Daniel Sunjata on the Photo With Michael Jordan He Treasures

Daniel Sunjata was nearing the end of the casting process for ABC’s “High Potential” when he was asked to do a chemistry read with the show’s star Kaitlin Olson — by Zoom.

“I was like, ‘How can you get a gauge on chemistry between two actors through a computer?,’” he recalled.

Turns out he understood the assignment.

In “High Potential,” a darkly comic murder procedural that has been renewed for a second season, Sunjata is a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, and Olson is a janitor with a genius I.Q. who can deduce things the officers can’t.

He’s very by-the-book, she’s more of a rule breaker. But it’s hard to argue with the results.

“It’s been a fantastic experience,” Sunjata said. “There are many occasions where you enjoy the process of creating something and it doesn’t find an audience. So the fact that the show is also seeing a pretty significant amount of success is very, very gratifying.”

In a video call from Los Angeles, Sunjata discussed why he cherishes his baby book, a photo with Michael Jordan and the journal his first agent gave him.

These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

‘Interstellar’

Christopher Nolan is one of the most visionary directors of modern times, and I think this movie is a perfect example why. To me, it was a meditation on the relationship between our conception of love and gravity — of science and spirituality — and where the two things intertwine. There are people that I miss dearly, but when I’m with that feeling of why I miss them, that love almost transcends distance, transcends time.