Recent articles on comicbook.com, cinimablend.com, and etonline.com have given Olivia Munn credit for doing all her own stunts on the upcoming movie, Xmen: Apocalypse. They quote her as saying:
“Psylocke is such a powerful, lethal character,” said Munn. “It was important to me that I was able to do all of the stunts because the more believable it is, the better it is for the audience — and the only way to make it believable is for me to actually do it.”
The etonline.com article goes on to say that, “You might expect the badass move to require a stunt double, but Munn made sure to take on the task herself.”
Unfortunately, Olivia Munn lied.
Julia Rekaikyna, a stunt woman and actress, was Ms. Munn’s stunt double for the movie. The proof?
Yep. That’s Ms. Rekaikyna standing right next to Olivia Munn on the set of Xmen: Apocalypse. Her IMDB page lists her as Munn’s stunt double for the movie. Maybe the Psylocke that we see on screen isn’t really Olivia “from beginning to end” as these articles quote Munn as saying?
You can watch Julia Rekaikyna’s stunt reel below. It’s impressive, and the stunt 26 seconds in looks REALLY familiar…
This incident has the stunt community privately fuming, although it is nothing new in their line of work. Stunt workers are one of the most overlooked communities in the television and movie industries. It’s not surprising that the audience doesn’t know the stunt performers by name, because if they do their jobs well they are indistinguishable from the stars they are keeping safe. However, it is completely inappropriate for an actor or actress to openly take credit for the work of a fellow professional.
Olivia Munn has made a big deal about how hard she has trained for this movie, but a few months of work cannot replace the years that it takes to master stunt skills on a professional level. Ms. Munn probably did SOME of her own stunts for this movie. She probably did some sword twirls, wire work, and some rolling around on foam mats. What she didn’t do was test all the stunts over and over again to make sure they were safe. She didn’t practice group fight sequences for hours until a star with limited training could step in and look good on camera. Every wire she dangled from was pretested by stunt people to make sure it was safe for her. With a few insensitive, attention-seeking comments, Olivia Munn has taken credit for the work of a whole team of professional stunt workers, including the work of Ms. Rekaikyna.
This comes at an especially sensitive time for the movie industry and stunt workers alike. The Academy Awards has been under scrutiny because they still have no category for stunt work, despite decades of people asking for one. It seems especially unfair when you consider that this year’s action-heavy Mad Max: Fury Road was nominated for 10 Oscars and won 6, which is more than any other film of the evening. Many would argue that Fury Road’s success was heavily dependent on the stunt teams that blew audiences away with incredible action sequences, and yet those stunt people are being ignored by the Academy. Even recent protests and petitions have fallen on deaf ears.
There are lots of invisible hands that help create movies. We almost never hear the names of the stunt teams, makeup artists, painters, set dressers, grips, stitchers, editors, camera operators, and the others who make the magic happen. Their one moment in the spotlight is when their names appear in the credits after the movie, and most of us get up and leave before those even start rolling. Stunt people put their lives on the line to keep us entertained, and even in today’s high tech world, horrible accidents happen. These professionals know the risks and accept them willingly, but they should be recognized by the Academy and they should DEFINITELY be given credit by the professional actors that they keep safe, including Olivia Munn.
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All the haters are haters cause they can’t do what others do. Did you what the movie, did you like the movie. She’s an actress that’s her job. Part of a stuntpersons job is to make sure stunts are safe not just do the stunts for the actors. Jacky Chan has a stunt double, and we all know he does his own stunts. You see the stunt reels after all his movies. Her stunt double did her job and got the credit for what she does. If a stunt person wants top billing they should become an actor.
Just because the name is The Golden Lasso doesn’t mean it always gives you the truth. Watch, read, listen and use your own mind, make your own choices and decisions. Peace..
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[…] Psylocke was also shortchanged. Probably the biggest injustice was the casting. Especially considering the recent controversy of Olivia Munn claiming she did all of her stunts when that was a blatant lie and an insult to the stun… […]
This article is click bait to the max. Keep reaching and spreading negative shit if it makes you feel good. Oh by the way, Olivia posted that picture with her stunt double herself. Stupid ass article.
I can understand why you are upset, however MANY MANY sites credited Munn with doing all her own stunts and going without a stunt double. Instead of correcting them and giving credit to her stunt double, she rode the wave of press leading up to the release of her movie. The stunt community was not happy about that. Thanks for stopping by!
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[…] his friends? She took a well-paying job for the money and worked at it for over six years? She was an asshole to the stuntwomen on X-Men: Apocalypse? What does this have to do with “appropriating nerd culture” or being a fake geek […]
Do you know how much of the stunts she did herself made the final edit of the movie? Do you know that sometimes stunt doubles are employed to see if the requested action is safe for the actual actor to perform? Perhaps she meant it was important to her to be able to do all the stunts herself not that she didn’t have a stunt double.
Unless I’m missing something, the 3 provided source articles are all citing the same interview where she says “that was me from the beginning to the end” as she was specifically talking about the car cut scene. She later talks about being able to do all the stunts but she never says she performed them all for the camera or that it was used. Entertainment doesn’t actually say she never used stunt doubles in the movie, only for that move. CinemaBlend does say she performed them all but they’re only citing the and misquoting the Entertainment article. Comicbook seems to be doing the same. Also, she does speak of using stunt doubles just before the line in question, but it is not clear that she was referring to this film and for her. It is however plausible.
[…] http://www.goldenlasso.net/olivia-munn-takes-credit-for-xmen-stunts/). […]
[…] truth about Olivia Munn — she’s a horrendous human being. The latest news comes from The Golden Lasso, that bravely pointed out how The Newsroom actress lied about doing her own stunts. The succubus […]
Actors don’t get shot at with real bullets or get paid to take the big real hits
[…] Twitter rage appears to stem from an article on Golden Lasso that exposes a lie Munn fabricated about her stunt work in the upcoming X-Men: Age of Apocalypse […]
I’ve hated her since her “Attack of the Show” days. She was such a fake. Her entire job was reading a teleprompter and she couldn’t do that right. The worst was when she talked smack about Tera Patrick on an episode, calling her ugly, and then when she interviewed Tera days later, she kept telling Tera that she was beautiful. She pretends to play video games and read comics and build computers because her legion of nerd worshipers eat it up but it’s just an act. She also had sex with Brett Ratner to get into Hollywood, so there’s also that.
Maybe the writer of this article should resign in disgrace after posting blatant lies and yellow journalism. This quote from Ms. Munn is taken WAAAAAY out of context for the specific purpose of creating clickbait outrage. In the full interview that is cited, Ms. Munn goes on after the quote in question to clarify that while she felt it important to be ABLE to do the stunts herself, many of them were in fact done by her amazing stunt double. At no point does she ever state that she DID the stunts. She was talking about being able to feel genuine on set and engaging in intensive training as a result. But so-called “Journalists” on the Internet make a habit of lying and twisting facts to denigrate celebs in the interest of getting hits. It’s all about greed and sensationalism. Journalism is dead.
1. I’m not a journalist. This is my personal blog and I’ll post whatever I like, including my opinions.
2. The original articles that I quoted specifically say that she “turned down a stunt double”, which isn’t true. They’ve been up for a few weeks and I’m sure her/her publicity team have seen them. Why hasn’t she corrected them? She’s happy to sit by and take credit it seems.
What so just cause you’re not a journalist means you can take quotes out of context and put up lies?
1. Feel free to disagree with me. I posted links to my sources in the post and explained my conclusions. If they don’t convince you, that’s fine, but it doesn’t make it lies. She had a stunt double.
2. Actually, yes. That means I can post anything I want on my personal website.
Have you not clicked on the source links provided in the article. Reading them I would take away that she had no stunt double
Unbelievable that someone would take credit for someone elses hard work! Blacklist her!
maybe everyone should tweet this article to Oliva and ask her for clarification
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Her wire skills were not good..there is no way she could have done all those stunts.