X-Men Star Blames Alec Baldwin for Losing Out on 30 Rock Role

X-Men star Olivia Munn spoke about the time she lost out on a role on 30 Rock despite having an excellent audition because of Alec Baldwin. The actress recalled how she was almost selected for the role but was not ultimately a part of the final lineup because she would appear too young when paired with Baldwin.

Olivia Munn reveals why she lost her 30 Rock role

Olivia Munn sat down with The Hollywood Reporter for an interview recently. She covered a variety of topics in the interview. She also talked about her audition for 30 Rock, which went nearly perfectly, apart from one small detail.

Munn revealed that she initially got the job, but they decided not to go with her because she would appear too young in front of Alec Baldwin.

“These people, iconic people — Tina Fey, Robert Carlock, Grace Wu at NBC casting — they all thought that I was good enough to have gotten the offer,” Munn said about the audition. “That’s what I needed. Whether or not I got the job didn’t affect my confidence.”

In a later part of the interview, Munn brought this up again when asked how she got confident with her auditions. “Grace Wu at NBC casting brought me in for 30 Rock. I was getting to this place where I was really understanding the audition process. Because when you go into audition, especially back then, it was so intimidating. You’d sign in, and then you’d sit there waiting and there’d be people coming in to try to intimidate each other,” she recalled.

“So going into [the 30 Rock] audition, I felt really good about everything. I dressed for the part, which I’d never really done before. I signed in, and I walked outside near the soundstages,” she revealed, “I got the call that I booked the job, and I knew that I protected my psyche and kept myself from feeling envy and competition with the other women.”

However, she did not end up starring on the show. She said, “The end of that story is that I got the job … and then two days later, they were like, “Alec [Baldwin] thinks that you look too young to play his love interest.” Another two days later, “No, no, no. They think you’re perfect. You’re going to fly out on Saturday.” On Friday, “No, no, no. Alec thinks that you look too young, and he’s putting his foot down.” Then Elizabeth Banks got that role.”

So, Munn did not end up playing the role, but she soon bagged several career-defining roles, including The Predator (2018), Buddy Games (2019), Love Wedding Repeat (2020), and Violet (2021), among others.

Source: Comingsoon.net