Olivia Munn Turned Down an NDA After “Traumatic” Incident on Movie Set

Actress Olivia Munn is coming forward with how a studio tried to force her to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) following what she describes as a traumatic incident on a film set. Munn has had an interesting career in Hollywood, jumping between journalists and on-air personalities on shows like Attack of the Show! and The Daily Show to starring in projects like The Newsroom, Magic Mike, and X-Men: Apocalypse. She has also spoken out against anti-Asian harassment and assaults following the COVID-19 pandemic, used her platform to raise awareness on animal rights, and recently spoke publicly about her private battle with breast cancer.

Munn appeared as a guest on Monica Lewinsky’s Reclaiming podcast via Variety and revealed that she turned down signing an NDA following an incident on a film set. Munn didn’t specify the production or what exactly happened. “I had to file complaints with the studio, and there’s a lot of other little things that go along with it, but it got to this place where I was offered a lot of money. Seven figures to accept, I guess, their apology and them taking acknowledgement of it, but it came along with an NDA. Not that I ever would talk about it truly, because I wanted to move past it all,” Munn said. While she stood her ground, Munn revealed the studio seemingly did not back down and was pressuring her to sign the deal. “I said I’m not signing an NDA, and they said I have to.”

She continued, giving context to the time frame of this moment and how it related to the reckoning of Harvey Weinstein and how people who signed an NDA were perceived by the public.

“I just felt it was so wrong, and at this time specifically, this was in the beginning of #MeToo and Times Up. This was like the reckoning, the Harvey Weinstein reckoning that began it all. This was that time period, and 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.”

Munn said she hesitated to sign the NDA because she feared the studio behind the unnamed film might leak the information to the press in “an effort to diminish my voice.” However, she noted that her anger over the NDA offer helped motivate her not to sign. Munn met with lawyers before going into the meeting with the studio, and she then walked out of the meeting without signing the agreement. Munn said:

“I remember feeling so proud when I walked out — so proud of myself. I did not think about negotiating. I did not think about anything besides how disrespectful that was. … 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. It’s not that I wouldn’t have ended up with the same decision, it’s that I made that decision based on anger, and that is something I had to learn how to do rein in and use for my benefit.”

Olivia Munn Will Not (and Should Not) Be Silenced

Unfortunately, Olivia Munn is no stranger to being on the receiving end of harassment and inappropriate workplace behavior. Munn revealed that back in 2004, on the set of After Sunset, director Brett Ratner exposed and began masturbating in front of her in his trailer, with Ratner notably bragging about it in 2010, even claiming to have had sex with Munn despite that being revealed as a lie. Then, in early September 2018, Munn spoke out following the discovery that Steven Wilder Striegel, who originally had a brief role in The Predator in a scene where he flirts with Munn’s character, was a registered felony sex offender. When Munn became aware of this, she went to 20th Century Fox and demanded the scene be removed from the film, which it was. Despite Munn rightfully speaking out, she got little support from her co-stars at the time of the film’s release. She also denied the apology that The Predator director Shane Black gave.

Munn’s story about feeling pressured into signing an NDA is sadly far too common an occurrence. It is regrettably true that in individuals who sign those and later come forward with troubling allegations, people’s first instinct is seemingly to ignore the victimizer and instead judge the victim. Munn is right to feel proud for standing her ground and, despite having endured an unforgivable level of harassment, has always spoken out when needed. The person who harassed Munn and the studio that tried to silence her should be grateful to her for not naming names, because she would have been well within her rights.