-Our first guest tonight is a talented actress
you know from "The Newsroom" and "The Daily Show."
She stars in "Violet," which is in select theaters Friday,
and at home on demand November 9th.
Let's take a look.
-All the benefits of knowing someone for 20 years, I guess.
-You're a baby. -Mm-hmm.
-You know, I-I feel weird lately.
-Don't tell her.
-Are you sick?
-No, I just -- You know, the committee in my head.
You know, I just never really noticed it much before.
-What committee?
-You know, the voice that tells you that
you're a piece of [bleep] you know, or whatever.
I mean, everybody has it. You know what I'm talking about.
-I guess.
-You sound crazy.
-Please welcome back to the show Olivia Munn!
How are you, Olivia?! [ Cheers and applause ]
-Hey. How are you, Seth?
-It's always great to see you.
And I want to start off by saying congratulations.
I know you're expecting a baby. How's it going?
-Thanks. Yeah, it's going really good.
It's -- it's -- I'm exhausted a lot, I'm tired,
but it's going really good.
I'm getting lots of really great advice from people
and lot of confusing advice, as well,
but I'm doing really good.
-Do you find -- I found one of the most confusing things is,
people would suggest specific baby gear to you
that was important to have.
And the brand names were impossible
to keep separate in my head.
-That's 100% true.
I mean, there's this one item called the SNOO
that people bring up a lot.
And then, I'm not -- And I'm not quite sure --
Like, I know it's one that rocks the baby.
Then there's, like, one that docks the baby.
And then there's another one that, like, props the baby.
And they're all, like -- You're right.
They're all named the same thing,
and I have no idea what anyone's --
I mean, I'm trying to research it.
I actually have the -- The thing I have
the hardest problem with is,
I don't know how many things to get.
You know, like, I don't know how many onesies
you're supposed to get.
I don't know how many bottles you're supposed to get,
how many diapers you're supposed to have.
Like, I don't -- People give me a lot of advice,
but I need real specific --
-I think you only need one onesie.
I think that's why they're called that.
[ Laughter ]
I think it's right in the name for you.
Have you received anything that you would --
I mean, I know it's impossible until you actually
have the baby, but is there something that
you feel like has been good advice?
-Yeah, there's so much great advice.
But I honestly -- The one piece of advice
that's coming to my head that I would not classify as great,
but it's the only one I'm thinking of right now is,
I have a friend of mine who said she has a gift
of being able to tell you how tall your baby will be.
And, yeah, so, I said -- She said,
"Do you want to know how tall your baby will be?"
So, I said "Sure." She said "Okay."
How tall are you?"
I said, "I'm 5'5"."
"She goes, "Okay.
How tall is John?" I said, "He's 6 feet."
She goes "Hmm.
The baby will be 6 feet tall."
Like, I was like -- I don't know where
she comes up with those figures,
but, like, that's been, like --
I get that kind of advice from people.
-Maybe you need, like -- I don't know --
like, friends with, like, a firmer background in child-care.
I do love anybody who's like, "I'm going to make a prediction"
where you can't find out if they're right or wrong
until, like, the kid's 18.
-I know. I know.
-"Promise I'm right. Stay in touch."
-Unless she's talking about a 6-foot baby
that comes out of me.
It just stretches. It just keeps going.
-I love talking to you about your mom.
Is she excited about the fact -- I guess this is
the second time she's going to be a grandmother?
-Yeah, you're right. She is so excited.
And she said to me the other day -- She said,
"Hey, I want to have the baby for two weeks, 15 days."
And I said, "Yeah, you can come visit whenever you want."
She goes, "No, no.
I want to have the baby all by myself for two weeks, 15 days."
And I said, "You can come and have all the time you want
by yourself with the baby."
And she said, "No.
I want to bring the baby to Oklahoma, at my house,
all by myself for two weeks, 15 days."
And I said, "Why do you want the baby in Oklahoma, at your house,
by yourself for two weeks, 15 days?"
And she said, "Because I want to be able to do whatever I want
with the baby, and the parents can't tell me no."
I'm like, "Okay, so, I'll just give you my baby,
and you can do whatever you want."
So she's not going to get the baby for two weeks --
-Yeah. She gave away way too much of the game in the ask.
I also like that -- I like that, in her head,
she thinks she needs two weeks,
"But just in case it's not enough,
I might need that 15th day."
-Yeah, she needs a travel day she's added in.
-You've got to be careful.
Like, I feel like when grandparents
take their grandkids out, like, they act like
they have diplomatic immunity and no rules apply to them.
And, like, they'll bring back the kids,
and the kids will be all amped up.
And you're like, "What'd you do?"
And they're like, "Nothing.
They had, like, a coffee and some beef jerky."
You're like, "No."
-I remember when my -- we had my niece
when she was a baby, and my sister had
really strict instructions like, "I don't want her to have --"
Like, she had, like, maybe a dairy allergy,
so she was like, "I don't want her
to have this or any sugar yet."
And then I saw my mom hand her an ice-cream cone,
and she goes, "Shh!
Don't tell the mom."
I was like, "This is crazy.
Like, you're -- What are you doing?
Like, the mom should make the rules."
And, so, now I remembered that, so, clearly, I'm like --
very like -- I'm very wary of her.
-I think that's a very good place to be.
So, this film, as we tell from the clip --
or hopefully people could tell from the clip --
you play a woman, Violet, in this film,
who is competing with the voice in her head,
this sort of -- the voice that maybe anxiety
would put there for us.
And a pretty incredible actor playing the voice.
-Yeah, that's Justin Theroux playing that insidious voice
in my head, constantly, you know, telling me --
telling Violet how not good enough she is
and how, you know, just everything is going to
burn to the ground because of her.
-Was this part emotionally exhausting to play,
to play somebody who's dealing with these sort of
internal anxieties?
-This project was really emotionally exhausting for me.
I had actually gone from two independent movies
right into this third independent movie
back-to-back-to-back.
So I was already so emotionally exhausted,
physically exhausted.
And, I mean, I am one of those people
that struggles with that internal dialogue.
That's that voice that's always telling me, you know,
so many things that just create
so much self-doubt and self-hate.
I mean, I struggle with that a lot.
And I've worked really hard to put that voice into a box,
and so then, to go on to this film
and be doing this role with this voice --
And then there's Justine Bateman,
who directed the film, and she's yelling on the microphone,
you know, like, just screaming out all these things to you.
It was really emotionally draining
and it was so exhausting, and there was times
that I just broke down crying in the middle of a scene,
in the scenes where you're not supposed to be crying,
but it's okay if I cried.
And I'm crying, I'm breaking down crying,
and then they yell "cut," and I'm still crying.
And I'm just kind of trying to remove myself to collect myself,
and then the A.D. comes over.
And they're like -- 'Cause it's an independent movie,
so time is of the essence, and there's no money.
He's like, "Hey, um, really need you to, like, stop crying
and just get back to the scene."
And I was like, "Oh, okay."
Just trying to, like, reckon --
It was just like, just bury it deep down,
like my mom taught me.
Just bury all that stuff and just keep on going.
-See? That's what she can teach your baby
when she has her for two weeks, 15 days.
Just bury your emotions.
Hey, thanks so much for being here, Olivia.
Congratulations on the baby. Congratulations on the movie.
[ Cheers and applause ] We'll see you soon.
-Thank you. -Olivia Munn, everybody.
"Violet" is in select theaters Friday
and at home on demand November 9th.