Marvel role gives Liu leverage
Marvel star talks superheroes, representation and the end of sitcom Kim's Convenience
It goes without saying that landing the lead in a mega-budgeted Marvel Studios franchise is a life- and career-altering achievement for any actor. But for Canadian Simu Liu, the distinction also has historic overtones. As the star of this summer's anticipated Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Liu is the first Asian actor to headline a Marvel blockbuster.
So Liu, who was born in China and immigrated to Canada at the age of five, sees it as an opportunity that transcends personal career goals and allows him to foster change in the film and TV industry in terms of diversity, representation and cultural understanding.
“The turning point was really Shang-chi and getting asked for the first time: `What do you want to see out there?'” says Liu, in an interview with Postmedia. “I'm very aware it's a privilege where very, very few actors get to. For most actors, especially Canadian actors, it's more about, `What will you hire me on?'
“For many years of my acting career, that was first and foremost. The answer, inevitably, was Hong Kong Desk Cop No. 1 and Paramedic No. 3. Now we're being asked questions like, `What are the three stories out there right now that you wish you could tell?' There's tremendous power and responsibility in that.”
Diversity in front of and behind the camera is a timely issue in the film and television industry these days. It's also one that has been closely linked to Liu after he weighed in on the continuing controversy over the sudden cancellation of Canadian sitcom Kim's Convenience. The producers made the surprise decision to end the series after showrunners Ins Choi, who wrote the play the series was based on, and Kevin White departed.
On June 2, Liu wrote a lengthy Facebook post timed to coincide with Netflix streaming the series' fifth and final season. In it, he voiced frustration about how his character, Jung Kim, was portrayed and how the show's “overwhelmingly white” producers did not allow creative input from its Asian cast.
Liu's Kim's co-star, Jean Yoon, also took to social media a few days later and said the cast banded together after getting a preview of scripts for the fifth season to point out culturally inaccurate and even “overtly racist” elements.
A number of high-profile outlets,
The turning point was really Shang-chi and getting asked for the first time: `What do you want to see out there?'
including Vanity Fair and the BBC, wrote stories about the controversy.
Liu said he was surprised by the attention, but wanted to voice his views on the series and how it ended and the importance of having voices in the decision-making process that are sensitive to the groups and cultures being portrayed. He felt compelled to speak out.
“It's not every day that an actor will get that leverage,” he says “A lot of Canadian actors are so beholden to the system and there is so much gatekeeping that they can't afford to be the loose screw, they can't afford to be the outspoken one.”
Liu's interview with Postmedia came minutes after his online conversation with musician and filmmaker Sook-yin Lee as part of the Banff World Media Festival, which also honoured Liu with its Canadian Award of Distinction this year. Liu talked about his role as one of six ambassadors enlisted by the Canadian industry-boosting organization Made/nous to promote its Seek More campaign, which encourages work by Canadian creators from various backgrounds and cultures. In his video for the campaign, Liu talks about playing Spider-man at children's parties when he was a struggling actor and how he was limited to playing superheroes behind masks because of his Asian heritage.
He landed the role of Shang-chi in 2018, and has been surprised to find that the powerful overseers at Marvel were open to him having the sort of input he craved on Kim's Convenience.
“We have extremely thoughtful producers in Kevin Feige and Jonathan Schwartz and very humble in their understanding of what they don't understand,” he says. “They've been very deferential in those ways, in those cultural cornerstone ways, and really allowed (director Destin Daniel Cretton and writer David Callaham) and, in some ways, myself, to go in there and fill those gaps in understanding and knowledge.”
Liu plans to be proactive when it comes to his future work.
That includes implementing an inclusion rider for projects, which guarantees a certain level of diversity in crews. He is also working with his team at Creative Artists Agency in developing new projects that reflect cultural diversity.
“I have a wonderful team around me and we'll meet every week and we'll talk about the material that really entices us, whether it be an article we read or a book we read,” he says.
“I don't want to name anything, because nothing has been solidified yet,” Liu says, “but there have been a couple of really fantastic works of literature that we have been happy to be able to chase after.”