Olivia Munn Says A ‘Newsroom’ Director “Wanted To Ruin My Chances Of Getting” Acting Jobs In Retaliation After Disagreement On HBO Series

Olivia Munn is recalling her time on The Newsroom and a disagreement she had with a male director who retaliated by smearing her work ethic.

In a recent interview, Munn opened up about an incident she had on the set of the HBO series.

“There was a storyline where my character and Tom Sadoski’s character are dating and falling in love,” Munn said on Dax Shepherd’s Armchair Expert podcast. “[The director] kept trying to force me to carry that storyline only on my side. He’s like, ‘Can you look out at him and smile?’ And I’m like, ‘Why she’s busy doing this?’ Or, ‘Can you stop and snuggle up to him or flirt with him?’ Or, ‘Can you give him a kiss?’ And I’m like, ‘This is in the middle of working.’”

The Your Friends & Neighbors said that she later learned that the unnamed director told a movie studio she was challenging to work with.

“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 recalled. “I lived seven minutes from there. I was never late. I was like, ‘I know who this is.’”

She continued, “He just was trying to bash me. 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.”

The Newsroom was an HBO series that premiered in 2012 and ran for three seasons. Munn played the role of Sloan Smith, an economist who presents a segment on Will McAvoy’s (Jeff Daniels) news show.