Olivia Munn Says She Rejected Seven Figure Offer to Sign NDA After ‘Traumatic’ Set Incident
Olivia Munn joined Monica Lewinsky’s Reclaiming podcast and opened up about turning down a hefty sum of money after reporting a “traumatic” experience on a movie set.
In the episode aired Wednesday, Munn said the incident took place around the beginning of the #MeToo era, following the wave of sexual abuse accusations against disgraced film executive Harvey Weinstein. Munn did not name the studio, film, individuals involved, or additional details about the incident.
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“There were things that happened on this movie set, personally to me, that were really not OK and it was so traumatic that I had to file complaints with the studio,” Munn said. “It got to this place where I was offered a lot of money, a lot of money — seven figures — to accept their apology. But it came along with an NDA.”
“I just felt it was so wrong,” the actress continued. “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 [signing the NDA] would reverse any kind of validity to my voice.”
Munn said she was afraid the studio behind the film “would leak” the NDA in “an effort to diminish my voice.” She recalled meeting with the studio and her lawyers, who advised her to think the offer over, and telling her legal team that she was not going to sign the NDA.
“I remember feeling so proud when I walked out — so proud of myself,” Munn said. “I did not think about negotiating. I did not think about anything besides how disrespectful that was.” She added, laughing, “Shortly after that, California made NDAs illegal.”
Munn has taken a stand against sexual misconduct throughout her career. She accused director Brett Ratner of sexual harassment, recalling to the Los Angeles Times in 2017, how he allegedly masturbated in front of her in his trailer when she was visiting the set of his film After the Sunset in 2004.
The actress previously recounted the incident in her 2010 book, Suck It, Wonder Woman! The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek, but left out names and details at the time. Ratner voluntarily identified himself as the unnamed director during a 2011 appearance on Attack of the Show, a TV program Munn previously co-hosted, but denied masturbating in front of her.
In 2018, Munn revealed that during the making of that year’s Predators, she reported to 20th Century Fox that director Shane Black hired his friend and registered sex offender Steven Wilder Striegel to appear in a short scene in which his character hits on her. Fox removed Striegel’s scenes after Munn’s report and Black later issued an apology.
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