Olivia Munn had no problem standing up to directors while starring in HBO’s “The Newsroom” — and neither did the show’s creator and writer, Aaron Sorkin.
In a conversation with HuffPost Live on Wednesday, Munn expressed her disdain for when “Newsroom” directors would ask her to “take the girly route” and “smile and smirk.” But when the actress would refuse to adhere, Sorkin was a loyal ally.
“He was like, ‘One hundred percent not. Do not,”” she recalled, “and we were always on the same page and then he would come up and back me right away.”
“When you have him backing you — that meant everything,” she added.
The 34-year-old, who stars alongside Johnny Depp in the upcoming “Mortdecai,” recalled a specific occasion in which a director felt she wasn’t being flirty enough as the girlfriend of Don, her onscreen beau (played by Thomas Sadoski).
“One director pulled me aside and said ‘Olivia, the thing is, I’m the director, so I have to look at the entire rainbow […] and you’re bringing something but I don’t think you realize maybe how you’re coming off,'” she recounted. “… I go, ‘Oh, so do you don’t think I realize how my choices are coming off? […] How am I coming off?”
The actress rejoiced when the director replied “aggressive.”
“I go ‘Great! That’s exactly what I wanted,’ and that was it!”
Munn, who felt that the directors were neglecting “the other two seasons” as well as her character, saw the representation they were asking for to be both demeaning and inaccurate.
“I felt like, just because you’re in a relationship doesn’t mean you have to start being like, all giggly and girly,” she said. “… I’ve [heard] from a lot of women telling me ‘I’m happy you didn’t become all mushy and soft and become one of those women who gets weird when they’re in a relationship.”
Watch more from Olivia Munn’s conversation with HuffPost Live here.
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