Olivia Munn is making his return of acting after having balanced the recovery of breast cancer and welcoming a new baby.
In his first role of acting in more than three years, Munn plays Samantha Levitt in the new series “Your Friends and Neighbours”, April 11 at Apple TV+. In the drama led by Jon Hamm, who follows a coverage fund manager who resorts to theft after losing his job, Munn’s character is having a secret adventure with the character of Hamm.
Reflecting on the actors who share intimate scenes together, Munn told NBC News that he was actually more anxious for his body before his double mastectomy last year after an aggressive form of cancer, Luminal Breast Cancer B.
After surgery, he said, he actually feels safer and values his body more, although he said, he was initially worried about his topless scenes in the new series because he did not want the scars in his body to distract his character and history.
“As insecure as I was entering this about my body after cancer and double -fashioned mastectomy, I have been more insecure before going through all this,” said Munn. “I have a deeper appreciation for my body, because my body is what helped me overcome this. I struggled with everything I have, so it was much less insecure.”
Munn said that after welcoming his second child, Mei June, with her husband, John Mulaney, in September and recovered from breast cancer, has become more selective about the projects in which she wants to work as an actor.
“I have to handle my time, and I have to think about how much I want to be far from my children or how much stress will cause me,” he said. “With my particular health situation, my cancer feeds on hormones, so if there is any cancer that has found its way of staying in my body, then stress hormones can also feed on that.”
She added: “I often wonder if this situation, this work, this friendship or this dynamic causes me stress and, because of God I do not want it, it was to feed cancer in my body and later returned in my life, would it have been worth it? And the answer is always no.”
Munn was attracted to the character of Samantha “Sam” Levitt, since he was excited about the opportunity to play someone whose life is falling apart around him. His character is going through a messy divorce and having a secret adventure with his friend’s ex -husband.
Munn also thought that there was an important and powerful story to tell how people will arrive when they are stripped of everything they value.
“The idea that blind ambition can alter everything you thought about privileges and wealth and how tight you cling,” he said, “these are worlds where people seem to have everything and love people to think that they have everything and the facade is very important, but underneath is only chaos, destruction and bad choices.”
The series follows the people who live in the extremely rich Westmont village, but talks about the broadest problems of greed and facade to maintain a certain image.
“There seems to be something that money and power make people,” he said. “The greed does not even describe it; there should be a new word for what this believes within someone, and it is this feeling that nothing is enough.”
Munn said that when the writer and director Jonathan Tropper approached her for “your friends and neighbors,” she originally signed for a single season.
However, after filming, Tropper approached her for the second season, and she agreed, since she decided that it was such a positive experience to work with Hamm and Amanda Peet and that “it made sense to me and my family” to have the opportunity to explore her character further.
