Yahoo News The Bear star rode a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles skateboard when she was a kid
"I was a big fan."
Ayo Edebiri's history with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles goes way back to her childhood.
One of the breakout faces from exquisite kitchen drama The Bear, in which she plays Sydney Adamu, Edebiri will voice April O'Neil in the upcoming movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem - produced by none other than Seth Rogen.
Quizzed about her past connection to these anthropomorphic cartoon reptiles, the actress revealed to Den of Geek: "I have maybe 50 cousins, and like 40 of them are boys, so growing up, I was very well-versed in Turtle culture.
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"I actually showed Jeff [Rowe, director] and Seth my first skateboard. My skateboarding career is long over. But my first board was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles deck—it was a Michelangelo deck.
"So I was a big fan."
In Mutant Mayhem, Edebiri's incarnation of April is one of the first humans to get close to Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael. These shelled heroes are initially cautious, but soon enough April gets them on side by showing an acceptance of their differences.
"April is a young high school student," stated the star.
"She's dealing with a lot, she's got a lot of feelings and a lot of things she wants to do, but she doesn't always have the confidence that she might present at first.
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"She's a very dedicated journalist and she wants to get a good story. As soon as she meets the four Turtle boys, she's like, there's something here; I gotta crack this."
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem comes to UK cinemas on July 31.
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