Olivia Munn is getting candid about the impact her breast cancer surgeries have had on her professional life.
The actress, 44, recently recalled shooting sex scenes with Jon Hamm for the new Apple+ TV show, “Your Friends and Neighbors” after her operations.
The last of her five surgeries occurred just days before the show began filming.
“I was really nervous about doing any sex scenes because I have a lot of scars,” she shared in an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Friday. “Scars that can be seen in clothing and scars that you wouldn’t know unless I was completely nude.”
Munn plays mother-of-two Samantha Levitt, who is having an affair with Hamm’s Andrew Cooper in the drama.
“She wants something so much more from him than he’s willing to give and their only connection is through sex,” she explained about her character. “I really wanted that to be portrayed. I wanted the sex scenes to feel like sex scenes — I wanted them to feel visceral and intense and not hold back at all.”
Munn worked with an intimacy coordinator on set but it still took time for her to feel comfortable, despite having the support of those around her.
“I did feel insecure, but each time I did it, I felt better,” “The Gateway” alum said. “I’m so grateful for my body because it got me through this.”
It’s a sentiment she echoed while talking to SELF earlier this week.
As Munn put it: “Honestly, when I think about it, I was much more insecure in past nude scenes long before I had scars across my breasts. Now I view the scars on my body as battle wounds. I fought to be here and they’re proof of that.”
The “X-Men: Apocalypse” actress, who shares son Malcolm, 3, and daughter Méi, 7 months, with husband John Mulaney, has continued to be vocal about her breast cancer journey since first sharing the news in March 2024.
“I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” she captioned an Instagram post at the time that detailed what she went through in great length. “I hope by sharing this it will help others find comfort, inspiration and support on their own journey.”
In the carousel, Munn explained how she was diagnosed with luminal B breast cancer in 2023 after a round of genetic tests.
The actress then underwent both a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy as part of her treatment.
“I was walking around thinking that I had no breast cancer,” she told People in April 2024. “I did all the tests that I knew about.”
“You realize cancer doesn’t care who you are; it doesn’t care if you have a baby or if you don’t have time,” Munn continued. “It comes at you, and you have no choice but to face it head-on.”
Reflecting on how her viewpoint has changed since becoming a mom, Munn told Vogue in May: “You start thinking about your mortality differently once you have a baby. It’s his childhood, but it’s my motherhood, and I don’t want to miss any of these parts if I don’t have to.”
While talking to EXTRA in April, the mom-of-two also took a moment to gush over her other half, who is currently working on his Netflix show and is on dad duty.
“He’s doing great,” Munn said of Mulaney, 42. “He just sent me a video of himself and my son Malcolm with him on set today and Malcolm loves his dad so much. It’s such a sweet dynamic.”
“He can do it all! He has the bandwidth,” she continued. “It is truly amazing. He has the bandwidth to, like, do a live weekly show on Netflix, live globally, take my son to school in the morning, and read scripts and he developed a show and he, like, sold a show… He always has energy, and he comes home and he still, like, wants to unwind by watching a Korean drama with my mom, like, I’m not kidding you, like, he has so much energy.”
“Your Friends and Neighbors” is now streaming on Apple TV+.
