"There was no insecurity about being obnoxious," she said of her costar, whom she didn't name
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NEED TO KNOW
- Olivia Munn shared a story about a male costar who refused to let her character save him in a scene
- The incident caused a 45-minute delay as the actor argued with the director over the script
- Munn said she avoids sexist roles and chooses projects where her character exists independently of male leads
Olivia Munn is calling out sexist behavior on set.
On the Wednesday, April 8, episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, the Your Friends & Neighbors star told the host, 51, about a moment when a costar interrupted filming because he didn't want his character to be saved by a woman.
"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,” the 45-year-old began, noting that the scene in question involved her and her costar, whom she didn't name, fighting their enemies in a bunker.
“If you read the script," she continued, "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 [who] was gonna shoot him in the back, so I shoot him."
Munn said that she guessed "he didn’t read the script," because her costar then said, "‘Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. She can’t save me. No, no. She can’t save me.’ ”
Munn said the incident caused "45 minutes of just stopping down" filming, during which her costar became "combative with the director."
“There was no insecurity about being obnoxious and everyone hearing this and being like, ‘She can’t save me! We’re not doing this,' " the Newsroom actress said.
Eventually, the mom of two took matters into her own hands to try to appease her scene partner.
"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.’ ”
"Now, here's the interesting thing," she added. "Nothing changed. It's just what he thought. I was doing the exact same thing."
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Despite the experience, Munn has worked hard to avoid sexism in Hollywood, which includes being selective about which roles she takes on.
"I've looked at so many different scripts and a lot of times the women are portrayed in kind of a naggy way," the New Girl actress told Barrymore. "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."
Munn currently stars alongside Jon Hamm and Amanda Peet in Apple TV's Your Friends & Neighbors. The series follows Hamm's Andrew "Coop" Cooper, a hedge fund manager who, after being fired from his job, steals from his friends and family to maintain his standard of living.
Munn plays Sam Leavitt, a self-made woman who, unlike other members of her community, did not grow up with money and, like Coop, will go to desperate lengths to keep up with her affluent lifestyle.
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