When I do conventions I do have a few people recognizing me for her, but I really had nothing to do with it. It was a raw deal and I could have sued, but I'm not that type of person." Sonya's original actress, Elizabeth Malecki, was recruited by Daniel Pesina at a fitness club where she worked as an aerobic instructor and had no idea about video games. She also was the only one of the cast who was not a martial arts expert, but had a dance and athletics background. She said: "Sonya was supposed to be special forces and a martial artist, so I decided to pull in the army green tights. And since I was into aerobics, I gave her the thong that was so popular back then for women to wear in exercise classes." Her Sonya had some special moves like a roundhouse kick that were filmed but did not appear in the game. Malecki and some other "Mortal Kombat" actors later filed an usuccessful lawsuit against Midway Games over unpaid royalties from the home versions of the game and the unauthorized use of her likeness in its sequel (in Judge Robert Gettleman's ruling, the character's name is misspelled as "Sonja"). Sonya and Kano were the least popular characters of the first game and so the team decided to replace them, saving image memory space and time for the new characters. Producers said Sonya was "chucked out" from the game in favour of the palette swapped Kitana and Mileena as part of revamping the game, so it would better compete against "Street Fighter II" and its popular female character Chun-Li"." Sonya and Kano were promptly dropped for the first sequel and appear in "Mortal Kombat II" only in one of the backgrounds, chained in Kahn's Arena. At the time, Tobias said: "We still wanted to include them in the story line, so we had them captured. I don't know where or when or in what form, but Sonya and Kano will be back." However, they both soon returned as playable characters in the very next game and Sonya proved to be one of the most popular of the "Mortal Kombat" characters. According to Midway's Mark Turmell, Sonya's "Mortal Kombat 3" actress Kerri Hoskins "started getting phone calls from kids at home because we'd published her name." Hoskins, whose martial arts training consisted of "some Tang Soo Do and a past of WWF wrestling and gymnastics," said she was asked to join the cast of "MK3" after establishing a working relationship at Midway with the producers of "NBA Jam".