Olivia Munn is opening up about a difficult experience she had on set with an unnamed male costar. The Your Friends & Neighbors star revealed that she once worked with an individual who halted production for 45 minutes after he realized that her character saved his life in the scene that they were filming.
“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,” Munn explained on Wednesday’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show.
The Scene in Question
The X-Men: Apocalypse actress explained that the set-up for the scene was that the pair were engaged in a firefight in an underground bunker. “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 — was gonna shoot him in the back — so I shoot him,” she said.
“And 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.'”
Production Halts
The man’s outburst caused the entire production to reach a standstill. Looking back on his behavior, she added, “There was no insecurity about being obnoxious and everyone hearing this and being like, ‘She can’t save me! We’re not doing this!'”
Munn also noted that the man was “combative with the director” over the scene as well. The actor’s refusal to proceed with the scene as written created a tense atmosphere on set, with production grinding to a halt for approximately 45 minutes.
Munn Steps In
So, she stepped in to fix the situation. “Finally, after like 45 minutes of just stopping down, I said, ‘Okay, 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,'” she recalled. “And he was like, ‘Okay.'”
Turning to the audience, she continued, “Now here’s the interesting thing: nothing changed. It’s just what he thought. I was doing the exact same thing.” The compromise — changing the justification while keeping the action identical — satisfied the costar’s ego while preserving the scene’s dramatic intent.
A Pattern of Industry Challenges
Munn has spoken out about the injustices she’s faced within the entertainment industry over the years. Last July, she claimed that an unnamed Newsroom director tried to “ruin” her career by calling up her next project and telling them she was “late all the time” and “combative” on set.
“I lived seven minutes from there. I was never late,” Munn explained on the Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard podcast at the time. “And I was like, ‘I know who this is.’ He just was trying to bash me.”
She continued, “And I told my reps, ‘Please tell the directors this.’ 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.”
Analysis: A Reflection of Industry Dynamics
Munn’s anecdote highlights a persistent issue in Hollywood: the discomfort some male actors have with being saved by a female character on screen. The fact that production halted for 45 minutes — and that the costar was “combative with the director” — suggests an ego-driven resistance to the scene’s dynamic.
What makes the story particularly telling is that Munn’s proposed solution changed nothing about the action. Her character still shot the attacker. The only difference was the justification: instead of saving him, she was simply “switching sides” and taking out “her guy.” The same action, re-framed, became acceptable.
Munn’s willingness to step in and solve the problem — rather than letting the production remain stalled — demonstrates professionalism and pragmatism. But it also reflects the additional labour that women in the industry often perform to manage the egos of their male colleagues.
The Drew Barrymore Show airs weekdays on CBS.
