Enter Sally Martin... Power Ranger

By: Michelle Quirke
From: The Dominion Post

We gave them the Warrior Princess. Now they've come looking for another female superhero. She is 17. She lives in Lower Hutt. She is Sally Martin... Power Ranger.

ABC Cable Networks Group spokewoman Patti McTeague said Sally was one of the first actors to be signed for a new television series, though the full cast was yet to be settled.

Production of the next incarnation is expected to start in Aukland next month.

Sally almost missed out when she could not make her first audition, but the casting directors offered her a last-minute appointment. "I had to do some crazy things like some kicks and pretending I was Cat Woman - she's my favorite. She's styley. She moves like a dancer."

Sally, who started professional acting two years ago, beat off competition from American, Australian and New Zealand actors for the role. She is tight-lipped about which character she will play and the storyline for the series.

"This is my dream, my passion in life. I used to watch The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers when I was at primary school. I always liked the pink one. It's cool because my age group remembers it."

"The first children's television series centered on escapades of a group of high school student turned kick-boxing heroes who protected Earth from evil-doers, monsters, and aliens. The characters, who wore colored suits and helmets, sparked a worldwide craze in the early 1990s and a debate on television violence. New Zealand viewers complained about the series and in 1994, Television New Zealand dumped the program on the advice of the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

Sally said she was not "into violence" but was looking forward to doing her own stunts and some martial arts training.

"My dancing will probably help me with that. I'd be jealous of the person who go to do my stunts. I'll be fully into it. I love to do harness work."

The prospect of becoming a household name in the United States was daunting, she said, just as the idea that she might one day be recreated as a Power Rangers doll was "weird."

Sally had her first big break this year with a part in American movie "Murder in Greenwich", filmed in Aukland. She has also had roles in home-grown drama "The Strip" and youth programs "Atlantis High", "The Tribe", and Revelations."

The Chilton St. James School deputy head girl got her start in professional acting when she was noticed by a casting agent in a school production of "Cabaret."