Saniyya Sidney, ‘The Passage’ Star, Reveals What It Was Like on Set Before Fox Show’s Cancellation

Fox’s former show The Passage was recently cancelled after just one season, but Saniyya Sidney who played the leading roll of Amy Bellafonte is remembering the good times.

In an exclusive with PopCulture.com, Bellafonte reminisced over the moments she shared on set with castmates, sharing it was surreal to think they shot the pilot almost two years ago.

“It was half a year of high school so three years going into the new year,” Bellafonte explained in conversation with PopCulture.com. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve known everyone for so long!’ [But] just to be able to play Amy for that long period of time and have that connection with everyone, it was so much fun to be able to come to work and see everybody, and [the] makeup, and maybe all day we might be doing some big action packed things.”

The 12-year-old actress added that she felt so connected with her fellow co-workers on set, which really set the tone for the atmosphere.

“It just connected all of us because it’s just so fun and laughing and always just being there with each other and acting in a scene — it could be serious, and we all like to play around sometimes so in between scenes we would make funny faces.”

Sidney credits former Saved by the Bell star Mark-Paul Gosselaar who played the role of Brad Wolgast — an agent trying to protect Bellafonte from being exposed to a virus in a case study — for giving her solid advice on the industry, considering he was a child actor himself.

“Oh Mark Paul! He’s great! I love him so much,” she said. “You know, it was easy for him to connect because he had a daughter so that relationship didn’t come hard to him. He was really fun, he gave me good advice, being that he was a child actor. It was just cool to be able to work with him every day.”

Sidney really made a name for herself when she was just 6 years old when she played the role of Kizzy on the TV mini-series Roots. Since then, she’s graced the big screen with big named actors and actress like Denzel Washington, Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Kevin Hart. While she’s lead in some big roles and acknowledges the hard work she’s accomplished, she humbly stated she still has a lot to learn to perfect her craft.

“I honestly think I am still growing,” Sidney admitted. “Every role that you do is a learning experience. Even if you work with someone big like Denzel Washington, you learn off of them because everybody is learning in everything they do. I’ve been learning from so many things, but I can say I’ve taken confidence from my other peers that I’ve worked with, and to work, and I’ve gained 100 percent focus, and trying to stay humble and [I’m] just trying to do the best I can and bring it to screen.”

The Passage may have only lived through one season, but that doesn’t mean Sidney’s schedule is slowing down. Her movie, Fast Color, just released to the public and is the story of a woman who has superhuman powers and is forced to go on the run when people find out.

Sidney is also involved with the non-profit organization K9’s For Warriors, where she’ll be presenting graduation certificates to former military members and their K9’s.