Ghostbusters 3 Made Star Mckenna Grace Sob

Ghostbusters 3 star Mckenna Grace says winning the lead role in Jason Reitman‘s sequel was “really surreal” and it made the Ghostbusters super-fan sob.

“The director, Mr. Jason, [we] had a Skype call and he was like, ‘So, do you wanna be a Ghostbuster?’ And I was like, ‘More than anything in the world. Definitely!’” Grace told ET.

“And I just started sobbing. It was one of those moments that was really surreal and I couldn’t tell if I was dreaming or not.”

The 12-year-old Captain Marvel and Annabelle Comes Home star was “spectacular” when auditioning for the lead role in Reitman’s film, the writer-director said at Ghostbusters Fan Fest earlier this month when praising his “perfect” cast.

“Mckenna Grace, I had seen her in I, Tonya — Mckenna Grace played little Tonya Harding in I, Tonya — and was just extraordinary,” Reitman said. “She was little Captain Marvel. And she came and read, [and] was spectacular.”

Reitman also revealed Grace “loves Ghostbusters,” saying of the starlet, “She has all these photos of her in Ghostbusters gear throughout her childhood, and she met my father [Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II director Ivan Reitman] and she cried.”

Telling Grace she won her role on the spot led to a “really sweet moment,” Reitman added.

I’ve always seen that audition tape where [Steven] Spielberg is auditioning Henry Thomas for Elliott [in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial], and he tells him he got the role, and Henry Thomas just starts crying. And I had a similar moment with Mckenna, where I just told her,” he said.

“Which is a rare occurrence, oddly, you rarely get to tell the actor face-to-face, ‘Hey, you’re it.’ And I had that moment with Mckenna, and she just started crying. And she was so thrilled and she immediately started painting Ghostbusters paintings for our office. If you’re looking for a Ghostbusters fan, there isn’t a bigger one than Mckenna Grace. I’m really thrilled that she’s at the center of this movie.”

Details surrounding Grace’s character are kept under wraps, but early audition tapes revealed the tween girl character is a “science kid” who has trouble connecting with others emotionally.

Grace’s character and her family, a slightly older brother (Finn Wolfhard) and the kids’ mother (Carrie Coon), have a yet to be revealed connection to the original film that producer Dan Aykroyd says “hasn’t been done before.”

GB20 opens July 10, 2020.