Olivia Munn had recently spoken out against the casting of a registered sex offender in her upcoming film, The Predator. She had demanded that Fox Studios remove the scene featuring Steven Wilder Striegel, who pleaded guilty in 2010 for trying to lure a 14 year old he was related to into a sexual relationship. It has been reported that the actor has been a long time friend of director
Shane Black and has been frequently cast in his films. [caption id=“attachment_5142731” align=“alignnone” width=“720”] The only scene in The Predator where Steven Wilder Striegel featured. Facebook[/caption] 6 September 2018: Amy Kaufman of LA Times broke the news of the scene’s deletion from the film. The Twentieth Century Fox Studio in a statement to publication that they were unaware of Striegel’s history because of legal limitations on running background checks on actors, hours before its premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2018. Striegel’s single scene in the film was promptly cut after the studio learned of his background. Black initially defended his choice of casting Streigel because he thought he was helping a friend stuck in a bad situation. Later, he issued a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, apologising for his decision to have Streigel as part of the film. The cast and crew traveled to TIFF to promote the film while Black chose to skip it. Munn walked the red carpet of the premiere and in a tweet said that she was contractually obligated to be a part of the film’s promotions.
8 September 2018: Munn and her co-stars were scheduled to do interviews at TIFF but the actress told Vanity Fair that a number of them cancelled the interviews that they were meant to do alongside her. She also added that none of the cast members reached out to her regarding the incident. In a video interview with THR, she said, “It’s a very lonely feeling to be sitting here by myself when I should be sitting here with the rest of the cast.” Further, she also said that while she appreciated Black’s public apology, he had not contacted her directly since the news broke. EOnline writes that she had expressed her disappointment when co-stars Boyd Holbrook and Trevante Rhodes had given Black a standing ovation at its TIFF premiere. 9 September 2018: her co-actor Keegan Michael May’s representative said in a statement he had reached out to Munn privately prior to the TIFF screening. Sterling K Brown also broke his silence regarding this issue through a Twitter thread.
.@oliviamunn I’m sorry you’re feeling so isolated, my dear. And I’m sorry you’ve been the only one to speak up publicly. I was not at #TIFF so I didn’t have an opportunity to be there with you. There are two main issues as far as I see it. First, what is and is not forgivable?... https://t.co/NQQpoO9kPa
— Sterling K Brown (@SterlingKBrown) September 9, 2018
10 September 2018: Holbrook issued a statement addressing the controversy via Instagram. The actor apologised for not responding earlier and said he was “proud” of Munn for taking a stand.
(With inputs from agencies)


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