Over the past few years, when an actor speaks out against inappropriate behavior on set, it’s sadly far from a surprise. And while some stars like Blake Lively have been open about their experience enough to take legal action, the truth is that there’s a system in place so that these toxic and harmful behaviors often fly under the radar.
Just ask Olivia Munn, who recently opened up about a “traumatic” experience she had on the set of an unnamed movie. “There were other things that happened on this movie set personally to me that was really not OK and it was so traumatic that I had to file complaints with the studio,” Munn admitted on Monica Lewinsky’s new podcast, Reclaiming, per Page Six.
But after Munn made her complaint, the studio responded with a hefty cheque. “I was offered a lot of money,” the former Newsroom star said. “A lot of money — seven figures to accept I guess their apology and them taking acknowledgement of it.” But in addition to the money, the payout “came along with an NDA.”
Right off the bat, she knew that signing it was the wrong thing to do. “‘I’m not signing an NDA,’ and they said, ‘You have to,’” she remembered. “I just felt that it was so wrong.”
At the time, Munn revealed, the accusations against Harvey Weinstein were just starting to ignite the #MeToo movement. So, as a result, she knew that getting any compensation for the situation could quickly turn around on her.
“This was when people were targeting anyone who signed an NDA saying, ‘Oh, you only did it for the money,’ so I was afraid that my voice and speaking up would reverse any kind of validity to my voice,” she said.
Munn then met with the studio’s lawyers and received another push to sign. “I turned to my lawyer and I said, ‘I’m not taking it,’” she said. “I told my lawyer, ‘I’m just not gonna do it. I want to say no now.’ And he was like, ‘Let’s think about it.’ And I said, ‘I want to say no now!’”
She was always confident in her decision. “I said to him, ‘I know this is a lot of money to you but it is not a lot of money to me to lose my voice,’” she said to her lawyer. “And we walked out of there and I remember feeling so proud when I walked out — so proud of myself.”
Looking back now, she still stands by it. “Look, was it the right thing to do and do the people in my life think that I did the right thing and are proud of me for that? Yes,” she said.
While there’s no rulebook on how and how not to deal with a situation like this, we’re applauding Munn for standing tall and owning her decision. Years later, she has now regrets and is still proud of herself for how she handled it, and that is the best we can hope for.
Before you go, click here to see celebrity co-stars who allegedly hated each other in real life.
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