Angel Reese Wants to Hire an Acting Coach After Making Her Film Debut (Exclusive)

Angel Reese is interested in exploring other passions off the basketball court. 

Following her feature film debut in A House of Dynamite, the basketball star told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview that she wants to continue pursuing an acting career. 

“I want to get an acting coach,” Reese, 23, said at the New York Film Festival premiere of the film on Sept. 28. “I was talking to Common — he’s overseas right now shooting season 2 of Silo — and he was telling me, ‘You got to hire an acting coach.’ ”

“So I’m going to hire an acting coach,” she continued. “I model already, so it’s like adding to the résumé. I’m young right now, so I’m going to do it while I’m young.”

Ahead of making her debut in the Kathryn Bigelow-directed film, which follows Idris Elba’s president and other members of the U.S. government in the hours after a nuclear missile is launched over the Pacific Ocean, the Chicago Sky player admitted she had some jitters before stepping on set. 

“I was really nervous,” Reese told PEOPLE. “But I had some great people on the cast that made me feel really comfortable. The girls there made me feel comfortable.”

Along with finding comfort in her fellow cast members — including Rebecca Ferguson, Greta Lee and Kaitlyn Dever — Reese also learned some valuable lessons from “being able to work with the best.”

Reese remembers Elba, 53, telling her: “Stay confident. Be yourself. Have fun.”

“We were shooting baskets,” the athlete further detailed.

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While Elba already portrayed a major political figure when he embodied the U.K. prime minister in Heads of State alongside John Cena, the actor admitted that it was still daunting to play the American president as a British actor. 

“I was super conscious of it,” Elba explained to PEOPLE at the premiere. “But you know … my granddad’s American and I was raised in America for a long time, so I kind of got over it.”

“Playing the president was a challenge, but I’m hoping that … I wanted to bring a human side to this character, and I hope the audience enjoy that,” he added.

A House of Dynamite is in theaters on Oct. 10. It will then stream on Netflix on Oct. 24.