Bryan Singer is quite infamous for his work ethic during the filming of X-Men movies. While many actors have expressed their opinions in public, Olivia Munn revealed a shocking detail about the director, who chose to walk off the X-Men: Apocalypse set in Montreal for over a week to cater to his health issue, which could have been solved in the set location.
The film director has been accused of s*xual misconduct and s*xual assault of minors numerous times since 1997 which he has denied repeatedly. Since then, his alleged toxic work environment has been discussed several times with one being the latter.
Olivia Munn Discussed Working With X-Men Director, Bryan Singer
Talking to Variety in a 2020 interview, Olivia Munn who portrayed Psylocke in the 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse talked about her experience working with Bryan Singer.
While discussing the differences between working with male and female filmmakers, she recalled that the director left the film set in Montreal to fly to Los Angeles for around 10 days.
His decision to walk off to LA was to deal with his “thyroid issue,” leaving the set to operate without a director. However, he would send instructions to actors from afar via texts. She stated,
“When we shot ‘X-Men,’ I never shot a huge movie like that before. I didn’t know what was right or wrong, but I did know that it seems strange that Bryan Singer could check out and say he had a thyroid issue.”
Recalling the entire ordeal, she continued,
“Instead of going to a doctor in Montreal, which is a very high-level, working city, he said he had to go to L.A. And he was gone for about 10 days is my recollection. And he said, ‘Continue. Keep filming.'”
She recalled the time when they were about to work on a “big scene” after lunch. However, Bryan Singer‘s assistants came up to them to deliver his message. As per the actress, Singer texted the cast,
“Hey guys. I’m busy right now. But just go ahead and start filming without me.”
All the actors decided to continue with the production but the actress was unsure of whether that scenario was normal. She added,
“I never thought any of it was normal, but I didn’t realize that other people also thought it wasn’t normal. And the other people who thought it wasn’t normal would be people at high levels, people who make decisions on whether to hire this person.”
Munn might have felt that the director could have handled his personal crisis differently, rather than choosing to leave the set, just to fly all the way to Los Angeles for over a week. She boldly acknowledged how that behavior was unprofessional.
Bryan Singer’s Reps Clapped Back at Olivia Munn’s Claims
The Magic Mike actress further shared with the outlet that he continued to work on the same even after his questionable work ethic.
She added,
I’m saying even before the #MeToo stuff was exposed…there’s also just the bad behavior of people getting away with it. And no one in the world is so talented that it merits disrespecting other people and their time.”
Whereas, his reps clapped back at her claims, adding that he was away from the movie set for around two days.
The reps told the same outlet,
“He saw doctors in Montreal and then came back to see doctors in Los Angeles. And to the best of our recollection, it only affected two days of shooting.”
While their claims were completely opposite, several actors commented on the on-set work environment, which somehow ended up getting reflected on the project. The 2016 movie garnered mixed reviews from critics, failing to meet fans’ expectations.
While the film had high potential due to its storyline involving the iconic titular villain and introducing younger versions of characters, it ended up becoming a major disappointment. Many found the plot, characters, and pacing of the movie to be lacking in a great way, which failed to execute the anticipated results.
The franchise took another hit with its direct sequel, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, released in 2019. Despite adapting the Dark Phoenix Saga from the X-Men comics, it was unable to yield great results, with fans noticing problems in character depth and pacing as the movie failed to detail the gravity of source material.
It was the final nail in the coffin, as the movie’s drastic negative reception eventually contributed to the demise of the franchise.
