greta Lee. I really do like the result, but again, it wasn’t an easy movie. It was a very demanding, hard shoot.

I will probably remember the experience that we had as actors. There were only four of us at a time, and the two kids changed [at the halfway point] But it was interesting how we evolved as companions, colleagues and as a family while the house was also changing. 

I will also remember the kids and being responsible for them, especially the little ones, Riley [Chung] and Noah [Alexander Sosnowski]. It’s always complicated working with children. I always think, Oh, these children are supposed to be someplace else. But they’re great kids and great actors with great parents. So it was a very cool experience to parent those amazing kids when cameras were rolling.

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The Last House is now streaming on Netflix.