Star Trek: Discovery actress Sonequa Martin-Green has said it was “an adjustment” to switch from the gritty shows that she is known for to the family fare of the Space Jam sequel.
The US star, best known for her role as Michael Burnham in the sci-fi series and as Sasha Williams on zombie thriller The Walking Dead, stars in the eagerly awaited Space Jam: A New Legacy, opposite basketball superstar LeBron James.
She told the PA news agency: “Space Jam was a big deal in my house. I feel like I grew up on Space Jam in a way, because it came out in 96, so I was 11 and it was a big deal and coming on to the sequel was a big deal for me.
“What always happens when you have those beloved franchises that come back is you have to ask that question, you have to wonder: is it going to be right? Is it going to do the original justice?
“And this does, which is one of the things that just really excited me the most because the prospect of a Space Jam sequel was exciting enough, but then when I actually got a chance to read the script, I said: ‘Oh my goodness, they have modernised this story perfectly.’ I was I was amazed.”
Los Angeles Lakes star James, who is widely considered to be one of the best players in NBA history, replaces Michael Jordan in the new Space Jam instalment after first showing off his acting chops in the Amy Schumer movie Trainwreck.
Martin-Green said: “I was really quite floored and impressed by by his preparedness, because he does have great timing, and you do see that timing in Trainwreck.
“But he came ready to go, he knew what was going to be expected of him. I think he was very familiar with what carrying a film might be like, I don’t know how exactly he got prepared in that way, but he was ready to go.
“And it was great, and it shows.”
However, she said making a family film was an entirely new experience for her after spending so much time in genre productions.
She said: “To be brutally honest it was an adjustment for me, and it was an adjustment that I wasn’t expecting to make, actually, because I came from The Walking Dead, which is so raw and so gritty, and then with Star Trek: Discovery we are sci-fi as well.
“There is that sort of buoyancy, that sense of hope in that franchise, but it is still gritty as well, and I had never done the family genre before, I had never done a movie for children or a show or anything like that and so it took a little bit of transitioning for me to get used to it, but it’s such a fun genre.
“Once you once you get used to it and you say, like: ‘Oh, these are the pair of shoes that I should put on? Got it.’
“Once you put those on, you’re like: ‘Well, this is fun,’ you know?”
Space Jam: A New Legacy is in UK cinemas now.