Marsai Martin has been making people laugh ever since she landed her first acting gig as fraternal twin Diane on the ABC comedy black-ish. Now, Martin’s sharing her talent with a wider audience by starring with Issa Rae and Regina Hall in the new fantasy comedy movie Little, which also credits 14-year-old Martin as an executive producer. Little, inspired by Tom Hanks' 1988 film Big, tells the story of a woman named Jordan Sanders (Hall) changes back into her 13-year-old self (Martin) one night.
Luckily, one member of Martin's black-ish family isn’t too far away: her TV mom Tracee Ellis Ross is the voice of HomeGirl, Hall and Martin's character's Google Home-esque invention, in the film.
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If you missed Ross’s role Little, though, don't be too mad at yourself. Technically, she doesn’t appear in the film, but her role as Homegirl is certainly good for a few laughs. HomeGirl is the brainchild of adult Jordan (Hall), who owns a tech company and uses the HomeGirl prototype in her own home. The product is essentially the funny, and surprisingly opinionated, virtual assistant you never knew you needed. Who better to voice this fun invention than Ross? It might be hard to place Ross’s voice at first. But by the second time Hall loudly screams “HomeGirl!” true fans surely know it’s Ross’s distinctable hilarious voice responding from the giant, Barbie-like head.
HomeGirl wakes Jordan up with strange, inspirational quotes and then follows her commands throughout the day, including creating the perfect music vibe for every situation. It’s obvious why Ross was chosen to voice HomeGirl — beyond her connection to Martin. If you needed a virtual fairy godmother instead of, say, Alexa's robot voice, Ross would be at the top of the list.
While HomeGirl sadly isn’t an invention yet (seriously, someone needs to make this a real thing) it won’t stop you from wishing you had one, because the magic of fiction allows her to be more advanced and more personable than Siri or Alexa.
Ellis and Martin have a great mother-daughter dynamic on black-ish, so it’s great to see them working together, even if it's as EP and voice actor, here. Although they are not playing mother and daughter, it is a great reminder of another way Little is a comedy for everyone and a film that highlights Black women.
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During a Little set visit, Will Packer told Refinery29, “When I thought about this movie when I was talking to Universal about it, I said, you don’t have a movie for mothers to take their daughters to, especially Black mothers and Black daughters and brown mothers and brown daughters.”
In the meantime, if you need us we will be trying to get a patent to get HomeGirl in actual stores very soon.
Little celebrates Black women, from the actors onscreen to the team behind the camera to the costume design. Support the film, which comes out April 12, with the hashtag #Ladies4Little.