Click here to see Diogo as "Eduardo" on the set of "Ambição" (go to the 18:23 mark.)
Diogo: "I felt very happy [for being chosen to play Jesus] but also scared and in a panic. It's a character of great responsibility. I don't consider it a character. It's a figure that belongs to many people. More than a privilege, it was a personal and unique adventure.
I don't know what the reaction here was [in Portugal]. I just heard it from my parents. In the US it was an explosion. Nobody was expecting it, the channel itself and the producers were not expecting that explosion and the reaction, which was really good, very positive.
For me, one of my biggest pleasures was to hear people like Oprah asking about Portugal and to tell them first hand what is Portugal, what it is to be Portuguese and what's going on here. I felt proud. I felt [like] a Rosa Mota, a Carlos Lopes [both Portuguese runners who were winners at the Olympic Games], a Cristiano Ronaldo [a famous Portuguese soccer player] or a Mourinho [a famous Portuguese soccer coach.] I swear I really felt that. It was something I wasn't expecting, to feel the responsibility of being almost an ambassador. Because from the moment you have people who are known worldwide asking about your country and you can say first hand what you truly feel, you know that every word you say will have a very different importance from what it would have if you were with a friend talking about the country. So, that responsibility was something that I embraced with both arms."
(screencaps from "E-especial" courtesy of Lou da Gama)