BBC News, West Midlands
Being given exam revision advice from Hollywood A-lister Steve Buscemi is not something that happens in everyday life.
But life for actor Moosa Mostafa hasn't been particularly normal since landing a part in the Netflix * hit * Wednesday.
The first season of the show became the streaming service's most-watched series ever, with season two launching last week.
In the latest episodes, the 17-year-old actor from Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, reprises his role as nerdy outcast Eugene, with filming in Dublin coinciding with his GCSE exams last year.
Tim Burton *'s production follows Wednesday Addams, played by Jenna Ortega, as she returns to Nevermore Academy, with Billie Piper, Joanna Lumley and Buscemi the latest stars to join the cast.
“Working with Steve was great, ” Moosa told BBC CWR's John Dalziel. “He is genuinely one of the nicest people I've ever met.”
Filming was delayed, he explained, resulting in revision having to be fitted in between work commitments, travelling back and forth between Ireland and Warwickshire, and often having to revise in hotel rooms.
Buscemi, who plays Nevermore's new principal Barry Dort, would “take the time out of his day to come and say hello and give me advice,” the teenager said.
“Before the exams he was telling me ‘make sure you do those past papers' and tried to give me revision tests.
“It was his own little way. The cast were very * close.”
The teenager's first acting role was in Nativity Rocks! – the fourth in the Christmas comedy film series by Coventry writer and director Debbie Isitt.
While still at school, he was spotted by Netflix * casting directors who were scouting for sci-fi series The Last Bus.
“On the back of that I got a really good agent,” he explained, which resulted in his part in Wednesday.
“It was insane – all of a sudden you're flying to Romania for seven months to work with Tim Burton *.
“I was like, where's this even come from?”
Filming the first series aged 13, he was one of the youngest cast members.
“Everyone was at least five years older than me, but I was just hanging out with them all,” he said.
“So now * we're just a group of friends who happen to work together.”
Eugene Ottinger is one of Nevermore Academy's quirkier students and president of the school's beekeeping club, which is where he first befriends Wednesday.
“He's very * fun to play,” said Moosa.
“He's the juxtaposition to a lot of what else happens in the show: he's very * cheery and bright compared to the dark sad themes and melancholy stuff going on.
“I think it's nice that onscreen he has a contrast to Wednesday, specifically, so it's really fun to play that with Jenna.”
Interest around both series has been “insane,” he said, but returning to Leamington to hang out with friends “keeps me grounded in the very * best way”.
“I still get the perfect amount of normality from my friends, despite all the craziness,” he added.
The show will be returning for a third season, Netflix * has announced, but Moosa said he was still in the dark as to the future of his character.
If filming coincides with his A Level exams, he said: “I'm sure it will work out regardless.”
His mother Rima said the GCSE exam clash “wasn't quite what we anticipated, but we rolled with it and Moosa managed it really well”.
“He's learned a lot about managing work-life balance, and I think he's hugely matured and learned these life skills at a much younger age than a lot of his peers would get a chance to,” she said.
“That in itself has been really admirable, so we're really proud of him.”
The first four episodes of Wednesday's second season were released on 6 August, with the remaining four released on 3 September.
