Olivia Munn Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images One of the greatest boons to Olivia Munn’s faith in her acting chops was from a job she didn’t get.
In 2010, she auditioned for 30 Rock. She recalls feeling the most prepared she’d ever been for an audition. And though she initially booked the job, questions about how young she’d appear acting opposite series star Alec Baldwin prompted them to change course and go with another actress. For most performers, this would be devastating blow. Munn found validation.
“These people, iconic people — Tina Fey, Robert Carlock, Grace Wu at NBC casting — they all thought that I was good enough to have gotten the offer,” says Munn. “That’s what I needed. Whether or not I got the job didn’t affect my confidence.”
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Today, Munn appears confident in all of her professional decisions. After becoming disinterested with acting a few years back, she found herself pulled back in with Apple TV’s Your Friends and Neighbors — originally planned as one-season gig for the actress that turned into two. She returns, opposite Jon Hamm, in the dark comedy’s second season that premiered Friday. Speaking during a recent episode of The Hollywood Reporter podcast I’m Having an Episode (Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple), Munn explained opened up about her flirtation with retirement, lessons learned from working with a vindictive director and the back and forth on the 30 Rock job that wasn’t.
Before you took on this job, I’m under the impression that you had called your agents and asked for them not to put you up for anything, that you only wanted to work off camera. What path were you considering?
I wanted to start producing, invest in companies. I’ve done that for a very long time, so I just thought that was the path. I just didn’t want to be in front of the camera anymore. I didn’t want to put myself out there. I’ve been going through so many health issues that I felt like I needed to create a bit of a distance between myself and any kind of exposure in a way that would make me too vulnerable.
Are you still feeling that pull?
I am, but I’m also feeling the pull to be acting again. I’m really happy I didn’t make one of those big announcements. I never understand when an actor makes an announcement that they’re retiring. Guys, you don’t play for the Dodgers. No one’s expecting you to be there at 7 p.m. on the field. You don’t need to announce it. I was just going to slowly step away. But [this show] is so much fun. Not every project is a lot of fun. So I’m excited to work on this project. And I’d be excited if there was another thing that came around that excited me, but I’m not looking for the next thing. I don’t want back into the hamster wheel of trying to find another project.
When in your career do you feel like the hamster wheel was spinning most out of control?
2010- 2011 was an incredible period of my life, career-wise. I was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Soon after I was on The Newsroom. At that point, there were all these opportunities. The first one that came around was Magic Mike. So there was this little trifecta of working with Jon Stewart, Aaron Sorkin and Steven Soderbergh. A lot of different offers were coming through and I started not knowing what I should take. A lot of rom-coms were coming through. The hamster wheel really affected my thinking process, because I was not able to get a grasp on it. I didn’t know where to go next.
Well, to that point, your career hasn’t followed, like, a traditional path: Attack of the Show to The Daily Show to The Newsroom to X-Men and now this. Was that by accident or design?
Complete accident. I just took advantage of the opportunities that were in front of me. And some didn’t feel like the right thing. I would say no to some things that I probably should have said yes to. It does kind of feel like a buffet in a way. I’m like, “I’ll take this one.” I do wish that I was more curated. When I first got my first big opportunities, I wish I had sat down and made decisions for myself. A lot of times, the representatives or agents would bring you stuff, like, “Hey, do you want to do these things?” There wasn’t real guidance on “What do you want to do with your career? What kind of work do I do? Let’s aim for that.” Because I think I would have really enjoyed that. I don’t remember a lot of stuff I worked on. I remember a handful. What do you remember the most?
The Newsroom. I never really had a significant acting job before. I had a sitcom on NBC, but this was a different level. I was the only one who wasn’t a Broadway caliber actor. I just really wanted to nail it. For that character, I thought, “I’m gonna play it as if I was a man acting out this job.” I’m not going to fall into the tropes of being hysterical or being like apologetic or meek or bitchy or boss lady-ish. I just wanted to play it straight. And yes, women can play it that way. But, at the time, a lot of the references that you could pull from with women were just different. It felt like we had to be a caricature of what we thought women would be.
You’ve told a story about a visiting Newsroom director who gave you some just objectively bad notes — suggesting that your character be like a bit more like what you’re talking about, fawning over a men. You didn’t take the notes and later found out that he’d bad-mouthed you to keep you from getting another job. You still booked that job, but I’m curious what the lesson of that experience was. Obviously, you should be able to disagree with any notes. But you don’t know how people are going to respond to that. It just feels like an uneasy equation to me.
I learned from watching other actors get notes that when they give you a note, you nod your head. You say, “OK, got it.” Then you just do what you want to do. They come to you with another note and you go, “Got it!” And then you just do what you want to do. Eventually they’ll be like, “I guess she she can’t do it. The doesn’t have the ability.” It’s playing the game a bit more. AndI should be able to speak up for myself and I should be able to like draw the line, but we cannot. I can’t change the world and I cannot change like how women have been portrayed and received for however long we’ve been on earth. So I’ve realized that I’m going to handle this situation in a way that is going to be the best outcome for me. I used to see so many other actors do it, and I’d think, “Why are you not taking the note? I can’t believe you’re being so indignant.” Then I realized it’s a way to protect your art and your choices with a character. I hope I have helped more actresses learn this.
Olivia Munn in Your Friends and Neighbors Apple TV+ An undercurrent in Your Friends and Neighbors is this “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality that seems to only amplify the more one has. Working in an industry that so often defaults to comparison, did you ever find yourself getting stuck in that rut? And how did you get out of it?
It starts from the beginning of trying to make it in Hollywood. It’s the audition. You go in and there’s a million girls who look like you because that’s what they’re looking for. When you don’t get it, you think, “What did I do wrong?” I had a really great acting teacher when I first got out here, her name’s Sandy Marshall. She would always give this advice to all the students. She’d say, “If you audition and the person who got it looks just like you, then you did something wrong.” I thought that was really helpful. There is a way to do the character and there’s a way that they’re wanting and you are responsible for asking the questions, for figuring it out in the script. If you are an actor, you should be able to deliver any version of the thing that they’re looking for. And so when I would watch the things I would audition for and not get it, I’d see somebody get it. And if they looked like me, I would study what they did and realize what I was doing wrong. That comparison that I was doing, I just wanted it to help me and not hurt me. Jealousy and envy is a very natural feeling, but it can overtake you and become insidious. I wanted to try to mitigate how much those feelings would take over my personality.
When did you get confident in auditions?
Grace Wu at NBC casting brought me in for 30 Rock. I was getting to this place where I was really understanding the audition process. Because when you go into audition, especially back then, it was so intimidating. You’d sign in and then you’d sit there waiting and there’d be people coming in to try to intimidate each other. One person would walk out of the casting office being like, “Ok, great, so I’ll see you Saturday!” My God, they’re friends? Or then somebody would walk out of the room crying and be like, “Hey guys, good luck!” She cried? She was able to cry? There’s all these things playing with your mind.
So going into [the 30 Rock] audition, I felt really good about everything. I dressed for the part, which I’d never really done before. I signed in and I walked outside near the sound stages. Normally I’d want to be right there. I’d want them to see me. I just had this confidence like, “They’ll come find me.” I kept working on it until I got into the room. I just stayed in [the character]. I got the call that I booked the job, and I knew that I protected my psyche and kept myself from feeling envy and competition with the other women. But you weren’t on 30 Rock, were you?
The end of that story is that I got the job… and then two days later, they were like, “Alec [Baldwin] thinks that you look too young to play his love interest.” Another two days later, “No, no, no. They think you’re perfect. You’re going to fly out on Saturday.” On Friday, “No, no, no. Alec thinks that you look too young and he’s putting his foot down.” Then Elizabeth Banks got that role.
As you were telling this story, I couldn’t guess the role. Avery Jessup. Very Interesting.
Yeah. What was interesting is that I think back on that and it would have been such a big, big break for me. But I was not devastated. I only thought to myself, “Wow, look how far I got.” I ended up not getting the job because of something I couldn’t control. On my ability and my acting, I got it. It gave me so much confidence.
I know you’re not actively pursuing other acting jobs right now, but is there an acting itch you still really want to scratch?
I would really love to do an amazing horror suspense movie. Like, something that really scares people to their core. Something people want to go back and watch that. Mine is The Strangers. It is so visceral. I remember actually screaming. I found out a lot about that movie. It was not testing well in the beginning, but then this editor really worked on it. I think editors are everything. If I could be anything in this business, I’d be an editor. It takes a long time to get to that place, and I don’t think I have that much time in my life left, but editors make all the difference.
If you could trade jobs with anyone for the day, who would it be and why?
I would love be to the Mayor of Los Angeles and get a lot of stuff done that needs to be done in this city to make it safer for everyone. I would make sure that all of the reservoirs are filled to the brim with water. I would do so many things and I would do it in a day. I have a list.
At the risk of ending on a real frivolous note, were you still in production on season two when that Jon Hamm dancing meme blew up?
No, I wasn’t! My gosh. It is so good. I want to meet the first person who started this whole thing.
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