It was newsworthy.
Olivia Munn is alleging that a director from “The Newsroom” tried to “ruin” her career.
“There was a storyline where my character and Tom Sadoski’s character are dating and falling in love. [The director] kept trying to force me to carry that storyline only on my side,” Munn, 44, claimed during a recent podcast appearance on the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard.
The “X Men: Apocalypse” actress said that the director encouraged her to stop focusing on what her character, Sloan Sabbith, was doing, and just fawn over Sadoski’s character, Don Keefer.
Several directors contributed to “The Newsroom,” including Alan Poul, Greg Mottola, Anthony Hemingway, Lesli Linka Glatter, Jeremy Podeswa, Alex Graves and Paul Lieberstein. Munn did not reveal which director was involved in the incident.
“He’s like, ‘Can you look out at him and smile?’ And I’m like, ‘Why? She’s busy doing this.’ Or, ‘Can you stop and snuggle up to him or flirt with him?’ Or, ‘Can you give him a kiss?’ And I’m like, ‘This is in the middle of working.’”
Her problems with the director continued even after the show ended, as Munn claims the director negatively impacted her reputation.
“I was on the one-yard-line for [a] movie, and my manager calls me and says, ‘Hey, you’re gonna get the role. But first, I guess there’s another director who they know, and he says that, on ‘The Newsroom,’ you were late all the time and really combative,” she said.
The “Your Friends and Neighbors” star said she suspected the director said it because they clashed.
“I lived seven minutes from there. I was never late,” Munn said.
“And I was like, ‘I know who this is.’ He just was trying to bash me. And I told my reps, ‘Please tell the directors this.’”
Luckily, the director’s words didn’t cost her that movie role.
“But I will always remember that, just because of our conflicts of how we approached a role, he wanted to ruin my chances of getting anything else.”
Helmed by Aaron Sorkin, “The Newsroom” aired on HBO from 2012 to 2014 and followed staffers at a fictional news network. In addition to Munn and Sadoski, it starred Jeff Daniels, Dev Patel, Sam Waterston, Alison Pill, Emily Mortimer, and John Gallagher Jr.
Jane Fonda and David Harbour also appeared on the show.
During a 2019 appearance on “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” Sorkin shot down the idea of rebooting “The Newsroom.”
“I wish the show was on the air now. I would love to be writing it now. But there are other things coming up. I have no plans to return [to it],” Sorkin, 64, said.
In an April 2024 interview, Daniels told The Post that he doesn’t think “The Newsroom” would be able to weather the current news cycle.
“I remember when – I think it was the start of Season 3 – we started with the Boston Marathon. We were shooting that in November. It had happened in March, right? So we’re always months and months behind. And then, by the time it airs, it’s even further behind. So now Trump gets elected and there’s something every 15 minutes,” the “Dumb and Dumber” star, 70, explained. “I don’t think we could have kept up.”
