Olivia Munn appears in the April 2010 issue of DaMan magazine.

Olivia Munn DaMan magazine

Munn reveals her heritage and how she got into acting as a kid in Japan.

“I basically begged my mom to let me do it all. I learned to barter at an early age. I had to take karate and piano and hated it. Not that I really hated the activities, I just hated being told what to do. So, then I learned to negotiate with my mom. I said I would do well at all my piano recitals and make sure to get new belts in karate if she let me take theater classes. How could she turn down that offer? She got what she wanted: a karate-chopping, piano-playing daughter. And I got what I wanted: to act.”

“I spent a lot of time running around after my big brother and emulating him. One day, I was watching my favorite show, Punky Brewster, and I asked my mom to help me be her friend. Punky (actress Soleil Moon Frye) looked exactly like me: brown pigtails, freckles, tomboy. [My mom] explained to me that [Punky] wasn’t real, just an actress. That’s when I knew that I wanted to do what Punky Brewster did. Of course, when I told my Asian mother I wanted to be an actress, she immediately shot it down telling me ‘You be lawyer or doctor! No actress!’ But I never let that deter me. I always believed if someone else could do it, I could too, if I worked hard enough.”