Olivia Munn Faces ‘The Predator’ On Screen Friday, But Is Dealing With A Different Controversy Right Now

All Olivia Munn wants to do at the moment is promote her new sci-fi action film The Predator, which is being released into theaters on Friday, Sept. 14. Unfortunatley, she finds herself, instead, dealing with the unexpected repercussions of going public with the fact that a registered sex offender was briefly in the film prior to his scene being cut. For some reason, though, she seems to be the one taking the most heat from co-stars and is reportedly being virtually ignored by the film’s director, Shane Black. 

“We’re making movies. We’re not in the mafia. I haven’t spoken against the family,” she reflected to The Hollywood Reporter. “This guy isn’t in our movie anymore. I try to do the right thing and that’s all I can do, and when I see something, you do something. You don’t just sit back and hope it protects your movie. The movie is a great movie, the scene [with this actor] isn’t in there. It’s going to do well. At the end of the day, it’s just a movie. We can’t tell stories about people and not care about people… There are people who get very mad at you for not just helping them bury it.”

What triggered all of this is the fact that an actor named Steven Wilder Striegel, who had been in a sequence in which he hits on Olivia’s character, had, reported the Los Angeles Times, “pleaded guilty in 2010 after facing allegations that he attempted to lure a 14-year-old female into a sexual relationship via the internet.” This was not known by the studio or other cast members ahead of time, and when she learned about it, Olivia felt an obligation to make the information public. Now exactly why she’s apparently being ostracized is anybody’s guess, but the sense she’s getting from others is that they’d prefer to do publicity for the film without her — which could have something to do with fears these conversations will tarnish the box office and overshadow the film itself. 

As she notes in a tweet, “From what I’m experiencing, I think they’d prefer I not show up. It would make everyone breathe easier. Also, I worked really hard on this film, as did the rest of the cast and crew. Now that the scene is deleted, I think audiences will love it.”

Turning to the film itself — which is what she would prefer at this point anyway — in The Predator Olivia plays evolutionary biologist Dr. Casey Crackett, who is considered the top in her field and is basically a scientist who researches how creatures change and adapt, including this hunter species that first showed up on screen in 1986’s Predator. 

“She has been on the CIA and government’s list of top people to go to if there is ever contact with other intelligent life forms,” Olivia says. “So this is something she’s been waiting for her entire life, not knowing if it’s ever going to happen. All of a sudden, a call comes through. They need her expertise, but it’s definitely terrifying and surreal. It ignites something inside of her — it’s the epitome of her studies. She’s chasing and wants to capture this Predator. She wants to study it, be up close, communicate, talk to it, touch it, but at the same time, she’s running for her life. There’s definitely a mix of joy and utter fear.” 

One could argue that, for Olivia, when it comes to The Predator, that’s something she can very much identify with.