Olivia Munn says a director who helmed multiple episodes of HBO’s The Newsroom tried to derail her career after a dispute over how her character should behave, telling Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast that the filmmaker later spread claims she was “late all the time and really combative” when she pursued a film role.
The conflict, Munn explained, arose when the director pushed for on-set displays of affection between economist Sloan Sabbith and Tom Sadoski’s Don Keefer—requests she felt undercut the character’s professionalism. “He kept trying to force me to carry the love story only on my side,” she recalled, adding that she resisted instructions to pause work to smile, cuddle or kiss mid-scene.
Months later, with a new movie “on the one-yard-line,” Munn’s manager warned that another director had branded her difficult; she identified the source as the same Newsroom hire and ultimately secured the part after refuting the allegations. The actor, now 44, has not named the director, and the series rotated several during its 2012-14 run under creator Aaron Sorkin. HBO and Sorkin have not issued public responses, and Deadline’s initial report offered no comment from the studio.
Industry advocates say the story echoes persistent fears of retaliation a decade after #MeToo. An HR Brew analysis last month found many survivors still worry that speaking up will hinder future work despite new set protocols and hotlines. Women in Film surveys cited by the outlet show 80 percent of respondents have experienced or witnessed misconduct in the past five years, with blacklisting among the most common reprisals.
Munn, who recently returned to television opposite Jon Hamm in Apple TV+’s Your Friends & Neighbors, framed her decision to discuss the incident as part of a push for safer sets: “I want to do great work that I’m happy with,” she told listeners, “and live an easy, happy life”. Her remarks have drawn coverage across outlets from Entertainment Weekly to Variety and sparked fresh debate over informal power wielded by episodic directors in prestige television.
