Quotes from the article:

“ We spent so much of our time fanning out and pretending to be cool in her midst,” star Sonequa Martin-Green, who plays USS Discovery Captain Michael Burnham in the Paramount+ series, told Deadline. “She’s a legend in the making and a civil hero, and she was an absolute delight to work with ... and she whipped out some acting chops too! It was an honor for me as a Black woman to stand with her in the story.”

Director-producer Olatunde Osunsanmi told TV Line that “everybody’s head exploded” when Abrams walked on the set “because 90% of the crew didn’t know she was coming. You could just see necks break like, ‘What?! Stacey? What is going on?’ She killed it.” Abrams is a huge “Star Trek” fan who quoted dialogue from the long-running franchise when she was first contacted by a representative of the program to appear. She was part of a long-term strategy for the plot, executive producer and co-showrunner Michelle Paradise told Deadline.”