Photo: Getty Images
Olivia Munn is not just a strong woman in real life, she also plays one on TV. This fact has been upsetting to at least one male costar who wasn't afraid to be "obnoxious" about it on set.
During an appearance on Wednesday's (April 8) episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, the Newsroom actress called out a former costar for refusing to film a scene where her character saved his, leading to a delay in filming, per E! News. Though she didn't name names, Munn also didn't hold back on addressing the sexist behavior.
"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," she said. "If you read the script, it was that he was guarding his side, I was guarding my side, then we switch sides and then there's a guy that was coming for him and was gonna shoot him in the back, so I shoot him," she recalled.
While this scene would be in line with any procedural drama, Munn explained that one male costar took issue with the idea of his character being saved by a woman and got "combative" with the director.
"Then we're about to shoot and, somehow, I guess he didn't read the script and in that moment he realized, 'Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. She can't save me. No, no. She can't save me,'" she said, adding, "Everything shuts out. There was no insecurity about being obnoxious and everyone hearing this and being like, 'She can't save me! We're not doing this!'"
After nearly an hour of complaints, Munn finally suggested their characters simply switch places and "this is my guy to get," which he agreed to do; however, she pointed out that the final result of the scene was still the same.
"Now here's the interesting thing: nothing changed," she said. "It's just what he thought. I was doing the exact same thing."
Munn is no stranger to calling out wild behavior on set. Last year, she put one of her past directors on blast for "trying to bash me" to other teams for prospective roles because of their on-set creative differences.
"And I told my reps, 'Please tell the directors this.' And then I still got the role," she said. "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."