brad moore on playing ‘bishop’
It was December 2022 when Andy Edwards reached out saying he was looking at producing something under his Paranoid Android brand. We had recently worked together on another independent film and were at The Groucho club indulging in a glass of wine. “A great script and a talented Brazilian director with a strong visual style” came the pitch. These days I’m a veteran of low budget films, so I initially played hard to get. Moments later Andy confirmed that if the director likes me there would in fact be a fee, I immediately crumbled, agreed to read the script and upon the third wine began to beg for the role.
The script was indeed dark, obscure, and expressionist in its nature. The character of “Bishop” was as bizarre as he was colourful. It also represented another opportunity to embrace the crazy (I’ve played a few ‘nutters’ in recent years ). I met with writer director Tiago Teixeira several times at The Soho Theatre, London to run sessions on both script and character. We clicked immediately and the sessions themselves took on an intense and surreal nature as we explored this baffling story. At this early stage there was room on the page to evolve the character and Tiago was very collaborative and open to ideas. We dove deep into “Bishop’.
The 10 day shoot was the tightest I’ve experienced so far and by the time I started my three days the cast and crew were already in full swing, fully bonded and nailing it. The talent, passion, and commitment to deliver something strong was palpable. With no time to dust off any rust it was straight down to business cranking out the takes and swinging lenses at high speed.
Following the shoot, I was invited by Tiago into the edit to give notes and I was genuinely blown away by the quality of the film which looked and felt many times its budget. The experience I had with Custom is the reason I am an actor and film maker. Custom is testament to what a handful of talented and passionate artists can achieve on a micro budget.
I am very proud to be part of this independent film.