When he calls his parents, hoping they might share his excitement, that they might finally think all their sacrifices were worth it, his father’s reaction to the news, he writes, “sounds like someone’s just told him his dry cleaning would be ready on time”. Liu’s book begins with the call from Marvel to say that he has got the job as Shang-Chi, Marvel’s first Asian superhero. He has just written a memoir, We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story, which is why we have met during a break in his schedule he’s currently filming Barbie, the film based on the doll (which may sound slightly awful but is directed by Greta Gerwig, so should be interesting).
#Shang chi actor stock images movie#
Since then, Liu has become an actor, making his way from work as an extra and taking bit parts to roles on Canadian TV, including the sitcom Kim’s Convenience, to the life-changing lead in the 2021 Marvel superhero movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. “I felt very guilty and very worthless.” But also, he says with a laugh, he woke up the next morning, realised he didn’t have to go to work, “and that made me really happy”.īeing sacked was one of the best things that could have happened to him. His working life had felt like the culmination of his mother and father’s extraordinary drive and determination to leave China for Canada, the relentless hard work they had put in to pay for his private school education and the at times unbearable pressure they had put on him to succeed. The absolute silence as his colleagues, eyes glued to their screens of numbers, pretended not to notice.ĭespite the fact he was in his 20s, he didn’t have the courage to tell his parents, and for a while afterwards kept up the pretence that he still had a job as an accountant. “One of those moments that are seared into your life for ever – we all have them,” he says, remembering walking back to his desk in the open-plan office to collect his things, trailed by someone from HR and security, “like I was some sort of criminal”.
Almost exactly 10 years ago, Simu Liu was called into an office at Deloitte where he worked, and was laid off.
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