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Forbes
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Olivia Munn On Her Creative Journey With ‘Your Friends & Neighbors'
Olivia Munn and Amanda Peet in "Your Friends & Neighbors" On the new Apple TV+ drama series Your Friends & Neighbors, actress Olivia Munn plays Sam Levitt, a woman from humble beginnings who marries well and then rules over a group of high society ladies in the New York suburbs. Her comfortable lifestyle slowly begins to crumble when her husband leaves her for a younger woman and she is forced to find a way to stay financially afloat, largely for the sake of her young children. In real life, Munn, 44, is the mother of two kids alongside her husband and fellow industry creative, John Mulaney. She is also no stranger to taking on complex and strong female characters. Previously, Munn played tenacious news journalist Sloan Sabbith on Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom series, as well as known for playing superhuman mutant Betsy Braddock in X-Men: Apocalypse. With her portrayal as Sam on the first season of Your Friends & Neighbors, which co-stars Jon Hamm and Amanda Peet, Munn was able to tap into a clever mix of confidence and insecurity with this multi-layered character performance. Sitting down with the actress, I wondered what it was about this script from creator Jonathan Tropper and uncovering what Sam goes through over these nine episodes, that intrigued Munn most to want to take on this role next within her career. Olivia Munn in "Your Friends & Neighbors" Munn said, 'First, I would say that I was really fascinated with the underlying themes of human nature and what people will do when they're stripped of everything they value, and this idea of what happens when blind ambition upends like the constructs of wealth & privilege. I'm really fascinated in how our show delves into the fragility of appearances and the extreme measures people take to 'Keep up with the Joneses,' and really examining ambition & identity and what it costs to maintain a certain lifestyle on really shaky foundations. With Sam, I love that she has these blue collar roots and she's climbed the social mountain to establish herself as a prestigious figure in her group and this particular part of her high society. She's created this life that she's deeply craved and fears losing - and unlike everyone else in the show, she was not born into this lifestyle, but she married into it. Now, she's on the precipice of losing everything she built. And so, now she's facing this question, personally, of what length she will go to, to maintain her social status of wealth & privilege.' With Your Friends & Neighbors being a show that revolves around the flawed dynamic between couples, friends, lovers and a quiet unhappiness within suburbia, what does Munn believe has made so many viewers gravitate towards this Apple TV+ series? Olivia Munn in "Your Friends & Neighbors" 'You know, I think these characters are never satisfied, no matter how much they achieve. They're either chasing more or worried they're going to lose it all. This world is about the one percent; however, the stories are deeply human and things that we have as a society seen people grapple with for god knows how many years. This idea of - Does money make you happy? and How do certain people maintain their wealth & privilege and what lengths people will go to, to keep their hold in that world? That's really a fascinating world for people to watch.' Being a working actor for several years before signing onto this series, I was curious if Munn has noticed her priorities and her interests in characters & stories evolving as time goes on. Munn said, 'Yeah, I think as time has gone on in my life, I have felt a pull to different characters. Over these last five years, starting with Covid until the release of Your Friends & Neighbors, I've had so many personal things happening to me. In 2021, I was pregnant and then 2022, I had extreme postpartum anxiety that lasted almost a whole year. Right when I was getting out of that and the clouds were lifting from postpartum, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Those three years have really defined me as a woman, as a mother and as just a person in the world. The things that I see and the characters I want to play, and also how much I'm infusing into each character now - I understand like with Sam, that being a mother is so important to her existence in this world and protecting her children at all costs is the number one priority.' She added about Sam: 'For her, the decision she's making in this show, although wildly out-of-character for most people in the world, is based on her need to protect her children and what she thinks that they need to be protected. I feel that after being diagnosed with breast cancer - diagnosed with any cancer - it stops you in your tracks. Think about a lot of dialogue that happens in the world or things that garner attention, and things that you put so much weight into and things that bother you and things that hold your heart there. It's when you get that diagnosis, everything narrows in - there's nothing else to think about besides that fight. When you're diagnosed with breast cancer, getting the diagnosis made me think about how I want to spend my time. So, picking the roles and picking the work that I want to do is all based on how much time I want to spend away from my family and how much energy I have now to put towards anything outside of my personal family time.' After seeing Sam's story play out in season one of Your Friends & Neighbors, I wondered if Munn believes that she would ultimately be friends with her character Sam or not. Olivia Munn in "Your Friends & Neighbors" 'I would love to hang out with Sam. First of all, she tells it like it is. I like a straightforward dynamic with friends. I sometimes have an inability to small talk. I like to get right in there and and no holds barred with my conversations with my friends. I grew up in a military family, so I understand her upbringing and her dynamic and her view on the world. She is someone who, I think, understands the world that she's in and is trying everything she can do to stay in it. A hundred percent, I would be friends with Sam. I find her fascinating and straightforward and honest and complicated and nuanced, and being friends with someone like that would just be fun, I think.' As for her working relationship with Hamm as an on-screen love interest on Your Friends & Neighbors, Munn has nothing but good things to say about her consistent scene partner. Jon Hamm and Olivia Munn in "Your Friends & Neighbors" Munn said of Hamm, 'I understand why he has been so iconic since the first moment we all saw him on Mad Men. He has a gravitas to how he comes off on-screen. He really is powerful and engaging, and you really just can't take your eyes off of him. At the same time, Jon Hamm in real life, who he really is, is he's funny and easygoing and doesn't take himself seriously and doesn't care about the superficial things in life. He doesn't care about the name on the inside of his suit. He doesn't care about the watch he's wearing. He's not what you'd expect 'Don Draper' to be. He's very opposite of the [Mad Men] 'Don Draper' role in a lot of ways from what I've seen.' She added: 'Working with him really was intimidating, at first. I hadn't worked since 2019. So, I was like - Can I still do this? I just was really nervous. Then, at our first table read, I had just recently come out with my breast cancer diagnosis and I didn't know his own personal history and the people in his life that he's lost from cancer. We're sitting next to each other during the table read and he just turned to me before we started and said, 'I had no idea' - about my diagnosis. Then, he started opening up to me about his personal experiences with it. It just bonded me to him in a very personal way.' With season two of Your Friends & Neighbors currently in production, I was curious - even with the events that occur with Sam at the end of season one - whether Munn hopes or plans to return for more stories ahead on the Apple TV+ series, knowing that with good behavior, Sam could be out ruling over suburbia again in no time. 'I am really interested to see how season two is unfolding. Jonathan Tropper and [writer] Jamie Rosengard have been working on season two since we ended season one. I signed on for one season and Jonathan Tropper said like, 'From the beginning, if you decide you want to stay on after season two, please let us know.' I wasn't sure because I had a baby girl coming and I had more treatment and a lot of stuff, but I just love the character in the world so much. I loved working on this show so much with everyone involved, that when we were wrapping up season one, he asked me to have lunch and gave me the outline for what's happening in season two. It was a very quick and easy yes.' As I concluded my conversation with Munn, I asked the celebrated actress my original and signature interview question, wondering what she would say to her Your Friends & Neighbors character Sam, if only she could, after understanding her objective and her wants out of life. What does Munn feel that Sam needs to hear? Olivia Munn in "Your Friends & Neighbors" 'That's a great question. No one has ever asked me that. I would tell her to believe in herself much more than she is right now. I would tell her that everything that she thinks is important isn't important - that she can rebuild, that her children are okay, that she has her mother & father who love her, that she shouldn't put so much importance on things that she has now found out are things that can slip away. I would tell her that she's much stronger than she realizes and that she's about to go down a path that she will deeply regret, and to stop and assess the situation and pull back. I would definitely tell her to stop and think about what she's about to do, because what she's about to do has so much more risk than it does reward, and she doesn't need it. She doesn't need to go down that path, but everything that she wants and needs is already right there in front of her, and that she has the ability to pull her and her family out of any financial strains that she has, and to walk away from this plan. I would tell her to just walk away. This is an insane plan and it is not going to end up well.'
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Your Friends and Neighbors' Season 2 Will Explore Mel's Darker Side and How Far Coop Will Take His Criminal Lifestyle: ‘We're Not Going Down the Walter White Road'
SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't watched the Season 1 finale of Apple TV+'s 'Your Friends & Neighbors,' stop reading — because there is no way in a million years that you could've seen that storyline wrap-up coming and you must, you MUST go watch it! On the flip side, if you have watched that shocking conclusion, read on, as we've got some great Season 2 teasers for you. Heading into the finale, Coop (as brilliantly played by Jon Hamm) woke up in a pool of blood next to the lifeless body of his neighbor, Paul — who was also the estranged husband of Coop's frequent booty call, Sam (Olivia Munn) — and was contemplating taking a plea deal even though he proclaimed his innocence. Heart-to-heart talks with his kids and his ex, Mel (Amanda Peet), kick up the tears and anxiety. Terrified of losing him, a shouting match erupts. More from Variety Don't Forget About 'Your Friends and Neighbors' Stars Amanda Peet and Olivia Munn This Emmy Season 'Your Friends & Neighbors' Stars Jon Hamm and Amanda Peet on the Irresistible Pull Between Coop and Mel: 'I Want Them to Be Together, Even If They F- It Up Again' Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm, John Slattery Starring in R-Rated Hollywood Comedy From 'Wet Hot American Summer' Director David Wain (EXCLUSIVE) Meanwhile, evidence shows that two of the three gunshots to Paul's body happened after he was already dead. Coop realizes that Sam has been using a burner phone, prompting him and Elena (Aimee Carrero) to search Sam's mansion for it. They not only find that but also proof that Paul killed himself and that Sam framed Coop so she could collect Paul's sizeable life insurance. Munn tells Variety that a little voice in Sam's head kept reminding her that she managed to climb the social mountain to establish herself as a prestigious figure in high society, which enabled her to give her kids a childhood that she never had. A fact of life she won't compromise. 'She created a life that she deeply craved, and I think always has feared losing,' Munn says. 'Being around people who put so much value on the external, that kind of value system really sticks to you and, before you know it, you are thinking that same way, walking that same way, judging other people by their shoes, their purse, their car, their zip code.' But she had real feelings for Coop — or so we were led to believe — and yet she framed him for murder? 'Yeah, she had a failed relationship with Coop, but he is a father, he is a son, he is a friend,' Munn says. 'He did not commit murder, and yet she was OK with setting him up that way. It's like, what is happening in [her] psyche? I do not believe Sam is a bad person at all. So why would she be so OK with that?' She rationalizes it this way: 'Some people are trying to always look for survival and any moment that is offered where you're like, 'For me to be able to feed my children, pay the utility bills, buy new clothes for school…' You're always keeping your eyes open at anything that could be useful to your family's survival.' Ultimately, Coop is cleared, and Sam is cuffed and taken away by the police. But because she hadn't claimed Paul's life insurance money just yet, she can't be charged with fraud. Her only certain punishment will be from those in her community that shun her. 'The joy of Season 2 is we can explore Sam independent of Coop and give her a new storyline,' Tropper says. 'What she's done is something far more opaque and far more complicated to process. And it's not just complicated for her to process, it's complicated for the neighborhood to process. For her, a lot of Season 2 is, a kind of awakening of, 'It's not yours if you can't keep it.' … And so it's how does she deal with the public scrutiny? How does she deal with reinventing herself in this community? And how does she deal with the emotional fallout of what she's been through?' Munn says the biggest lesson that Mel has learned is not to depend on anybody other than herself. 'Don't put the weight of your happiness into somebody else's hands,' she says. 'If she wants to be in this world, this society, it has to be on her terms and on her own two feet. … I want her to have realized that this path that she went on may have gotten her what she wanted for a period of her life, but if she wants to truly maintain it, she has to do it on her own.' Judging by this season's ending, has Coop learned nothing about right and wrong… and about how his frequently reckless decisions have a ripple effect on those around him? 'Oh, the opposite,' Tropper insists. 'He learned something really vital because, when I started writing [the first season], that I wanted Coop to be presented with the keys to his old life back at the end. And after everything he's been through, he's sitting in his old boss' office being offered back everything he's lost, and the last few months could literally just be a bad fever dream. Now, he can have his office back and his wealth and his status, and his future and his financial security. He's being offered all of it. I think in that moment, he's actually planning to take it. And in that moment, what you can see is this is a guy who has been shaped by his experience to the point where he's a much tougher negotiator. You could almost see that the things he's learned being a little bit of a criminal, have made him better at what he does out in the financial world.' But for Tropper, he questions when, exactly, was the epiphany for Coop when he decided that he doesn't want to ever go back to being that person he was as a hedge fund manager. 'To me, that is his real evolution in the season: Has he been woken up? And even though what he's doing may not be sustainable, he knows that to go back to where he was would be to put trust in the system that he now knows can't be trusted, and he can't trust himself in that system to be the person that he feels he should be. Really just to wake him up to the notion that he's been sleepwalking for the last 10 or 20 years. No matter what else happens, he's not gonna go back to sleep.' And therein lies the endless opportunities to explore for Season 2, which became a reality before Season 1 even premiered. What can we expect? 'Coop is never gonna become a criminal kingpin. We're not going down the Walter White Road,' Tropper says, referring to Bryan Cranston's drug lord on 'Breaking Bad.' 'So, it's never gonna be about building a big criminal enterprise. But what it is about is the risk and reward ratio, what it takes both to make him feel alive and to do what at least he tells himself in his mind, what's the exit strategy? Right now, we've only caught him after a season at the point where he's figured out what he's not gonna be, but I don't think he's yet figured out what it is he is going to be.' Both women in Coop's life, Mel and Sam, are also heading into Season 2 at a crosswords. There have been sprinklings of a dark side of Mel, whether it be keying a car, beating the living daylights out of Sam in a self-defense class or even petty theft of a jar of jam. And with her relationship with Nick on the fritz at the end of the first season, there is a lot to explore. 'Basically, everyone is confronting their great emptiness,' Tropper explains. 'But the emptiness in Mel is leading to anger and rage and lashing out that she hasn't reckoned with yet. And for us, Season 2 is gonna be to really dig into that reckoning.' 'There is a weirdly dark part of Mel — stealing and some of the self-destructive behavior,' says Peet, whose character lost her job as a therapist because of that side of her personality. 'She's not the most stable therapist in the world. I think probably she is really afraid to face the music in her own life. I feel like she's kind of blindly going forth without that much intentionality or self-reflection.' At its core, Peet think it comes down to Mel's unresolved feelings for Coop. 'I think she can't stand the fact that she's still in love with him. She's running away from reality —her own dissatisfaction with what happened in her marriage and her dissatisfaction from Nick.' And 'what is lurking under the placid suburban dream' and what is ultimately going to happen to her and Coop is what intrigues Peet the most about the upcoming season. 'I'm very curious what Jonathan [Tropper] is going to do with those two,' she says. 'The other thing that's interesting is, she has her own kind of dark and transgressive instincts. I think that it would be interesting for us to see more of that. … just like shoplifting at age 50. It's a very weird part of her that, if he wanted to go down that road a little bit more, I would be excited.' Best of Variety What's Coming to Netflix in June 2025 New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts?
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
2000s Actress Shares How She Approaches Shooting Sex Scenes at 53
It's all in a day's work for Amanda Peet. "Dude, I've been doing this for so long, I'm just like, 'Show me where to be. Show me who to kiss. Who do I have to make out with today?'" Peet recently told People. The actress, known for her roles in 'The Whole Nine Yards' and 'The Good Wife,' is starring in 'Your Friends & Neighbors' on Apple TV+ where she has steamy love scenes with Jon Hamm, who plays her estranged husband, and Mark Tallman, who her character has an affair with."I love my stuff with Jon," she said of her scenes with Hamm. "He's a gentleman, and he's a really good leader on the set. He's not a snob, and I appreciate that." Peet also joked that she's so used to having a love scene on camera that she automatically assumes she has one just by seeing the show's intimacy coordinator. 'She's like, 'No, dear. It's somebody else,'" she a sex scene may be easy Peet these days, the actress recently said on 'Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen,' that appearing on 'Seinfeld' in 1997, where she made out with Jerry Seinfeld, was "rough." "I had a lot of stage fright. I was really scared," Peet said, rating her performance a "5" as part of a game on the Bravo show. The season finale episode of 'Your Friends & Neighbors' airs this Friday. 🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬 2000s Actress Shares How She Approaches Shooting Sex Scenes at 53 first appeared on Parade on May 27, 2025
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos reveal the NSFW dress code they've adopted ever since their kids moved out
and Mark Consuelos ' home has become a clothing-optional space ever since their children moved out. The parents of three revealed their life has become a 'freak show' following the departure of their youngest child as they offered words of comfort to actress Amanda Peet, whose eldest is now moving out for school. While Amanda, 53, began getting emotional at the thought of her child leaving, Kelly, 54, and Mark, 54, assured her there is a NSFW light at the end of the tunnel. 'The first one is like a bit of a shock,' Kelly explained on Monday's episode of Live with Kelly and Mark. 'Each one, the second one it's like no big deal, third one for 24 to 48 hours, you're gonna be like, "Oh my gosh, what have we done? Now it's just us." And then your entire life becomes nudity in the household wherever you want them.' 'It's a freak show,' Mark said. 'Total freak show', Kelly concurred. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Kelly and Mark have three children together and their youngest, Joaquin Consuelos, 22, graduated from the University of Michigan this year. The couple also have son Michael Consuelos, 27, who graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 2020, and daughter Lola Consuelos, 23, who is also a NYU graduate. Kelly and Mark previously revealed how difficult the adjustment was. 'We became empty nesters. We took our youngest son to college, we dropped him off,' Kelly said on a 2021 episode of her talk show. 'It was hard. It was really hard.' In a joint 2023 interview with People, Mark compared the feeling to 'a loss.' 'It was deep,' he said. 'It was like a loss.' 'When Joaquin left [for the University of Michigan], it was hard, the two of us and the dogs staring at each other, like "Well, now what?"' Kelly said. 'The first dinner I cooked, I'm not kidding, was for 12 people, and it was just the two of us. We sat there with this inordinate amount of food, neither one of us hungry at all,' she said. Kelly initially worried they wouldn't have enough to talk about. The couple dished on their newfound preference for nudity on Monday's episode of Live with Kelly and Mark 'We're empty nesters, oh no, what are we going to discuss?!' Kelly said of her initial thoughts. But the pain quickly faded: 'The first 48 hours we were leaning into the despair and then we really leaned into the positive side,' she added. 'We got over it!' As fans of the couple will know, the duo have never been shy about candidly discussing their sex life and the unique places they have gotten it on at. In September 2022, Kelly confessed on Watch What Happens Live that she and Mark have been intimate with each other in Andy Cohen's Fire Island rental home. 'That was a day trip!' Andy said in shock at the revelation. 'It was a rental!' Kelly insisted. 'I figured I wasn't desecrating anything that you own,' she added, leaving viewers jaw-dropped. In addition to Cohen's rental, Kelly admitted she and her beau had also had sex on boat, in a public bathroom and even on the set of All My Children. In 2020, the TV personality previously told Cohen that she had Mark had such a healthy sex life because they 'found each other at the right time in our lives.' She added that both her and Mark believe that 'experimentation is fun.'
Perth Now
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Your Friends and Neighbours star Amanda Peet faked being waitress to land job at Italian restaurant
Amanda Peet once faked being a waitress to get a job in an Italian restaurant. The 53-year-old actress "made up" a name for a restaurant in San Francisco and put her then-boyfriend's phone number "as the reference" to land the job, but the 'Your Friends and Neighbors' star soon got fired after she warmed bread in the pizza oven. Amanda told PEOPLE magazine: "I had never waitressed, so I put that I had and then made up a restaurant that was in San Francisco, even though I was from New York, and then gave my boyfriend's number as the reference. "Then, on my first day, it was like an Italian restaurant where they had a pizza oven. "A lovely couple whose table I was assigned to asked me if I could warm the bread, which was in a bread basket. I put the whole thing in the pizza oven. "I didn't start a fire, but the dude was like, 'You're fired, you dumb, actress type.'" Amanda plays Mel Cooper - a therapist who has separated from her former former hedge fund manager husband, Andrew 'Coop' Cooper (Jon Hamm), after it was revealed he had been having a fling with his best pal and NBA player, Nick Brandes (Mark Tallman) - in the Apple TV+ thriller series, 'Your Friends and Neighbours'. The show sees Amanda's alter ego take part in steamy sex scenes with Coop and Nick, but Amanda is not fazed by the intimate performances. The 'Something's Gotta Give' actress explained: "Dude, I've been doing this for so long, I'm just like, 'Show me where to be. Show me who to kiss. Who do I have to make out with today?' "Whenever I see Lizzy [Talbot], the intimacy coordinator, I'm like, 'Wait, I have a sex scene?' And she's like, 'No, dear. It's somebody else.' It's so funny when I see her, I'm like, 'Oh my God, I forgot I have a sex scene.' " As well as Amanda, 44-year-old actress Olivia Munn, who plays Samantha 'Sam' Levitt in the show, also had to do intimate scenes with Jon, 54. Their characters had a secret fling while he was navigating his divorce from Mel, and Olivia was so nervous about pushing her teeth into the Hollywood legend's skin when filming the intimate scene. The 'X-Men: Apocalypse' star told the same outlet: "My character had to bite him, and I was nervous, but he just kept saying, 'It's okay. You can bite really hard.' "And then I did. And he's a pretty tough guy. He's a very tough guy."
