#INTERVIEW: SIMU LIU ON “MARVEL’S SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS”

By Mr. Will Wong

We are a day away from perhaps the biggest Blockbuster of Summer 2021. A pandemic requires an extraordinary superhero and he is SHANG-CHI.

We had the pleasure of sitting-in on a junket with the Toronto-raised Chinese-Canadian Actor Simu Liu, known to many in Canada for his role as Jung on Kim’s Convenience. While he deals with familial issues in Marvel’s SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS, let’s just say the stakes are higher and the action is just a bit more… astonishing!

We ask Liu about his headspace right now promoting this Film on a whirlwind tour under exceptional circumstances.

Liu: It’s a lot! I have not slept properly in a really long time. But there’s also the sense that if I’m doing all this and doing all the interviews, and meeting the fans, it means people really care about this Movie and believe in its importance. That’s the battery fuel or recharge that’s keeping me going right now is that this Movie really can and will have an impact.

It’s truly incredible because I’ve fought for representation for the better part of my career and always wished I had a platform or a stage that was really big enough to shout it to the world. With Marvel, we have. It’s the biggest platform there possibly could be. They’re superhero films, global products, transcend cultures and are just so much fun for every body.

I think that’s such an amazing thing to get to show everybody the celebration of our cultures, our value, our language, our customs but we get to show it to the whole world, so for those who are within our community it can be very empowering and for those outside our community it can be an education of sharing.

Tony Leung whom after many years of acclaim in his native Chinese-speaking Asia, just now is wowing fans with his performance here as Shang-Chi’s father. Liu comments on his experience working with Leung.

Liu: I was a big fan of Tony‘s movies from Infernal Affairs to Hero to Chunking Express to In the Mood for Love, the list goes on and on. He is the A-Listers of A-Listers in Cinema and it really was such a privilege working with him.

I think what he taught me was the art of stillness. He’s mastered the art of a single glance in a single expression, that without saying any words can convey a well of emotion, break your heart and shift mountains and tectonic plates of story. It can just move you.

When you watch him, he is just so comfortable in his element and at peace in a way that is so poignant and so meaningful. He’s able to ground himself in a scene and just be so still.

For me, as a newer Actor it was a difficult thing to grasp as I had a lot of anxiety coming into the role and it would manifest in different ways. What he was so good at doing, was pulling me into a more grounded and present place with him. That’s something that I definitely take with me.

Matvel’s SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS is in theatres Friday, September 3, 2021.

(Photo/video credit: Marvel Studios Canada)