ARTICLE
Olivia Munn was Outcasted for Speaking Out
By Flora / 10 Sep 2018 (Monday)
Photo Credit: ComicBook Movies
A few days ago, Fox announced that they will be cutting the controversial scene from the upcoming alien flick, ‘The Predator’, which actress Olivia Munn successfully lobbied for. During her interview with The Hollywood Reporter at the Toronto International Film Festival to promote the film, Munn talked about the situation and how she felt like “I’m the one going to jail” for speaking up.
Munn informed the studio that the actor she appeared with, in a scene was a registered sex offender, Steven Wilder Striegel, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to charges of risk of injury to a child and enticing a minor by computer after attempting to manipulate a 14-year-old girl into a sexual relationship. Striegel is a long-time friend of director Shane Black, and is no surprise that Black cast his good friend for this movie, which he did previously for Iron Man 3 and The Nice Guys, both of which came after his six months jail sentence on the charges.
Black issued a public apology for casting Striegel, but he hasn’t apologised to Munn, who revealed that she herself read about the apology when the story was published, along with millions of other people.
Photo Credit: Junkee
Additionally, Munn was fielding questions during the TIFF press tour all by herself as some of the co-stars backed out of scheduled interviews. In the many interviews which you can find them online, Munn talked about how she felt there was a lack of support from her cast members and felt “very lonely”.
"It’s a very lonely feeling to be sitting here by myself when I should be sitting here with the rest of the cast," she said.
“It’s honestly disheartening to have to fight for something so hard that is just so obvious to me. I don’t know why this has to be such a hard fight. 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. I found out, and [it] was really important to me to have the scene deleted.”
“There are people who get very mad at you for not just helping them bury it … 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.”
Sterling K. Brown had responded via Twitter to Munn's interview, stating that "I’m sorry you’ve been the only one to speak up publicly."
Perhaps the other cast members were told to not speak about the issue, but here’s a lesson from Munn that we can all learn from:
The Predator opens InCinemas 13 September 2018