brad Moore

BRAD MOORE

“Crazy things were happening on set – someone even got arrested in front of us!”

Brad Moore plays cynical detective Steven Phelps alongside Adam Deacon and Ashley Walters in Mo Ali’s new British action film MONTANA.

Set in contemporary east London, the movie is a high octane tale of betrayal, redemption and honour, charting the unlikely bond between black teenage drugs courier Montana and Dimitrije, an ex-Bosnian commando who is hell-bent on revenge against Montana’s boss, Lazurus a Serbian gangster and drug lord.

“It’s an urban action thriller with a father and son story at the core. You have a young 14-year-old boy and a middle-aged Serbian ex-commando who have both been wronged by a drugs family and their paths collide by freak chance when the Serbian saves the life of the young boy and they realise they have been wronged by the same people. The Serbian gangster schools the child in terms of gun play and martial arts in assassin style skills and wreak revenge on the drugs cartel.”

Despite the grittiness of the story and the need for justice, there is more to the film than just violence. “It’s actually quite an emotional film as it is really about loss. They have both lost their families and find each other – and they teach other to live again.”

Having worked in finance for many years, Brad only got into acting five-years ago and the roles keep on coming. Detective Steven Phelps is a character he has relished playing: “My character kind of represents the black comedy in the piece because it is quite violent in parts and there is a lot of fighting and action which goes on. I am a bent copper who runs the made up Winchester Estate where the film takes place. I take backhanders and brown envelopes from both sides – from the law, the drug dealers, the cartel and everyone. When the Serbian gangster arrives in the council estate offing drugs dealers for revenge, it really sort of upsets the whole system that my character has in place.”

After receiving a phone call from the director Mo, who was referred to him by a producer who had seen him in another film, the 46-year-old could not resist being a part of the film: “What really attracted me was the universe it was set in. I grew up on a London council estate in the east end and it was all shot near there. I liked the idea of a Harry Brown, gritty gangster estate and then this 14-year-old who is dressed up as a ninja with a machine gun trying to take all the bad guys down in a kind of fantastical, kick-arse karate kid element to him.”

Working alongside the director Mo Ali was an interesting experience for the Londoner. “Mo is great. He has a heart of gold and a mind of steel. We clicked and started improvising once I read the script and agreed to champion the film with him; I helped with the finance and bringing people to the table.”

The drama which ensues in the film crossed over into real life right in front of their very eyes and it proved to be an inspiration for the filmmaker: “Crazy things were happening whilst we were improvising on the streets. Someone was arrested in front of us – a kid robbed the butchers and ran away. Some undercover coppers took him down in front of Mo and I. Mo was writing it all down and it ended up in the script!”  

Over the years, Moore has accepted being offered the bad guy parts in this genre of film, “Because of the way I look; I am kind of short and stocky and look a bit beaten up. It’s just the type of parts I get offered and the only things I have been offered so far: hard nosed people, villains or coppers! I think a lot of it is to do with film being such a visual medium, it really is down to how you look on camera.”

In MONTANA, Brad’s Steven Phelps is definitely not one of the good guys: “My character is racist, misogynistic, boozy, takes cocaine and has gambling debts, so I can have a lot of fun with this character. He’s very unhinged and I hope it comes across that you never know what Phelps is going to do next.”

Brad is continuously racking up his film credentials and will next feature in a horror film, where his acting skills really were put to the test: “I have just shot a horror film called WRITERS RETREAT which is set on an island and I am a really, really nice guy. I actually found being nice more difficult than being nasty in character!”

You can see Brad Moore in MONTANA which hits UK cinemas on December 12th.

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