Olivia Munn Feels Shunned By 'Predator' Director, Co-Stars After Calling Out Sex Offender
Olivia Munn is not backing down from calling out the inclusion of a sex offender in her new movie, "The Predator" reboot. Now, she's calling out director Shane Black and cast members for shunning her for speaking out.
While promoting the movie at the Toronto Film Festival (which she is contractually obligated to do), Munn said she felt abandoned by her co-stars, who did not show up for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, with the exception of 11-year-old Jacob Tremblay.
"It’s a very lonely feeling to be sitting here by myself when I should be sitting here with the rest of the cast," the actress said. "I do feel like I’ve been treated by some people that I’m the one who went to jail or I’m the one that put this guy on set."
Last week, news circulated that Munn had successfully lobbied for Fox to cut a scene including Steven Wilder Striegel, a registered sex offender who pleaded guilty in 2010 for trying to lure 14-year-old girl into a sexual relationship online. Striegel is a longtime friend of Black.
The studio said they had been unaware of Striegel's background when he was hired. Black issued a statement saying he "was misled by a friend I really wanted to believe was telling me the truth when he described the circumstances of his conviction. I believe strongly in giving people second chances, but sometimes you discover that chance is not as warranted as you may have hoped."
Munn also noted that Black hadn't reached out to her after the scene was deleted.
"I haven’t heard from Shane. I did see his apology ... I would have appreciated it more if it was directed toward me privately before it went public and I had to see it online with everyone else," she said. "It's honestly disheartening to have to fight for something so hard that is just so obvious to me."
Co-stars Sterling K. Brown and Keegan-Michael Key quickly made public statements to voice their support of Munn and explain their absence from the Hollywood Reporter interview.
Brown, who is currently filming the third season of NBC's "This Is Us," tweeted:
Meanwhile, Key's publicist told THR: "His last interview was scheduled after lunch, which he completed. He was always departing TIFF early so he could be home to spend the Jewish holiday with his wife. Furthermore, Keegan reached out to Olivia privately last week to let her know how proud he was of her and echoed that sentiment in many interviews since then."