The premiere of writer and director Shane Black’s The Predator received an extra dose of attention just before the Toronto International Film Festival thanks to Olivia Munn, who had a scene with a registered sex offender cut from the film. The actress has been particularly outspoken about the matter, especially since it was her complaints to 20th Century Fox that initially alerted the studio to Steven Wilder Striegel’s record in the first place. Munn is now claiming that Black and The Predator‘s mostly male cast have been shunning her in the wake of the controversy.
Munn and 11-year-old Jacob Tremblay were the only two cast members to appear for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, as the rest had “backed out of scheduled interviews, presumably because of the subject matter of the deleted scene.” When asked about their absence, Munn said, “It’s a very lonely feeling to be sitting here by myself when I should be sitting here with the rest of the cast,” while adding that “there are people who get very mad at you for not just helping them bury it.”
In addition to the cast no-show, Munn also said that aside from seeing Black’s official apology in the press, she had not heard from the writer-director:
“I haven’t heard from Shane. I did see his apology that he put out. I appreciate the apology. I would have appreciated it more if it was directed toward me privately before it went public and I had to see it online with everyone else. It’s honestly disheartening to have to fight for something so hard that is just so obvious to me. I don’t know why this has to be such a hard fight. I do feel like I’ve been treated by some people that I’m the one who went to jail or I’m the one that put this guy on set.”
In a separate interview with Vanity Fair, Munn confirmed that she had not yet heard directly from Black or the other cast members, whether before the Los Angeles Times story first broke or during the festival itself. She was especially surprised since she had purposefully tried to warn everyone before the story came out:
“I wanted them to not be blindsided the way I was blindsided, and I encouraged them to put out a statement once the L.A. Times reached out to us,” Munn said. “I was surprised that none of them did. Again that’s their prerogative. Right now the reality is that there will be people who wear Time’s Up pins and say they support Time’s Up, [but] there will be people in Time’s Up who aren’t really down with the cause.”
“It’s like I stumbled upon something and now I’m being chased by everyone and isolated,” Munn continued, noting that the whole situation and its (mis)handling has given her doubts about staying in the entertainment industry at large. “I love being an actor, but if it comes at this cost, who wants it? Who cares? I’m so much more than who I am as an actor, and so many other things going on in my life. I love it, but they can take it, if that’s what it comes down to.”
Update: Uproxx received the following statement from Predator co-star Keegan Michael Key’s representative with regard to his press schedule at TIFF.
“Keegan was never booked to do an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. His last interview was scheduled after lunch, which he completed. He was always departing TIFF early so he could be home to spend the Jewish holiday with his wife. Furthermore, Keegan reached out to Olivia privately last week to let her know how proud he was of her and echoed that sentiment in many interviews since then.”
(Via The Hollywood Reporter and Vanity Fair)
