Olivia Munn: Fox ‘Chastised’ Me for Speaking Out About Sex Offender Cast in ‘Predator’

After advocating for the removal of a scene that featured registered sex offender Steven Wilder Striegel, actress Olivia Munn says individuals at Fox “chastised” her decision not to “keep it quiet.”

When a source alerted Olivia Munn that director Shane Black’s personal friend Steven Wilder Striegel — with whom she had shared a scene — was convicted of sexually pursuing a 14-year-old female relative, she took action immediately. Striegel played a “jogger who repeatedly hits on Munn’s character” in his brief appearance.

“When I found that out, I did call Fox,” Munn told Ellen DeGeneres on her eponymous daytime talk show. “And I said, ‘we have to delete the scene.'” But Munn said that her decision to speak further about the incident — namely to inform her cast members — did not go over well.

“I got chastised the next day by people in the studio for telling them, and why am I not just keeping it quiet,” Munn continued. “It’s all going to be okay, it got deleted, what’s the big deal?”

But Munn stood her ground. “The people who collude to keep people like this in positions of power, that’s the real problem. The people who keep turning blind eyes,” she said.

Along with the internal backlash, Munn has lamented a lack of support from her Predator co-stars. Fellow stars Sterling K. Brown and Boyd Holbrook were slow to speak in support, but eventually came around. Others, apparently, continue to remain silent.

Director Shane Black has explained that he was simply trying to offer a friend a second chance, but was unaware of the severity of the case when he did so. Striegel contests Black’s excuse, saying that “I’ve known Shane Black 14 years, well before this incident, and I think it’s worth noting that he was aware of the facts.”
Regardless, Munn publicly rejected Black’s apology. “I don’t accept Shane’s apology. It wasn’t given to me personally… A real apology has to be done privately, not just read publicly, and I read it with the rest of the world.”

Amidst the controversy, The Predator opens in theaters on September 14.