Olivia Munn Says Director Bryan Singer Disappeared Midway Through Shooting X-MEN: APOCALYPSE

There’s a lot of controversy surrounding director Bryan Singer after his facing a number of sexual assault allegations over the years. He also ended up being fired from Bohemian Rhapsody in the middle of shooting the film due to his increasingly erratic behavior. The director claimed it was due to a personal health matter, but the cast and crew of the film, including its star Rami Malek, later revealed that his behavior on set was unprofessional. He was reportedly arriving late to the set and clashed with the film’s star. 

It looks like this isn’t an isolated incident. Singer had been exhibiting a pattern of similar unprofessional behavior for a lot longer and it likely resulted in some of the problems that faced X-Men: Apocalypse.

During an interview with Variety, actress Olivia Munn open up about her time shooting X-Men: Apocalypse, and she confirmed that Singer walked off the set in the middle of shooting while in Montreal. He claimed he had to fly back to Los Angeles for about ten days to deal with what he said was a "thyroid issue," and the production was left to fend for itself. Munn explained he was texting everyone to shoot without him.

"It’s possible [to work with women directors]. It’s the problem that I always had in this business, way before the #MeToo movement exposed so much. You’re in it and you see these people who keep failing up, and they’re not that great and you think, ‘Really?”’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.

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.’ We’d be on set, I remember there’s a big scene that we’d have, and we’d come back from lunch and then one of Bryan’s assistants would come up and show us a cell phone with a text message on it.

And he texted to the actors, ‘Hey guys. I’m busy right now. But just go ahead and start filming without me.’ And we’d be like, ‘OK.’ And 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.

Come to find out it is really strange and it wasn’t OK. But this person is allowed to continue to go on. Fox still gives him ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ and then we all know what happened.

I’m saying even before the #MeToo stuff was exposed — stuff that’s really horrendous and just nauseating to be around — 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. And there are so many talented people waiting for an opportunity."

Singer's publicist offered their side of the story as to why Singer had to leave, saying, “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.”

Well, those are two very different stories. In the end, whatever was going on, the film suffered from it. X-Men: Apocalypse was not a good movie. Singer’s behavior was also bad enough to lead to him getting fired.

I’ll be surprised if we ever see Singer direct another movie again.