Olivia Munn claims TV series director tried to ‘ruin’ her career

Olivia Munn has spoken out against a director who worked with her on The Newsroom, who she says attempted to sabotage her career by casting aspersions about her work ethic.

The 44-year-old actor played economist Sloan Sabbith on the Aaron Sorkin-written show, which ran on HBO from 2012 to 2014. The show used numerous different directors, and Munn has not named the specific director she is referring to.

Speaking on Dax Shepard’s podcast Armchair Expert, Munn said that the director “came in multiple times” during her stint on the show, and that they disagreed over how her character should act in a work setting.

“There was a storyline where my character and Tom Sadoski’s character are dating and falling in love,” Munn explained.

“He kept trying to force me to carry that storyline only on my side. He’s like, ‘Can you look out at him and smile?’ And I’m like, ‘While 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.’”

Munn went on to say that she later learned the director had discouraged other filmmakers from hiring her for a movie role.

“I was on the one-yard line for the 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,’” said Munn.

She added: “I lived seven minutes from there. I was never late. 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.’ And then I still got the 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.”

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Munn most recently starred alongside Jon Hamm in the Apple TV+ series, Your Friends & Neighbors. Last month, she opened up about the experience of filming her first sex scenes with the Mad Men star after she underwent a double mastectomy.

She had previously revealed that she had breast cancer in March 2024, nearly a year after she’d been diagnosed. She underwent five surgeries for her cancer treatment, including a double mastectomy — a procedure that involves the removal of both breasts.