MANILA, Philippines - When Olivia Munn joined us for our roundtable interview, she carried with her a bag of Skittles and she munched on the tiny sour candies like she was trying to keep herself awake. And she looked cute doing it. The beautiful 33-year-old actress is finally doing Hollywood roundtables 10 years into her career in the business. She has finally made it!
She was bubbly and very friendly during the junket. She was telling everyone how at age 14 she had her first boyfriend who happened to be Filipino and how she learned to speak bad Tagalog words and how she came to love Filipino food. But during our actual interview, she related a far more interesting experience she recently had with the paranormal at her new house.
“In my house where I live in now, there’s a lot of stuff that happens, a lot of activity,” she casually revealed.
This writer and the three Latin American journalists with me in the roundtable were initially incredulous but as the actress continued on with her creepy story, we all found ourselves increasingly scared and completely silent, just allowing her to tell the story.
“I made friends with a medium who told me about the things in my house and what’s going on there that no one would have known, except me, and she told me about the things going on in my house — that there are, like, good spirits in my house.”
“Just last week,” she continued, “ I was sitting in my bed and I didn’t know why the front door opened completely wide. I have security cameras so I looked at the security camera that looks at the front door and you see that out of nowhere the door completely opens! And I have these sensors that say front door, back door when you open the door and it was, like, ‘front door’ and I am like, ‘Huh!?’ instantly and I could see no one had come in! I go look right away just to make sure and you can see that it just opens up.”
“Last night, I was watching TV and I know I heard this (she made a clapping sound) and I got up, I looked at my boyfriend (Olivia is currently dating football superstar Aaron Rodgers) and I was like, ‘Did you, did you hear that?’ So I went to take a look and there was a pan that was on a countertop that was now on the floor and there was nothing that would have made it fall.”
So is she looking for a new house now?
“No, I love it! That’s the thing. I want them to come! It’s exciting!
“The medium said different people have the ability to connect but definitely, in my house, things have happened. It used to be like you hear the door jiggling or when I am in the shower you just feel a wind move around in the shower — it’s very strange, like a wind that gusts right over you.”
Our conversation topic veered naturally to the paranormal because Olivia is starring in Deliver Us From Evil, the frightening new film from Screen Gems, based on the true-life experiences of a New York City cop whose series of encounters with the supernatural tested his belief in God and opened his eyes to the capacity of evil to sow bad things in our society. Yes, what ups the scare factor in the movie is the fact that everything about it happened in real life.
Australian superstar Eric Bana plays the NYPD cop, Ralph Sarchie, in the supernatural thriller that brings together the dynamic talents of director Scott Derrickson (Sinister, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) and mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean, Bad Boys, Armageddon, Black Hawk Down). Acclaimed Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez also stars as Joe Mendoza, a renegade Catholic priest hunting down demons in the city.
In the movie, Olivia plays Ralph’s strong-willed wife, Jen, who assisted her and corresponded with her via e-mail when she was preparing for her role.
“In the movie, where I am seen through Ralph Sarchie’s eyes, it is really important for the audience to see what he has to lose and so I had to create a really great family home base for him,” she said. “I based her off through a lot of women I know whose husbands are in the military or are police officers or firefighters and they put themselves on the line every day. It was really important for me to depict her in a realistic way that I see women who are very supportive of their husbands.”
Olivia’s previous high-profile role was in Magic Mike and she expressed her excitement getting the part of Jen. “I felt like I won a radio contest! This is the kind of character I haven’t played before. I grew up in a military family and the one thing that you have to know being married to a cop or a soldier is to be really understanding of the things that they have to go through.”
Olivia’s former stepfather was a military man and she spent her growing up years in US military bases all over the world (she met her Filipino boyfriend in Japan) and she has nothing but respect for those serving in the military and their partners who sacrifice a lot along with their husbands or wives. The military experience plays a pivotal part in Deliver Us From Evil.
“It’s really important for us to take care of our soldiers, especially the ones who come back from war. We need to take care of them when they come back home. We need a better system, better financial aid, better mental health aid for them.”
Deliver Us From Evil opens in theaters on July 2. See it and prepare to be scared.