This former PT puts his strength to good use on the big screen. Adam Bloodworth meets Moe Bar-El
Moe Bar-El used to be a personal trainer in London, but gave up the job four years ago when acting started to properly pay off. “Those days are gone,” he says. “I do miss it sometimes but I’d much rather be acting.”
Like so many actors, for years Bar-El juggled performing with “every and any job under the roof” to pay the bills. The bizarre life of an actor means that in 2019 he was nominated for an Olivier Award and the next year he was working as a PT again, training people in his back garden.
His most high profile role so far has arrived with Alien: Earth, in which the 33-year-old British-Iranian actor plays Rashidi, a tactical soldier who leads the search and rescue mission onto the crashed alien ship in the Disney+ series. He gets some of the first big action scenes, and for that he relied on his gym background – but training for the camera requires more working out than you’d ever imagine doing in the gym. Confronting xenomorphs, the famously terrifying extraterrestrial species in Alien, requires more brawn than the deadlift.
Bar-El was left with bruising after some of the combat scenes. “I was having to do roly-polys and smack into a wall, which was hard to make realistic,” he says, “so I had to smack my back physically against it. I was bruised, even though you’ve got pads on. You don’t realise how hard stunts are until you’re actually doing them. Your pads don’t cover everything and it’s up to you to exactly hit that part of your body. You’re wearing three layers, there’s a pistol, a helmet, there’s a lot to get right.”
Moe Bar-El was nominated for an Olivier Award for the play Every Day I Make Greatness Happen at Hampstead Theatre
Filming took place in Thailand, which was beautiful but exhausting. “A few of us almost passed out from the heat,” he says. The cast were trained by former combat soldiers who’d worked in South Africa and Bulgaria, who taught Bar-El how to take on the xenomorph. The monster is absolutely terrifying up close, he says, with all the goo dripping from its enormous mouth inches from your face. “I don’t know if the viewers think it’s CGI, but there’s bare minimum green screen. It’s massive, the costume and everything, his head is the size of my arm. He’s fully jumping out at us. His hand just smacks right in front of our foot. It’s scary, sometimes you get lost in the world as an actor and forget you’re filming.”
Bar-El had to change his diet to keep in shape, going further than ever with his training in the pursuit of becoming Rashidi the combat fighter. He wanted his character to “look capable, look like he could handle himself, especially if he’s up against a zenomorph”, so he cut out Thailand’s delicious food: in were papaya salads and out went sticky rice pudding, and each day began and ended with local coconut water. “In London I like to train so I can eat whatever I want, whereas in Bangkok I had to be more careful,” he says, “because the camera definitely adds a couple of pounds and Thai food is just insane if you’re not careful!”
He found it fascinating learning about the ways combat personnel work tactically: how they enter rooms during warfare, clear rooms, and the order they enter in. Where you point your gun, the stance, how you hold your gun – it’s all totally different to how you think it’ll be. “There’s a whole art to it,” he says. “You think you look really cool, you have one image in your head of how you’re supposed to hold a gun and then you watch and you’re like, ‘I look so clueless.’”
Most of the other cultures had someone in Hollywood to look up to, whereas for a brown guy there weren’t really any. Even now the only names that pop into my head are Riz Ahmed or Dev Patel
Bar-El has acted in TV shows including The Bureau, as well as true crime drama Honour and sci-fi series The Peripheral, but is particularly proud of his Olivier Award nominated for the play Every Day I Make Greatness Happen, which played at the Hampstead Theatre in 2019. Bar-El had experienced “voices in my head” feeding him self-doubt but the accolade gave him self-belief, even though there are still good days and bad days. “Hampstead Theatre will always have a special place in my heart, for sure,” he says.
Another topic close to his heart is Middle Eastern representation. It is still incredibly rare to see brown people, and Middle Eastern actors in particular, in lead roles, especially playing parts which aren’t a stereotype. While he’s happy there are “a lot more brown roles that aren’t just terrorist or bad guys” now compared with 20 years ago, when Middle Eastern men were often just asked to play Aladdin, Bar-El thinks “we still have a long way to go.”
“Especially in the Middle Eastern community and its representation. Most of the other cultures or communities, growing up they’ve had someone to look up to, whereas for a brown guy there weren’t actors we could look at in Hollywood and think he’s done it or she’s done it. Even now the only names that pop into my head are Riz Ahmed or Dev Patel. I never really had that. I’m in this huge franchise called Alien which I feel super privileged and very lucky to be a part of, but at some point I want to go on Netflix or Amazon and see the lead characters be Middle Eastern. It would be very, very refreshing, not just for me but for everyone else.”
Alien: Earth with Moe Bar-El is streaming on Disney+; follow Moe at @moebarel on Instagram