Actress Olivia Munn has spoken out, expressing her disgust at Hollywood after accusing director Brett Ratner of lewd behavior.
‘I’m thankful that we’re in this moment where our voices actually matter. But I don’t feel like there’s actually an awakening of consciousness in Hollywood,’ Munn told the Los Angeles Times in an interview that ran on Saturday.
‘There’s an understanding that there will be backlash in the marketplace and to their bottom line if they don’t make these big announcements. They aren’t woke; they’re scared,’ she said.
Munn was one of six women to accuse Ratner of sexual misconduct in a New York Times article earlier this month.
She claimed that he masturbated in front of her in his trailer in 2004, and then in 2010 approached her at a party and told her he had bought 10 magazines with her picture on the cover, and ‘came all over them’.
Ratner has vehemently denied both allegations through his lawyer.
Olivia Munn claimed that Ratner masturbated in front of her in his trailer in 2004, and then in 2010 approached her at a party and told her he ‘came all over’ magazines with her on the cover
Munn expressed her frustration that Ratner’s production company, Rat-Pac Dune, is for now continuing its $450-million co-financing deal with Warner Bros., which runs through spring 2018.
‘I want Warner Bros. to sever all ties and relationships with Brett Ratner,’ said Munn.
‘What we’re seeing now … canceling shows, publicly condemning these acts — it’s papering over a much more deceitful and rotten infrastructure,’ she said.
‘The incredibly gross people will be thrown into the fire in the hopes that the masses will quiet down.’
‘But what they’re doing is pruning the tree — cutting off the wilder vines. And the disease still remains in the tree.’
As a wave of sexual misconduct allegations has swept across Hollywood, Munn said she believes it is too easy for the accused to resume business as usual.
As a wave of sexual misconduct allegations has swept across Hollywood, Munn said she believes it is too easy for the accused to resume business as usual
‘There seems to be a formula for redemption: apologize, put your head down, remove yourself from the public eye, come back up after enough time has passed, align yourself with the people that you’ve wronged and then resume your place back in line exactly where you were kicked out,’ Munn said.
‘I’m not saying that people don’t deserve second chances,’ she added, ‘or that we should hold people in purgatory. But why does a second chance for them mean resuming a position of power instead of going to the back of the line, where they have to earn their way back up?’
Munn actually came forward much earlier that some of the other accusers, writing in her 2010 book how an anonymous director had masturbated in front of her on the set of a 2004 film.
The following year, Ratner denied the allegation but acknowledged the book referred to him, saying in a televised interview: ‘I used to date Olivia Munn, I will be honest with everybody here. I banged her a few times… but I forgot her… I get it. She’s bitter.’
Ratner landed in hot water over Munn’s allegations in 2011, but quickly returned to the top of the game in Hollywood – evidence, she says, that sex misconduct will continue
He backpedaled days later, telling Howard Stern that he was just friends with Munn and apologized for making her look like ‘a whore’.
The dust-up cost Ratner a gig producing the 2012 Oscars, but he was quickly back in the saddle directing and producing feature films.
That experience has left Munn pessimistic about Hollywood’s will to root out sexual misconduct, she says.
‘It didn’t make me question my own worth, but it made me question if I had a worth to other people. I was always tough and strong, and I would tell anybody who would listen,’ she said.
‘But there was always that feeling of: ‘Do I have worth to the public, or to Hollywood?’ If I wanted to keep going, it felt like I had to bury it and just be OK with everything.’
Even if Ratner were to offer her an apology, Munn said she wouldn’t want it. ‘Sorry doesn’t do anything for me, or all of the other victims,’ she said.