Olivia Munn Claims ‘The Newsroom' Director Tried to 'Ruin' Career
'There was a storyline where my character and Tom Sadoski's character are dating and falling in love,' Olivia explained to Dax and his co-host, Monica Padman. Without naming names, she added that the director kept pushing the romantic storyline on her performance rather than Tom's.
'He 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?' Or, '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,'' she shared, describing the nature of the scene.
The Your Friends & Neighbors star also revealed that someone on her team notified her that the director told film studios she was 'difficult' to work with after they disagreed on set.
'I was on the one-yard-line for the movie and 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,'' Olivia said, though she didn't mention the movie in question.
She continued, '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.' 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.'
Olivia starred on the HBO series as Sloan Sabbith for three seasons from 2012 to 2014 before moving on to projects like X-Men: Apocalypse, Ocean's Eight, and The Daily Show over the years.
ICYMI, tune in to Olivia Munn's full conversation with Dax Shepherd on Armchair Expert below.
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