It’s been nearly a year since Olivia Munn spoke up about working alongside a convicted sex offender Steven Wilder Striegel on the set of Shane Black’s The Predator. While 20th Century Fox quietly cut the scenes of the convicted actor, they were upset with Munn about informing her co-stars and going public with the story.
In response, Munn’s co-stars ditched a group press interview, leaving only Munn and co-star Jacob Tremblay (who is 11) to field questions. Furthermore, director Shane Black was dismissive of Munn’s complaints until public scrutiny forced him to issue a real apology.
The entire controversy was a textbook example of what happens when a woman on set addresses an injustice: she is vilified and criticized more than the man who actually was convicted of trying to seduce a 14-year old girl online. The thing working in Munn’s favor (aside from being right)? Timing. Munn’s story came out at a crucial time in the #MeToo Movement, exemplifying the very issues the movement was criticizing.
Since then, Munn has been busy working on Starz’s supernatural spy series The Rook, based on the novel by Daniel O’Malley. While promoting the series at the TCAs, Munn reflected on her experience with The Predator scandal.
For the Munn, the most powerful part of the ordeal was the victim, Paige Carnes (now 24) coming forward. Carnes said to the LA Times, “I am also eternally grateful for Olivia Munn’s action. She spoke up for me. She took a stance for me. In turn she stood for all who have suffered like I have. To be acknowledged by a stranger, on a public platform about this issue is incredibly empowering. The positive feedback from social media towards Olivia Munn is uplifting and feels incredibly supportive for me personally.”
Munn responded by saying, “She was somewhere in the world seeing how all this went down, I didn’t know who she was. She put out a statement and that was so surprising and amazing for me to see. What she said in this very eloquent statement; she had been seeing all this support for me and that personally felt supportive for her too.”
Munn continued saying, “That gave her the courage to get in front of that Jane Doe title, to protect people in that position and gave her a lot of strength. The United Nations gave me an award for speaking out, most likely for all The Predator stuff that had gone down. I knew I couldn’t accept an award like that without having Paige there and I flew her and her father out there for that award … Seeing how strong she (Paige) is and how much the world made her feel that she mattered; that’s what this is all about.”
Kudos to Munn for doing the right thing, and for Carnes to have to courage to come forward.
(via Deadline, image: screencap)
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