Director Shane Black issued an apology after it was learned that he had hired a registered sex offender, Steven Wilder Striegel, to appear in the upcoming film ‘The Predator’. Striegel only appeared in one sequence, in which his character hit on Olivia Munn. Upon learning of his criminal background, 20th Century Fox quickly cut his scene. Black did not appear to know the depths of Striegel’s crime (which was attempting to lure a 14-year-old girl into having sex with him), and issued this apology on social media:
“Having read this morning’s news reports, it has sadly become clear to me that I was misled by a friend I really wanted to believe was telling me the truth when he described the circumstances of his conviction. I believe strongly in giving people second chances — but sometimes you discover that chance is not as warranted as you may have hoped.
After learning more about the affidavit, transcripts, and additional details surrounding Steve Striegel’s sentence, I am deeply disappointed in myself. I apologize to all of those, past and present, I’ve let down by having Steve around them without giving them a voice in the decision.”
That doesn’t appear to be enough for Munn. While attending the Toronto International Film Festival, she stated:
“I don’t accept Shane’s apology. It wasn’t given to me personally… A real apology has to be done privately — not just read publicly and I read it with the rest of the world.”
Munn’s character, Casey Bracket, is apparently the only one to interact with Striegel’s and she is clearly upset at not being informed of his background before filming their scene. It remains to be seen if this negative news will impact how well ‘The Predator’ does at the box office when it opens this weekend. At the very least, the name ‘The Predator’ has now taken on a new, disturbing connotation.
If you’d like to hear a lengthier discussion on this topic, click below:
On Thursday, The Times’ @amykinla reported that Twentieth Century Fox pulled a scene after director Shane Black cast his friend, a registered sex offender https://t.co/wnq62aoRh3
Today at #TIFF18 Olivia Munn, Trevante Rhodes & Augusto Aguilera addressed the controversy with us pic.twitter.com/4qmv4lv7dI
— LAT Entertainment (@latimesent) September 8, 2018
‘The Predator’, directed by Black, stars Munn, Augusto Aguilera, Alfie Allen, Sterling K. Brown, Jake Busey, Boyd Holbrook, Thomas Jane, Keegan-Michael Key, Trevante Rhodes, Yvonne Strahovski, Jacob Tremblay and Brian A. Prince as The Predator. It opens this weekend, on September 14, 2018.