Olivia Munn opened up about an experience with a male costar that was memorable for the wrong reasons.
The actress, 45, appeared on the Wednesday, April 8, episode of The Drew Barrymore Show and recalled an incident where an unnamed male costar interrupted filming because he didn’t want a woman to save his character.
“There have been a few times where I’ve been filming something, and my character was either, like, CIA or a cop or something, and there’s been scenes where my character has been the one to save the other character,” Munn explained.
For this scene in particular, Munn recalled that the actor “was guarding his side, I was guarding my side, then we switch sides and then there’s a guy that was coming for him [who] was gonna shoot him in the back, so I shoot him.”
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She went on to theorize that the actor hadn’t read the script, because he seemed surprised to find that Munn’s character would be coming to his rescue.
“[He said], ‘Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. She can’t save me. No, no. She can’t save me,’” the Newsroom alum claimed, adding that her costar became “combative with the director” as filming stopped for 45 minutes.
“There was no insecurity about being obnoxious and everyone hearing this and being like, ‘She can’t save me! We’re not doing this,’” she continued.
According to Munn, she eased the tension herself by reframing the scene for her costar.
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“I said, ‘OK, how about instead of my character saving you, it’s just that we switch because it’s time for us to switch, and so this is my guy to get,’ and he was like, ‘OK,’” she recalled. “Now, here’s the interesting thing. Nothing changed. It’s just what he thought. I was doing the exact same thing.”
Munn later told host Drew Barrymore that she’s made a conscious effort to find roles that don’t play into sexist or old-fashioned stereotypes, which means she’s been extra choosy about which parts she’ll play.
“I’ve looked at so many different scripts, and a lot of times the women are portrayed in kind of a naggy way,” the Your Friends & Neighbors star explained. “I had this thing that I decided at one point early in my career, like, I only wanted to do projects where she would exist even if he didn’t exist. You know, that it wasn’t just his story.”
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Earlier this month, Munn shared another story about the difficulties she’s faced in Hollywood, claiming that Alec Baldwin kept her from appearing on 30 Rock. Munn told The Hollywood Reporter that she originally landed the role of Avery Jessup, who was a love interest for Baldwin’s character, Jack Donaghy.
“The end of that story is that I got the job … and then two days later, they were like, ‘Alec thinks that you look too young to play his love interest,’” she alleged. “Another two days later, ‘No, no, no. They think you’re perfect. You’re going to fly out on Saturday.’ On Friday, ‘No, no, no. Alec thinks that you look too young and he’s putting his foot down.’”
The role eventually went to Elizabeth Banks, but Munn noted the experience actually gave her confidence because she got so far into the audition process.
“These people, iconic people — Tina Fey, Robert Carlock, Grace Wu at NBC casting — they all thought that I was good enough to have gotten the offer,” she explained. “That’s what I needed. Whether or not I got the job didn’t affect my confidence.”
