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Daily Tribune
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Tribune
Olivia Munn speaks out about her experiences filming The Newsroom
Bang Showbiz | Los Angeles Olivia Munn has spoken out about her experiences filming The Newsroom, alleging repeated creative clashes with a director on the HBO series led to professional conflicts on set — and attempts to derail her career afterwards. The 44-year-old actress discussed the situation during an episode of the Armchair Expert podcast, in conversation with host Dax Shepard. Oilvia, who starred as financial reporter Sloan Sabbith in the Aaron Sorkin–created series from 2012 to 2014, said tensions escalated during the second and third seasons, particularly as her character became romantically involved with Don Keefer, played by Thomas Sadoski, 48. The star claimed the director repeatedly pressured her to play the romantic arc from Sloan's perspective only. 'The director kept trying to force me to carry that storyline only on my side,' she said – adding: 'I'm in the middle of working and I've got this new Bloomberg machine, and I'm so excited, and 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?'' A particularly contentious moment occurred, Olivia said, when her character discovered Don had committed insider trading using confidential information she had shared. 'I was like, 'Are you kidding me? This is insane,'' she recalled. According to Oilvia, the director disagreed with her interpretation and insisted Sloan should find the situation 'kind of funny'. The conflict culminated in a standoff during filming.
New York Times
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
How SEC's ‘It Just Means More' became part of college football's lexicon
Wynn Everett was hiking an Atlanta trail nine years ago when a couple passed by. They could have recognized the actress from a long run on HBO's 'The Newsroom.' Or perhaps as a villain on ABC's 'Agent Carter.' Maybe even that appearance on 'Grey's Anatomy.' But no, turns out it was something else. A few steps past Everett, the couple turned and yelled four words: 'It just means more!' Advertisement Everett, who said she laughed at the time, might have realized then she was on the ground floor of something so on the nose — and for some fans, triggering — that it would become embedded in college sports culture. That fall 2016, Everett appeared in the first two commercials of an SEC campaign intended to show the way of life in the league. In the first, Everett narrates what the SEC means — 'heart of a campus, heart of a town, heart of an entire state.' Then the video cuts to Everett under a moss tree. Right before the already established 'SEC, SEC, SEC' chant plays, Everett finishes with the words: 'It is so not a phase. Whatever it is. Here, it just means more.' So not a phase, indeed. Some slogans and ad campaigns are quickly forgotten. This one, in less than a decade, has become a rallying cry, and when things go wrong for an SEC team, something opposing fans gleefully mock. Either way, it has become ubiquitous with the conference. The rest of the country might have caught up to the SEC in football, but the league's unabashed claim carries on. Doug Lesmerises, who has covered Ohio State since 2005, hosts a podcast called 'Kings of the North' exploring college football from a northern point of view. Other conferences might be able to match the SEC on the field, and eventually even in passion, he said. But not the slogan: 'You're never beating those four words.' When Greg Sankey was promoted to SEC commissioner in summer 2015, he zeroed in on the league's image. There was no question this was the top football league, but to Sankey, according to SEC communications director Herb Vincent, the status felt underused. Sankey wanted more. 'He wanted to promote the culture of the conference,' Vincent said. Advertisement The league whittled down proposed campaigns to three, including one from the Richards Group, now TRG. The SEC, like most conferences, ran perfunctory promos including game highlights, snippets of interviews with football coaches and students peering into microscopes. The Big Ten had launched its now-famous 'map' commercial. TRG vowed to do something completely different, suggesting several ideas that were decidedly not just trophy presentations and to 'stand out in a sea of sameness,' said Trent Walters, the point man for the pitch. 'I remember walking out of Greg's office and telling Greg: This group is either going to create a killer campaign for us or they're going to get you fired,' Vincent said. Sankey and company decided to take the risk. During a meeting between the SEC and its new partner, they were spitballing ideas, when the eureka! moment occurred. Sankey mentioned that someone in another conference — appropriately enough — had told them in an offhand way: 'It just means more to you guys.' Walter recalled: 'That was when a light bulb went off in our heads: That's gold. Let's see what we can do with that.' The company worked up potential ads, promos and posters and took them back to the SEC. When 'It just means more' appeared on the screen, the reaction was universal. 'I remember the room collectively going: 'Oh, wow, that's it,'' said Michael Thompson, now the head of the SEC Network, who previously worked at Ole Miss and in marketing. 'Everyone was like, Oh, our work is done here. It was so obvious.' The SEC built other aspects into the campaign. Beloved cities and restaurants. Fans and parents, personal stories. But Everett was the face of it, at least early on. The Georgia native attended Auburn, where she was a theater minor. She was living in Los Angeles when she auditioned for the SEC spot. They were looking at other actors, as well as former coaches and SEC players. During Everett's callback, she appeared on a video call with TRG and the ad director. Advertisement 'Tell us about your SEC experience,' Everett remembers being asked. 'I started to tell them about the people that I had met at Auburn and the years that I had there, and all of a sudden, I just could not help myself, and tears started rolling down my face.' Everett also talked about her Georgia parents, including her father, who never missed a game, and her cousins who attended Alabama and Vanderbilt. When Sankey saw Everett's audition, that clinched it, with Vincent recalling Sankey's words: 'This is what we're looking for.' Sankey unveiled the slogan and the campaign at SEC media days in July 2016. The reaction ranged from a shrug to praise for accuracy, albeit for a range of reasons. That was underlined in the same news conference, where Sankey fielded questions about off-field issues involving SEC players and whether his conference had an image problem. That day, Louisville Courier Journal columnist Gentry Estes wrote: 'There are many slogans you can shrug off as inconsequential, but this isn't one of them. It's too on point. … Saying it in such a way is an acknowledgement of the win-at-all-costs mentality that so many observe and believe about SEC football. It does mean more here.' The SEC expected, even wanted, a strong reaction. 'It's unapologetic,' Thompson said. 'That word stuck out to me from then on, that there is this confidence. It's not arrogance, but it's unapologetic. It's who we are.' Not everyone saw it the same. Katie Nolan, then on FS1, in a segment in December 2016, said, 'The SEC has weird commercials.' Nolan lightheartedly but still pointedly took the SEC to task: 'We get it, you are good, and you think you're better than everybody else, but you're just a group of schools that play sports. There are a bunch of other groups of other schools that do literally the same stuff as you. It doesn't mean more. You're just more mean about it.' Advertisement Spencer Hall on the site Every Day Should Be Saturday later offered a breakdown of Everett's second commercial, which featured her at Rosemary Beach on the Gulf Coast of Florida, among other visuals: 'It's a great Southern Living ad,' Hall wrote. Everett's expression from that beach commercial, when at the end she said, 'It just means more,' became an internet meme. (Courtesy of SEC) And as time went on, more people — fans, media, announcers — latched on to the motto, using it as a taunt when the opportunity arose. Undeterred, the SEC blasted the motto on the Wynfrey Hotel building for SEC media days in 2017. It plastered the four words on signage at the SEC championship, the SEC tournament and various other events. Broadcasts of big games featured the motto alongside the SEC logo. The attention on the slogan, even the jeers, made the SEC realize it had something. 'They think they're razzing us with 'It just means more.' But no, you're using our line!' Walters said. 'You're doing what we were hoping you would do.' A typical example: Navy beat Oklahoma in last year's Armed Forces Bowl, and its social media team posted, 'It just means more at Navy.' it just means more at Navy#FearTheBones | #GoNavy | #RollGoats — Navy Football (@NavyFB) December 27, 2024 The beauty of it, to the SEC, was the emphasis on the passion of the conference, not just winning. So when the SEC lost, it still applied, because it hurt more. Or it meant more to the other team to beat an SEC team. 'When it gets thrown back at us, it's kind of a victory,' Vincent said. Walters, the ad agency point person, comes from a football family: His father was a longtime NFL and college assistant, and his brother Troy followed his father's career path. Trent Walters once visited Nebraska, where his brother was an assistant at the time. He was introduced to another coach as the guy who worked on the SEC's 'It Just Means More' campaign. 'He just had this response that was sorta like: 'Oh, that,'' Walters said with a laugh. ''We admire it, but we also kind of hate them for that.'' The PGA Tour offered the memorable 'These guys are good' from 1997 to 2018. The NBA, a few decades ago, adopted the slogan 'It's Fantastic.' The Pac-12, in its former form, was known as the 'Conference of Champions.' The SEC has stuck with its slogan, as it nears the 10-year mark, longer than most campaigns, Walters said. Advertisement 'When clients feel like they need to move away or try something new, that's when you move away from ideas that could really, really be something,' he said. There's some slight disagreement about whether another slogan was considered. Thompson remembers one brief conversation, the idea quickly swatted away: 'Why would we do that?' Walters, however, does recall hearing some uncertainty about continuing with it in the first couple of years. Now, it's one of the first things associated with the SEC. It helped that the on-field product kept the phrase on people's lips. SEC teams appeared in the national championship game every year from 2016 to 2023, including two all-SEC title games, winning five times. The Big Ten, meanwhile, remained a threat to the SEC's superiority on the field — and struck a TV deal that was bigger than the SEC's. But the SEC had the slogan. To Lesmerises, even amid Buckeye Nation, its meaning goes beyond marketing. 'It's more than just a pithy four-word phrase,' he said. 'And I'm not sure it doesn't help them win football games if you're a football recruit looking to play somewhere that cares the most. If you're a coach looking to work somewhere that has passion and resources.' The phrase reinforces that in the SEC, well, you know. Everett would go on to other work, including appearances on 'The Walking Dead,' 'Modern Family' and 'This Is Us.' But her career recently brought her back to football. 'Chad Powers' is an upcoming Hulu comedy about the South Georgia Catfish, who are seen playing against Georgia, Ole Miss and Tennessee. The Catfish are not officially in the SEC, but it's fairly implied. The show is based on a sketch former Ole Miss quarterback Eli Manning did for an ESPN show. The first episode airs Sept. 30. Advertisement 'It's really a love letter to southern football,' said Everett, who was cast as a Catfish booster. 'It's really a love letter to football fans. It's been years since Everett was part of the SEC campaign. But she takes pride in being there for the start. 'I love when I see it come up on the screen and it says, 'It Just Means More,'' she said. 'I love that I was part of it. It's so special, and it's so unique. And I think it stuck because it's authentically real.'
NBC News
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
Olivia Munn's mother diagnosed with breast cancer after actor's own cancer diagnosis
Olivia Munn shared on Wednesday that her mother was diagnosed with and underwent treatment for breast cancer, revealing the news more than a year after the actor announced her own diagnosis. Munn wrote in an Instagram post that after her own breast cancer diagnosis, she encouraged her mother, Kim Munn, to take a lifetime breast cancer risk assessment. It's the same test that Munn's own doctor encouraged her to take which led to a score that prompted an MRI test, and ultimately a biopsy. "The Newsroom" actor was found to have Luminal B cancer in both breasts in 2023, she said last year. Her mother had a score of 26.2%, and although mammograms came out fine, Munn wrote that she insisted her mother get an MRI. "Shortly after that MRI, my mother was diagnosed with Stage 1 Her2 breast cancer," Munn wrote. "She has since completed 12 rounds of chemo and will continue monthly Herceptin transfusions until this fall." Her2 breast cancer is a fast-growing and invasive form of the disease, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Munn shared that her mother had a double mastectomy, a surgery that Munn also had when she was diagnosed. The actor encourage everyone to take the free, online risk assessment that she credits with saving her and her mother's lives. "Anything above 20% is considered high risk for breast cancer and you should insist that your doctor order a breast MRI," Munn wrote. Munn added that her mother wanted to say that she hopes sharing her story will help save someone's life. "I want to say how proud I am of my mom," Munn wrote. "She's handled all of this with bravery and humor while still driving us crazy (just days after her double mastectomy she tried to do laundry and make dinner — she's insane.)" Munn's post included video of her mother making fried green tomatoes days after surgery, joking that Munn won't get any if she isn't nice. "I want you to go sit down and rest," Munn said in the video. "I will, after I finish this one," her mother said. "Leave me alone." She also shared video of her mother ringing a bell to indicate she finished her last round of chemo, cheering with hospital staff who held signs.
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Olivia Munn's Career Was Almost Ruined by The Newsroom Director
Olivia Munn has opened up about a frustrating behind-the-scenes experience from her time on The Newsroom. During a recent interview, she revealed how creative clashes with one of the show's directors nearly ruined her career. Olivia Munn recently opened up about her time on HBO's The Newsroom. She revealed that her behind-the-scenes clashes with one of the show's directors nearly cost her future career opportunities. Speaking candidly on the June 30 episode of Armchair Expert, Munn described how tensions began after her character, Sloan Sabbith, became romantically involved with Don Keefer, played by Thomas Sadoski. Although Munn cherished her role and the audience's positive response to Sloan, she explained that one director insisted on steering her character in a direction she disagreed with. The said director consistently tried to shift her performance to focus more on flirtation and romance, even in scenes where she felt it was out of character. When Munn resisted those changes, she said it created friction. She said, 'I just fought back so much.' Their creative disagreements reached a point where the director accused her of being 'too strong' and 'forceful.' Munn refused to compromise, even when a producer acknowledged the increasing tension. But the issues didn't end there. After The Newsroom, Munn claimed the same director attempted to sabotage a major film opportunity for her. Just before landing a role, her team was informed that the director from The Newsroom had warned the filmmakers that Munn was 'combative' and often late to set. Munn said the accusation was entirely false, adding that she lived only seven minutes from the studio and was always on time. Talking about the director, she said, 'He just was trying to bash me.' Although she ultimately got the role, she said the experience left her frustrated. 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.' The post How Olivia Munn's Career Was Almost Ruined by The Newsroom Director appeared first on - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Buzz Feed
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Olivia Munn Claims A Director Tried To Ruin Her Career
Olivia Munn revealed how a director on the former HBO show The Newsroom tried to "ruin" her career and chances to land future roles. On a June 30 episode of Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, the Your Friends and Neighbors actor said one of the directors from the HBO series tried to sabotage her career by claiming she was challenging to work with. Olivia starred as economist Sloan Sabbith across all three seasons of Aaron Sorkin's 2012 political drama. She explained that when Season 2 started, she noticed that certain directors focused on her. "What are you fucking with me for?" she recalled, before singling out one director she seemingly butted heads with. Directors for Season 2 include Alan Poul (3 episodes), Jeremy Podeswa, Lesli Linka Glatter, Carl Franklin, Julian Farino, Anthony Hemingway, and Jason Ensler (1 episode each). "There was a storyline where my character and Tom Sadoski's character are dating and falling in love," Olivia said. "[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?' 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.'" Tom Sadoski portrayed Don Keefer, a former executive producer of the series' main News Night show, who has a developing relationship with Olivia's character on the show. In the podcast, Olivia didn't name the director, but she alleged that they were speaking negatively about her to other industry professionals in a way that could damage her reputation as an actor. Olivia continued, "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 was adamant that the claims were untrue, explaining that she was never late and that the conflict was embellished. "I lived seven minutes from [Sunset Grower Studios]. 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,'" she said. "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." "Obviously, when you start in this business, there is the hope of making your mark and getting to a certain place," Olivia said. "But this kind of dynamic that I experienced for so long has really changed. The way I think about my career and what I want — I truly want to do great work that I'm happy with, and I want to live an easy, happy life." Watch Olivia's interview on the podcast.
