Naomie Harris researched her role as a Kenyan teacher in The First Grader by actually signing up as a substitute at an African school.
Students had no idea Miss Harris was a Pirates of the Caribbean star when she was introduced as their teacher - and her Kenyan accent fooled them further.
She tells WENN, "We actually filmed in this one school and I was brought in as a new teacher of that school and I already had my Kenyan accent. The students thought that I was their new teacher. It was a proper functioning regular school.
"Two weeks before we started filming I worked with the children and I would come up with lesson plans and teach 50 children every day, so I really got immersed in the culture and community.
"My stepfather was a teacher so I would Skype him in the evenings and get lesson plans from him and he'd give me trust games and things they wouldn't normally do in class, like bringing in the elements of play so they would show their personalities."
But Harris admits it was strange to teach the children of Masai tribesfolk: "Eighty per cent of the school was from the Masai tribe and it was disrespectful for them to even look an adult in the eye. They were so respectful for the process of learning and hungry for knowledge."
The experience was nothing like the torture Harris went through when she was a student in England: "I took my education for granted. I was bullied in secondary school when I was a kid.
"Bullying is an awful thing and one of the lovely things we saw in Kenya is they don't have the concept of bullying in their schools. It's just not done.
"They play with each other for hours with rocks or clapping games and play perfectly fine which was wonderful to see. For me having been bullied, it was a painful experience and one that stayed with me for a long time afterward.
"I go back to schools now and give talks on anti-bullying and it's great to see the changes that I've seen in schools in England now where bullying is taken seriously and it is totally not acceptable."
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