Original-Cin Q&A: Shang-Chi's Simu Liu on Living the Dream, Proud Parents Seeing Him on Chinese Posters and 'That Tweet'

Toronto’s own Simu Liu is in a whirlwind moment. The former star of the Canadian sitcom Kim’s Convenience is poised for International stardom as the lead in Marvel’s first Asian  superhero movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings which opens in theatres worldwide today. 

Our Bonnie Laufer caught up with Simu Liu to find out how he is handling his new found fame. 

CLICK HERE to read Karen Gordon’s review of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

ORIGINAL-CIN: You must feel like you’re living the dream. What has it been like being the lead in a huge Marvel film and how do you even begin to process that? 

SIMU LIU: Oh man, I think I'm just trying to get through it one day at a time. It seems like these last few weeks in particular have been a whirlwind, but it's all been so much fun. 

I've known this from the very beginning when I first got that call from (Marvel President) Kevin Feige, that my life was going to change forever. The whole lead-up to the release has been so exciting, and non-stop. We had the Los Angeles Premiere and then two days later I was on Jimmy Kimmel. 

Then we were off to London to premiere the film there. It's been an absolutely incredible journey with this movie.

I was cast over two years ago and  we shot for over a year in Sydney, Australia, and had to shut down for four months in the middle because of the pandemic. 

So it's been a journey not without its bumps and scrapes along the way. But we're here and I'm just so incredibly excited for the world to see it. 

O-C: In my humble opinion, you were born to play this role. You are so good in this, and the action scenes are fantastic. So I have to know, are you now a martial arts master? 

LIU: (Laughs) I think if you were to ask anyone on my stunt team, they would say, definitely not.  

I think I'm a lot further along than I was at the start of this whole process. Before I got this part, I was kind of  a substitute stuntman in Toronto. I feel like when all the regular working stuntmen got injured, or they didn't want to do a stunt, I got called and I would come in. 

But now, I feel like all that training has really paid off and  I feel a lot more flexible. I feel  limber on my feet and I spent so much time training. And with all the various styles that we use in this movie, if such a time comes that we were able to come back and do it again, I would 100% be ready. 

O-C:  Aside from all of the fun you had making the film, I would think one of the major highlights was working opposite legends like Michelle Yeoh and Tony Leung.  What was that like? 

LIU:  Every bit as incredible as you would imagine. They are Asian cinema legends. And what I really loved about working with both Tony and Michelle was just how not ego-driven they were. 

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

You would expect people of that stature to have these massive posses, always disappearing into their trailers but  that just never happened with Tony and Michelle. They were  just always present, always approachable, and  always so kind and generous with their time. 

Whenever the cameras were rolling, it was compelling to share the camera with them.  Tony in particular is every bit as much of a lead of this movie as I am, and I just feel so honoured and humbled. 

O-C: Your parents must be beaming by now.  How many times have they actually seen the movie and when did it sink in that their son is a Marvel movie superhero? 

LIU:  Yesterday, marked the third  time for them, And I've got to say, they've always known that this role is going to be a bit bigger of a deal than any of the other ones I’ve done so far.

But I think what really sealed it for them was seeing a Chinese language poster. It was a full circle moment, to see the poster in their mother tongue. I think it was just such a trip for them. 

O-C: It’s now become an urban legend, but everyone pretty much knows that a few years ago you tweeted out to Marvel that you were available for the role. So I guess the moral of the story is just tweet stuff out because you never know who is going to see it and what's going to happen? 

LIU: Yeah. I need  to make it clear that nobody ever read that tweet. But I will say that there is something to be said for giving yourself permission to dream and giving yourself permission to pursue those dreams. 

I feel like many of us have ambitions within us. We all have these curiosities that we never let ourselves pursue. We never let ourselves go down that path because we judge them. We say they're unrealistic, we say, they're dumb and they're stupid. 

But you just have to believe in yourself. I hope that if my story can count for anything, it's as an example that those stories and those dreams are valid, and you do deserve to go for them. Because life is short and you should always make the best of it.