Actress Olivia Munn, who played Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse and was the host of G4’s Attack of the Show!, shared one of her rules for taking on a film or TV role.
In an appearance on The Drew Barrymore show, Munn shared, “I've looked at so many different scripts and a lot of times the women are portrayed in like kind of a naggy way sometimes.”
“I had this thing that I'd decided at one point early in my career: I only wanted to do projects where she would exist even if he didn't exist. That it wasn't just his story,” she continued. “I was like I'd rather just play like a cashier in one moment in one scene where she's really interesting and you can tell she goes home and has a whole other life than to be the lead with just his story."
Munn added, “And I also went in-. I think that idea of like hating men and portraying that energy as well, it just creates the divide. I just think it’s important to like lead with positivity.”
She then recalled how an unnamed male costar refused to allow his character be saved by Munn’s character.
“There have been a few times where I’ve been filming something and my character were 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,” she said. “And I remember I was in this bunker once and if you read the script it was that he was guarding his side and I was guarding my side. Then we switched sides and then there’s a gut that was coming for him and was going to shoot him in the back. So I shoot him.”
“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,’” she continued. “And then everything stops down and there was no insecurity about being obnoxious and everyone hearing this. ‘She can’t save me. We’re not doing this.’ And then he was combative with the director.”
“And, finally, after like 45 minutes of just stopping down, I said, ‘How about instead of my character saving you, it just is that we switch because it’s time for us to switch and so this is my guy to get.’ He was like, ‘Okay,’” Munn recalled.
Next, she shared, “Now, here’s the interesting thing. Nothing changed. It’s just what he thought. I was doing the exact same thing.”
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