Actress Olivia Munn got her cast mate Steven Wilder Striegel cut from "The Predator" film after learning he was a registered sex offender, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Hours before Shane Black's sci-fi thriller "The Predator" was to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday night, Twentieth Century Fox confirmed it had cut the scene featuring Striegel.
The small-time actor had been friends with Black for several years and made various brief appearances in his films, but until recently neither of them shared details of Striegel's shady past.
In 2010 the actor pleaded guilty after being accused of attempting to lure a 14-year-old girl into a sexual relationship through the internet, the Times reported.
Court records show he spent six months in prison on charges of risk of injury to a child and enticing a minor by computer, The Washington Post reported.
Munn came across the information last month and revealed it to Fox, and studio execs quickly removed the scene featuring Striegel and the lead actress.
"Our studio was not aware of Mr. Striegel's background when he was hired," a Fox spokesperson said in a statement to The Los Angeles Times. "We were not aware of his background during the casting process due to legal limitations that impede studios from running background checks on actors."
Munn said it was "both surprising and unsettling that Shane Black, our director, did not share this information to the cast, crew, or Fox Studios prior to, during, or after production."
She quickly added it was relieving that "when Fox finally did receive the information, the studio took appropriate action by deleting the scene featuring Wilder prior to release of the film."
Munn launched an attack against Striegel and Black on Twitter.
"In addition to this statement, the @latimes also reported that Wilder said Shane was 'aware of the facts' of his arrest," she tweeted. "He made a 'personal choice' to continually work with a convicted sex offender, but I didn't have a choice. That decision was made for me. And that's not okay."
"The #MeToo movement called out abusers. But they're not the only ones in the wrong," she said in a separate tweet. "Those who know about abuse and not only do nothing but continue to put abusers in positions of power are complicit."