Samara Weaving hadn't see the original 'Bill & Ted' movies before auditioning to star in the franchise.

The 28-year-old actress is set to play Thea Preston in the much-anticipated 'Bill & Ted Face the Music' - but Samara has admitted to being unaware of the franchise's popularity before she auditioned for the role.

Samara - who is engaged to creative producer Jimmy Warden - said: ''I have to say, I hadn't seen the films when I got the audition.

''My fiance was sitting next to me and I said, 'Oh, I've got an audition for something called 'Bill & Ted',' and I've never seen him jump as high as he did. And then, he started doing the impersonation of Bill and Ted and I was like, 'What is happening? Are you having an aneurysm? Do we need to call somebody?'

''So then, we sat down and watched 'Excellent Adventure' and 'Bogus Journey', and I was laughing hysterically the whole time. I didn't realise what an impact it had on pop culture at that time.

''I've heard people say, 'Whoa, dude!' and I didn't realise that it came from there.''

Samara subsequently found shooting the movie to be a ''surreal'' experience.

She told Collider: ''Luckily, before we filmed, (director) Dean Parisot said that he really wanted to have a comedy boot camp, so we really got to know each other and we were really comfortable around each other before we got on set.

''Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter playing your fathers, you don't wanna be nervous on set, so that took the edge off a little bit, but it was very surreal.''