Olivia Munn covers Ocean Drive Magazine May/ June 2012, promoting Mad Mike. The 31-year-old also gives an interview (with a passé lede about “Hollywood’s hottest geek”).
Munn addresses working around so much skin in Miami where the movie was filmed, “I thought it might be too overwhelming,” and the lessons learned growing up in a hostile environment.
On filming Magic Mike in Miami: “I thought it might be too overwhelming; all that color, exposed skin, and a party atmosphere you get from TV. But I instantly loved it. It was much more suburban, a neighborhood feel within a big-city energy, with that friendly mentality. You can party, but if you want to chill, all you have to do is go down the block.”
On choosing to work in Hollywood: “With Asians, life is all about college, doctor, lawyer, scientist, but certainly not acting. I’m glad now that my mom insisted I stay in Oklahoma. There is a sweetness and a pride there. People are really kind. But it was difficult. I found it very hard to find my place. That’s been true all my life. When you travel around so much, you have to keep reinventing yourself. And that toughens you up, gives you more tools to cope in life.”
On life lessons that her mother has passed on to her: “My mom was blunt. ‘Don’t get pregnant.’ ‘Don’t do drugs.’ But she also said just as often, ‘Always make a name for yourself, don’t just become someone’s wife.’ That’s how she influenced me. I work really hard to come up on my own merits.”
On the verbal abuse suffered at the hands of her stepfather, growing up: “He would always say, ‘You’re not smart enough, pretty enough, you have no talent,’ and it would knock me down, but it wouldn’t keep me down. When [my stepfather] would be screaming his head off in the living room, I would hustle everybody into my room and launch into imitations of teachers or do scenes from movies. And that would take their minds off of the hell that was happening down the hall.”
On not taking life so seriously: “I think people downplay just how important it is to be entertaining. Especially in this day and age. We need to laugh, we need an escape from what is going on. It’s always been a lifesaver for me.” - via Ocean Drive Magazine.
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