Olivia Munn's character on 'Your Friends & Neighbors' has to cope with being a social pariah.
Olivia Munn is at home with her son, Malcolm, 4, who can be heard in the background of our call announcing that dinosaurs are allergic to lasers. Her husband, the comedian John Mulaney, was away on tour, so she did the school run solo while juggling the needs of her 1-year-old daughter, Méi. "I almost broke down crying," Munn says, recalling how overwhelmed she felt that morning.
But Munn was built tough. Born in Oklahoma City to a Chinese Vietnamese mother who came to the United States as a refugee in 1975, she had an itinerant childhood, moving to Utah and then Tokyo, where she became fluent in Japanese, before returning to Oklahoma. Her acting breakthrough came on the TV show The Newsroom, before starring roles in movies such as X-Men: Apocalypse and The Predator.
Then, in 2024, Munn revealed she had been diagnosed the previous year with an aggressive form of breast cancer and had undergone multiple surgeries and a double mastectomy. After taking a break from acting, Munn returned in 2025 as Samantha Levitt on the Apple TV+ show Your Friends & Neighbors, which follows a hedge-fund manager, played by Jon Hamm, who turns to crime after being fired.
Munn's acerbic, ambitious Levitt is a woman from humble beginnings who marries into wealth, only to become a social pariah after a sinister plot involving her husband is revealed. "It's really interesting to play someone who just wants to forge through, that doesn't want to escape and go start anew," Munn, 45, says. "I wouldn't want to persevere in a place where I know that I did wrong and nobody wants me. I would feel remorse, and I would not expect anyone to forgive me. I would want to start over."
What time do you get up on Mondays and what's the first thing you do?
My brain wakes me up at 6 a.m. My daughter wakes up around 6:20 a.m., but she doesn’t get out of her crib till 7 a.m. Until then I’m just up and taking my supplements, taking my medicine, washing my face and drinking water.
Do you eat breakfast?
I started doing intermittent fasting back when I wasn’t able to lose my baby weight.
What’s your Monday morning supplement routine?
Vitamin D is really amazing, so I do that, plus I do omega-3. And then different vitamin supplements, NAD+. I do that as an injection.
What do you do to relax?
I was in New York for Fashion Week. Anytime I wasn’t at a show, I just went back to the hotel and got into bed with a heating pad and I didn’t get out.
What are your kids' favorite Vietnamese dishes?
My son loves Vietnamese spring rolls and my daughter loves pho. My mom spends a lot of time with us helping with the kids, cooking and being my husband’s favorite movie-watching companion. She makes pho from scratch, and it’s better than any restaurant you could find.
What would you say is a vice or indulgence of yours?
Just scrolling on Instagram. I’m saving so many recipes and people talking about how to raise kids and giving me advice. And crafts.
Do you have a routine for maintaining your Japanese?
Yeah, I keep it up with a tutor on Fridays!
In season 2, your character is being shunned by the town. What did you find compelling about playing that aspect of Sam?
It was really interesting to play someone who was her own worst enemy. Her being ostracized in season 2 is a direct result of her bad decisions. So it was really interesting to play someone who is studying the social behaviors of this group and trying to find her way back in.
You and season 2 co-star James Marsden knew each other from growing up in Oklahoma City. What was it like to work with him?
I moved back at 16 years old. There was only one person who befriended me, and her name was Jenny Marsden.
At some point, she tells me that her brother is an actor. One day he was back in town, and he took Jenny and some of our other friends to Bennigan’s, and then this ice cream store in Oklahoma called Braum’s. [Years later] at a GQ Men of the Year party, I just went right up to him and I was like,“We met when I was 16 years old!” It was so cool to have that moment so many years later.
James is always working. He’s like the male Nicole Kidman; just constantly working and always putting out great stuff.
What is one piece of advice you've gotten in your life that has guided you?
In college, I said to my mom,“I want to be an actor.” My mom’s an immigrant; so becoming an actress seemed so crazy—like why would you take that risk? I said to her,“What if I don’t make it?”
And she said,“If you aim high and you miss, you’ll be happy you tried. If you aim low and hit, you’re guaranteeing that you won’t be as happy as you could be.”
As an immigrant—especially being Asian-American and the “model minority”—I understand her guidance as we grew up: Do things that are safe; make straight A’s; get into college. When my mom said that to me, I realized it was the first time she’d ever talked to one of her children that way.
My mom was on her third marriage by that point. I think she realized that you can keep playing it safe—and life can still end up completely upside down. So you might as well try as hard as you can at the thing that could make you happy.
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