Olivia Munn revealed that one of her former male co-stars brought production to a standstill when he refused to let her character save his during a scene.
During an appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show” on Wednesday, Munn recalled filming a bunker fight sequence for a film, which she did not name, where both characters were defending their positions before switching sides.
Munn, who has starred in action films such as “X-Men: Apocalypse” and “The Predator,” said that the script called for her unnamed co-star to be nearly shot from behind — until her character stepped in.
“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 [who] was gonna shoot him in the back, so I shoot him,” Munn 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.’”
Munn said the actor immediately halted filming and argued with the director in front of the entire crew.
“He became combative with the director,” she said, adding that he had “no insecurity about being obnoxious and everyone hearing this and being like, ‘She can’t save me! We’re not doing this.’”
The alleged standoff dragged on for nearly an hour.
“Finally, after like 45 minutes of just stopping down, 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,’” she said. “And he was like, ‘OK.’”
But according to Munn, the compromise didn’t actually change anything.
“Now here’s the interesting thing,” she said. “Nothing changed. It’s just what he thought. I was doing the exact same thing.”
The “Newsroom” alum has previously opened up about other difficult experiences on set.
During an appearance on Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast, she claimed a director she worked with on “The Newsroom” tried to sabotage her chances at landing a movie role.
“I was on the one-yard-line for the movie and my manager calls me and says, ‘Hey, you’re gonna get the role. But first, I guess there’s another director who they know and he says that on “The Newsroom” you were late all the time and really combative,’” Munn said.
“I lived seven minutes from there. I was never late. I was like, ‘I know who this is.’ He just was trying to bash me.”
She said she pushed back through her representatives and ultimately still got the role, but didn’t forget the incident.
“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,” she said.
Earlier this week, Munn also claimed she lost out on a role on “30 Rock” because Alec Baldwin thought she looked too young to play his love interest.
She told the Hollywood Reporter she had initially been told she landed the role, only to have it pulled days later.
“Another two days later, ‘No, no, no. They think you’re perfect. You’re going to fly out on Saturday.’ Friday, ‘No, no, no. Alec thinks that you look too young and he’s putting his foot down,’” she said.
The role ultimately went to Elizabeth Banks. At the time, Baldwin was 52 and Banks was 36, while Munn was 30.
But Munn said the offer itself was enough validation.
“These people, iconic people — Tina Fey, Robert Carlock, Grace Wu at NBC casting — they all thought that I was good enough to have gotten the offer,” she said.
