Olivia Munn has opened up about a bizarre on-set experience involving a male co-star, pointing out what she saw as underlying sexism.

During a recent episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, published on April 8, the 45-year-old actress revealed that a colleague paused filming as he refused to let his character be saved by a woman.

"There have been a few times where I’ve been filming something, and my character was either like CIA, or a cop, or something, and there’s been scenes where my character has been the one to save the other character," Munn said.

She explained, "If you read the script, it was that he was guarding his side, I was guarding my side, then we switch sides and then there’s a guy that was coming for him [who] was gonna shoot him in the back, so I shoot him."

However, the X-Men: Apocalypse star recalled that her co-star objected to the scene, saying, "Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. She can’t save me. No, no. She can’t save me."

Munn shared that the moment caused a 45-minute delay, as her co-star resisted the idea of being rescued by a female character and argued with the director.

"There was no insecurity about being obnoxious and everyone hearing this and being like, ‘She can’t save me! We’re not doing this,' " she reminisced.

The Newsroom actress eventually intervened to reframe the situation, although nothing in the scene actually changed.

"Now, here's the interesting thing," she noted. "Nothing changed. It's just what he thought. I was doing the exact same thing."

Despite the unpleasant experience, Munn said the incident led her to be more selective with roles to avoid sexism in Hollywood.

Olivia Munn’s current project

Olivia Munn is currently starring in Your Friends & Neighbors alongside Amanda Peet and Jon Hamm. Its second season premiered on April 3, 2026.