Olivia Munn Feels Hopeful After 'Predator' Casting Controversy
*By Amanda Weston*
Olivia Munn knew she took a major risk when she exposed a "Predator" costar's past of sexual misconduct, but that didn't scare off the actress.
"Speaking out on things like this, usually, you kind of anticipate a negative blowback, and you're kind of waiting for that," Munn, a star of "Oceans 8," "Zoolander 2," and "The Newsroom," told Cheddar.
But since Munn informed 20th Century Fox ($FOXA) that the studio had cast a known sex offender, Steven Wilder Striegel, alongside her in the film, she has received an outpouring of support ー and been honored by the UN's Girl Up organization at its first annual #GirlHero Awards.
"It was just really reassuring and made me feel very hopeful for the future," Munn said at a recent event promoting the American Express ($AXP) SPG Luxury Card.
Munn's activism not only prompted the studio to eventually cut the Striegel's scene from the film, but emboldening Paige Carnes ー the then-underage victim of the actor's advances ー to join Munn on stage when accepting her award. Before that moment Sunday, Carnes had not identified herself to the media.
"For it to culminate to the point where the Jane Doe herself feels safe enough and strong enough to put out a statement and get out from behind the Jane Doe title was truly amazing," Munn said. "So an award like this from the United Nations and Girl Up, it just made me feel really hopeful for our future."
This past weekend, the actress also called out Kanye West for hypocrisy on Twitter ー the rapper has criticized American companies for sending work overseas to China, even though his shoe brand Yeezy does the very same thing.
"When you are as famous and powerful as Kanye West is, you can say, 'I'm not going to be doing this product with you, Adidas ($ADDYY), unless you make them in America,'" Munn said.
"I thought it was just really surprising, you know, that someone would stand on such a public platform and say something that is a complete contradiction to the products that they put out."
As of Friday afternoon, Munn's tweet to West had more than 50,000 retweets and more than 203,000 likes.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/olivia-munn-honored-for-speaking-out-takes-part-in-credit-card-launch).
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: CEO of HereAfter AI discusses how artificial intelligence can be used to preserve family history and stories, and allow you to 'talk' to loved ones that have passed; Creator of the board game 'Travel Explore Discover' explains how she came up with the idea for this informative and educational board game, and how she's using the proceeds to give back to her community; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'The Humboldt Current.'
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