‘I’m an English teacher who ended up starring in the new Indiana Jones film – the pay difference surprised me’

Mohammed (left) said being on the set of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was the best experience of his life (Picture: Supplied)

London-based teacher Mohammed Kamel was, it’s safe to say, pretty shocked when he landed a role in – and saw his pay cheque for – the new Indiana Jones blockbuster.

Sharing a make-up trailer with Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mads Mikkelsen was just one of the incredible memories the 46-year-old took home with him after six weeks filming Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, released in cinemas today.

Oh, and he got to meet his ‘hero’ Harrison Ford. And have an on-screen ‘stare-off’ with him. And Fleabag herself whacks him over the head with a champagne bottle in an epic fight scene. And they shared many giggles together. No biggie.

The verdict? Phoebe is just as down to earth, hilarious and friendly in real life as she is in interviews, and Harrison isn’t in the least bit grumpy, but in fact, a really nice guy who loves eating – and handing out – oranges.

Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk, Mohammed – who was scouted for the part after appearing in The Crown as Ali Al-Fayed – said: ‘I’m a guy from very very humble beginnings, and I’m a teacher.’

‘It’s quite overwhelming actually,’ he admitted on his new-found fame, before adding: ‘It’s like London buses, you’re waiting for an acting role to come along since the Covid lockdown and three come at once.’

He later summed it up: ‘It was the best weeks of my professional life, and my life in general.’

The actor didn’t initially know which film he was going to be in, even when he was on set (Picture: Supplied)

Oh, and, er, they pay isn’t bad either. In fact, it’s four or five times the amount he gets for his teaching role at the Functional Skills Educational Centre in Wembley.

When asked about the pay difference, Mohammed responded – with a chuckle – that there was ‘no comparison.’

‘I mean obviously, I don’t want to go into detail. But what you make in a month teaching, you do that in a week or five days of acting,’ he explained.

‘It’s four times or five times as good. And you know, I’m in a small role. I’m not one of the big stars.

‘I’m playing one of the bad guys, so imagine if you were Mads Mikkelsen, or Harrison Ford or Phoebe, how much they’re getting.

‘I mean, there’s no comparison,’ he reiterated.

The kids back at school naturally thought it was the coolest thing ever to have their teacher appear as a baddie in one of the biggest films of the year.

‘They were so excited,’ he said, on the pupils finding out about his acting side-gig in The Crown, and when he first took to the screen in Apple TV’s Liaison alongside Eva Green.

Harrison Ford stars in the film, and he is Mohammed’s ‘hero’ (Picture: Jonathan Olley / Lucasfilm Ltd.)

The Londoner also shared a make-up room with Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Picture: Jonathan Olley / Lucasfilm Ltd)

But when they worked out Mr Kamel was in the Indiana Jones, with the Harrison Ford, they ‘took selfies’ and said: ‘Look, look who our teacher is!’

Chatting about the ‘comedown’ on returning home after such a crazy six weeks, Mohammed remembered how he wished it ‘could have gone on forever.’

While The Crown’s audition was ‘arduous’ with three audition stages, Mohammed explained how for Indiana Jones it was very straightforward.

On seeing his performance in the Netflix show, the producers scouted him for the role.

‘I hardly had to audition for Indiana Jones,’ he explained.

‘They said, “We can’t send a script yet, you have to sign an NDA,” this is how secretive it was.’

So secretive, in fact, that Mohammed was told he’d got the role – wohoo! – but still didn’t know what it was, or even what film he would be starring in.

He turned up at Pinewood studios with absolutely no idea.

No one told him what film he was there for, and, hilariously, he was too embarrassed to ask.

‘I didn’t even know what the film was,’ he explained with a laugh, even on going to get his measurements.

It was only by overhearing conversations, and seeing some props, that he worked it out.

‘I just kind of figured it out. I didn’t want to tell them I didn’t know what it was, you know,’ Mohammed explained.

‘I could just tell from the props, from hanging around Pinewood. I could overhear the costume department talking about “Harrison”.’

But although it was a pretty glamorous few weeks working with the stars, Mohammed admits the food wasn’t that much better than your bog standard school dinner.

‘It was a bit better than school dinners, but not much,’ he remembered.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is out in UK cinemas now.

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What a whirlwind experience for Mohammed Kamel.