Olivia Munn says male director tried to 'ruin' her chances to get future roles after HBO dispute
The 44-year-old actress was first best known as a correspondent on the popular G4 series Attack of the Show, before breaking through as an actress as Sloan Sabbith on The Newsroom.
She opened up about an unnamed director on The Newsroom during a wide-ranging chat with Dax Shepard on his Armchair Expert podcast.
The actress - who recently made headlines for comments about Jeff Bezos' ex Mackenzie Scott - realized this director wanted to put his 'imprint' on her Sloan Sabbith character, which involved a romantic relationship with Thomas Sadoski's Don Keefer.
'There was a storyline where my character and Tom Sadoski's character are dating and falling in love,' she said.
However, the director, 'kept trying to force me to carry that storyline only on my side. He's like, "Can you look out at him and smile?" And I'm like, "Why she's busy doing this?"
She added that he would suggest, '"Can you stop and snuggle up to him or flirt with him?" Or, "Can you give him a kiss?" And I'm like, "This is in the middle of working."'
There was another scene where she finds out that Keefer engaged in some 'insider trading with information I got him,' and while her reaction for the character was naturally one of outrage, the director thought otherwise.
'They were like "I don't think that you're that angry with him it's kind of funny." I just fought back so much and then it got to this place where there was one scene and I was like "No I'm not,"' she admitted.
'And he goes he said "Look it's my job as a director to see all the different colors of the rainbow." And you are looking at only one color and I don't think you realize how you're coming off and I said "How am I coming off?" and he said really forceful and strong and I said, "Great, that's what I wanted," and walked away,' she said.
Munn added that some time after that incident, she was, 'on the one-yard line for a movie,' and she found out that this director had spoken out against her.
'My manager calls me and says, "Hey, you're gonna get the role. But first, I guess there's another director who they know and he says that on The Newsroom you were late all the time and really combative,' she said.
'I lived seven minutes from there. I was never late. I was like, "I know who this is." He just was trying to bash me. And I told my reps, "Please tell the directors this,"' Munn said.
She added, 'And then I still got the role. But I will always remember that just because of our conflicts of how we approached a role, he wanted to ruin my chances of getting anything else.'
Munn also opened up about one of her exes, NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers, during the podcast, revealing she didn't watch the new Netflix documentary about him.
She also opened up about rumors that she started the rift with his family, which he recently debunked.
'There's this whole big narrative that stayed with me for so many years, but there was just this dynamic in the family that had nothing to do with me. It became this whole big thing, and people were like, "I can't with her, she's keeping this family apart."'
'People have speculated for many years what was the rift, and I know, but I'm not saying because it's not my story to tell,' Olivia revealed.
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