Wagner Moura's portrayal of Pablo Escobar in Netflix's new crime drama "Narcos" proved to be challenging for the actor.

One of the preparations the Brazilian actor faced to play the role was to learn how to speak Spanish with Japanese teenagers and German businessmen and to gain 40 pounds, Rolling Stone reported. Not only that, Moura also paid a visit to Escobar's former ranch, which was converted into a children's theme park.

The 39-year-old actor remembers watching news clips of the death of Escobar, "a big, fat man on the roof of a house, and bombs in Bogotá" when he was younger, Rolling Stone added. Moura read "everything that was written about Pablo" and spent time in the drug cartel leader's Barrio Pablo Escobar, the area that Escobar put up for poor people to reside in. Up to now, the neighborhood thinks of the cocaine kingpin as "a sort of guerrilla Robin Hood."

With these preparations in mind, Moura applied a more compassionate and humane touch to the role.

"Netflix never wanted to make this show about good American cops that go to a third-world country to save poor people from a bad guy," he said, as quoted by the news outlet. "This concept of [who is] good and who is bad is always being played with."

"Narcos," a 10-episode series that debuted on Aug. 28, chronicles the cocaine drug trade's beginnings, "what fuels it and how many people died so far both violently on account of getting addicted," producer José Padilha told PEOPLE.

The series is told from the points of view of Escobar and U.S. DEA agents Javier Peña and Steve Murphy, who are portrayed by Pedro Pascal and Boyd Holbrook, respectively. Also starring are Juan Pablo Raba, Manolo Cardona, André Mattos, Stephanie Sigman, Luis Guzman, Ana de la Reguera, and Joanna Christie, The Hollywood Reporter listed.

"Narcos" was shot in locations in Colombia and Miami, Decider wrote. In just the hour-long pilot episode, the series told how Escobar went from smuggling cigarettes and TV sets across the border to illegally exporting cocaine.

According to Decider, "Narcos" shows Escobar with a "complex identity" and as "a business man with a much grander vision to life in a way that feels both natural and intriguing." In his voiceover, the real-life Murphy describes the notorious criminal as "a family man to the end," the news outlet noted.

IGN sees the show as "increasingly bleak" with "spots of humor and sentimentality," but it is a captivating tale because of its true to life inspiration, often showcasing archival footage and pictures of Escobar's cartel.