Olivia Munn
Fee Fi Fo Munn,
I Smell a Hit for Olivia!
Lisa Olivia Munn was born
in Oklahoma City on July 3, 1980 to a mother of Chinese extraction,
and to a father of English, Irish and German descent. She
spent most of her childhood in Tokyo where she learned to speak
fluent Japanese. She moved back to the U.S. in her mid-teens to
finish high school before attending the University of Oklahoma.
In
2006, Olivia joined G4 Network’s popular “Attack of the Show!”
as co-host. She subsequently joined “The Daily Show with Jon
Stewart” as a correspondent, becoming one of five female cast
members to ever appear on the program. Her first book, "Suck
It, Wonder Woman! The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek" debuted
on both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times best
seller lists upon its release in 2010..
Last year, she co-starred
in Office Christmas Party, alongside Jason Bateman and Jennifer
Aniston, and as Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse. Priot to that, she
appeared in Ride Along 2 as a homicide detective, opposite Kevin Hart
and Ice Cube. And she'll be in The Predator, opposite Keegan-Michael
Key and Sterling K. Brown, which is slated to be released on August
3, 2018.
Lauded
in 2014 by Variety as the Breakthrough Actress of the Year, Olivia's
other film credits include Mortdecai, Deliver Us from Evil,
Magic Mike and Iron Man 2. She enjoyed an arc on the Fox
Emmy-nominated sitcom “New Girl,” and appeared in
the Emmy-winning Showtime environmental documentary series
“Years of Living Dangerously,” from James Cameron and Jerry
Weintraub.
Olivia serves as a
spokeswoman on numerous environmental issues, including working with
the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and the Sierra Club. Here, she talks about her latest
outing as the voice of Koko in LEGO Ninjago, an animated
action-adventure co-starring Jackie Chan, Dave Franco and Fred
Armisen.
Kam
Williams: Hi
Olivia. I'm honored to have this opportunity to speak with you.
Olivia
Munn:
Thanks.
It's nice to speak to you, too, Kam.
KW:
I loved
this film. Had you seen the other LEGO movies before making this
one?.
OM:
Yes! They were so great.
KW:
How did
you like playing Koko, Lloyd's mom?
OM:
I loved
playing the upbeat, positive person that Koko is. and it was also
nice that I was encouraged to let my inhibitions go and create a
really fun character.
KW: I found the film both hilarious and very touching. What's the key to generating chemistry to that extent in an animated adventure, when you don't even get to act opposite other actors?
OM:
That's
an interesting question. Thankfully, we had an amazing director
[Charlie Bean] who knew what everybody else was doing, so he could
guide us in the right direction, and make sure we're always in sync
and using the right tone. Basically, it's really just like playing
pretend.
KW:
What
message do you think people will take away from?
OM:
I think
the message of the movie is "Be okay with who you are. And that
you can't choose your parents or what life you were born into, but
you can choose the kind of person you want to be." That's what
Lloyd is figuring out. He comes to understand that you don't get to
choose a lot in life, but you do get to choose your character.
KW:
I
really enjoyed your book, "Suck It, Wonder Woman!" Do you
have any plans to write another?
OM:
I don't
have a plan, but it's been rolling around in my head recently that I
should do another book. I have some ideas for it that I've been
thinking about. Well, as a writer, you know how hard it is to focus
your brain on one specific topic for such a long time, and have to
organize the material and put it all together. But, yes, I guess I
would like to do another one.
KW:
LEGO
Ninjago's a sequel, and so are a number of your upcoming movies:
X:Men: Dark Phoenix, The Predator and Ocean's Eight.
OM:
I just
do a cameo in those films, although it's exciting to be a part of
them.
KW:
But
you're going to have a prominent roll in The Buddy Games, Josh
Duhamel's directorial debut.
OM:
Yeah,
he wrote it and stars in it, too. It has such a great cast: [Olivia's
boyfriend] Nick Swardson, Dax Shepard, James Roday, Kevin Dillon, Dan
Bakkedahl.... Honestly, it was one of the most fun shoots I've been
on. Those guys had me laughing constantly. It really was a testament
to Josh how all these friends were eager to participate in his
passion project. As actors, we always want to step up and help out
each other. And he knew exactly how to cast each of us.
KW:
Is there any question no one ever asks you, that you wish someone
would?
OM:
I enjoy
when people just ask me random stuff.
KW:
Okay, I got a lot of random questions. Ling-Ju Yen asks: What
is your earliest childhood memory?
OM:
Playing
on a Slip 'N Slide with my sister at my grandma's house.
KW:
When
you look in the mirror, what do you see?
OM:
I see
an Asian-American woman.
KW:
What is
your guiltiest pleasure?
OM:
It's
not exactly a pleasure, but I procrastinate way too much, to the
point that it feels like something I shouldn't be doing, but my
guiltiest pleasure is probably watching The Real Housewives.
KW:
What is your favorite dish to cook?
OM:
My
mom's homemade bread from scratch.
KW:
The Uduak Oduok question: Who is your favorite clothes designer?
OM:
Gosh, I
have a lot. I lean towards wearing the smaller, up-and-coming
designers, because I know what it's like to hope that people are
giving you a shot when you're starting out.
KW:
Larry
Greenberg asks: Do you have a favorite movie monster?
OM:
I don't know if he's a monster, but I love Beetlejuice.
KW: He's definitely a monster. He really creeped me out. The Viola Davis question: What’s the biggest difference between who you are at home as opposed to the person we see on the red carpet?
OM:
I'm exactly the same. I'm in full hair and makeup and wear a gown
every morning. [Chuckles] There are many differences. On the red
carpet, you have to be comfortable just standing there while
everybody takes your picture. I think the biggest difference is in
how I look. For the carpet, I go full glam. I love it when I have my
hair and makeup done. I just feel all done-up.
KW:
What's
the craziest thing you've ever done?
OM:
When I
was 16 years-old, I was living in the Las Vegas suburbs with my
biological father. A girlfriend and I got really bored one day, so we
decided to take the bus out to The Strip. We missed the bus on the
way back, so we decided to walk home. But she got so tired walking
that she decided to accept the offer of a ride from about the fifth
car that pulled over. She was like, "I'm getting in!" I
couldn't let her go alone, so we we got into the back of this car
with a couple of pretty shady guys we had to pretend we wanted to
hang out with, because they didn't want to just drop us off. Looking
back, I think we we're very lucky that nothing bad happened to us.
Yeah, that was pretty crazy. I guess it's the sort of dumb thing you
do when you're young and have no foresight.
KW:
Finally,
Samuel L. Jackson asks: What’s in your wallet?
OM:
In my
wallet? Canadian dollars.
KW:
Thanks
again for the time, Olivia, and I really enjoyed our chat. .
OM:
Me,
too, Kam. Bye.
To
see a trailer for The LEGO Ninjago Movie, visit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bziAA4u7STU
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