Olivia Munn turned down Deadpool, didnt want to play the girlfriend

Olivia Munn is about to star as Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse, coming out May 27. That should give Captain America: Civil War enough time to dominate the box office before another superhero movie comes swooping in. Munn gave an interview to American Way Magazine where she was rather candid, which is nice to see from her. It seemed like she worked specific talking points into her earlier interviews but like she’s moving beyond that now. She seems to know how to make headlines, because she dishes on the fact that she turned down the girlfriend role in Deadpool, ultimately played by Morena Baccarin. Munn also speaks in general terms about the fact that she’s had some terrible experiences meeting famous people. She should talk specifics, I would be highly interested in that but I guess she gave more details in her memoir according to this piece:

On meeting famous men who end up being sleazy
“The nightmare is not that people do those things but that people do those things and continue to be successful,” she says. “That’s the hardest thing. And it still happens. I meet famous people who I’m super excited to meet, and I felt the same way the rest of the world felt — they’re gonna be so awesome — and it’s so different. Not just different in the fact they’re not jovial and funny and sarcastic and likable, but in the worst-case scenario, which is they’re not nice to other people. It kind of breaks your spirit. And you wonder: To get to this level of success, do I have to be like that?”

She turned down the girlfriend role in Deadpool
Munn was also offered a role in a very different X-Men spin-off — that of Ryan Reynolds’ girlfriend in Deadpool, which had the biggest February opening ever for an R-rated movie. Its box-office haul is inconsequential. Munn says she didn’t want to be the girlfriend. Not again. She wanted to fight. To make noise. To kick butt.

She took the Psylocke role because she wasn’t just eye candy
“I said, ‘Is there a fight scene?’” Munn says of her early meetings with the X-Men: Apocalypse people. Once again, the filmmakers were full of assurances. Yet Munn couldn’t shake the feeling that there might be too much talking and not enough action. “The fight scene,” she says with a wry smile, “could be her monologue.”

For Munn, the brute strength of her character was an important issue, a make-or-break thing, and the discussions dragged on. “I thought Psylocke was always one of the most lethal characters, and I said, ‘Yes, as long as you’re not using her to be the eye candy. She has really powerful abilities.’ And they said, ‘Yes, that’s an important part.’”

She says she would consider quitting acting
“For me, I would eventually love to be behind and not in front of the camera.”

Really?

She laughs. “Even my own friends are like, ‘Really?’ I love being an actor. Maybe it’s just the feeling of being in front of the camera or the people I’ve met who’ve rubbed me the wrong … ”

Another pause.

“Maybe I don’t want to play that game… When you’re behind the scenes, you get to shape the whole thing,” she says. “In front, it’s just your character.”

[From American Way via Huffington Post]

In case you think Munn is just thinking out loud about a potential career as a producer/director, American Way claims it’s already in the works for her and that she “has a first-look deal with CBS Television Studios to executive-produce a series about a female sportscaster in the 1970s.” This makes sense because she has a close relationship with Aaron Sorkin after working on his series The Newsroom.

Is it uncool for Munn to reveal the fact that she was the first choice for Baccarin’s role, or is it a welcome commentary on the lack of strong roles for women in Hollywood? I’m honestly asking. While Baccarin’s role was a typical damsel in distress, she wasn’t entirely passive and did save/aid Reynolds’s character at a key point. Baccarin was convincing in Deadpool, I don’t think Munn would have been as believable. Plus there was a female superhero and a female villain in Deadpool, it wasn’t all about the bros although of course they dominated.

photos credit: WENN.com, FameFlynet and Pacific Coast News

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