Los Angeles, 2 July

Actor Olivia Munn revealed that a male director who worked with her on the critically-acclaimed series ‘Newsroom’ tried to ‘ruin’ her chances of getting acting jobs due to disagreements about her role in the series.

Munn had played the role of popular TV anchor Sloan Sabbith in the Aaron Sorkin-created series, which ran on American network HBO for three seasons from 2012 to 2014.

During her appearance on actor Dax Shepard's podcast Armchair Expert, Munn said the director, whose identity she didn't reveal, told the studio that she was “really combative” on set.

It was after they disagreed over the portrayal of her character's relationship with Don Keefer, who was played by actor Thomas Sadoski.

“(The director) kept trying to force me to carry that storyline only on my side. He’s like, ‘Can you look out at him and smile?’ And I’m like, ‘Why she’s busy doing this?’ Or, ‘Can you stop and snuggle up to him or flirt with him?’ Or, ‘Can you give him a kiss?’ And I’m like, ‘This is in the middle of working'," Munn said.

In the aftermath of their disagreements, the director discouraged others from casting her, the 44-year-old actor claimed.

“I was on the one-yard line for the movie and my manager calls me and says, ‘Hey, you’re gonna get the role. But first, I guess there’s another director who they know and he says that on 'The Newsroom' you were late all the time and really combative'," Munn said.

"I lived seven minutes from there. I was never late. I was like, ‘I know who this is.’ He just was trying to bash me. And I told my reps, ‘Please tell the directors this.’ And then I still got the role. But I will always remember that just because of our conflicts of how we approached a role, he wanted to ruin my chances of getting anything else," she added.

After ‘The Newsroom’ concluded, Munn featured in movies such as ‘The Predator’, ‘Mortdecai’, ‘Office Christmas Party’, ‘Ride Along 2’ and ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’.

She currently stars in Apple TV+'s dark comedy series ‘Your Friends & Neighbours’ with Jon Hamm.