- [Josh] Have you allowed yourself to think, like,
what this movie would have meant to a young Simu Liu,
to watch a character like Shang-Chi on the big screen?
I mean, this would have blown your mind,
as a kid, I'm sure.
- I mean, definitely, it would have probably
been my favorite superhero.
I mean, I even remember, like, every iteration
of the 'Power Rangers' that I watched,
religiously, by the way,
that if there happened to be an Asian Power Ranger,
I would be fixated on that character
because they just struck me as a reflection of myself.
I hope that Shang-Chi will be that for so many people
who had never seen themselves reflected in that way.
But beyond that, I think there is value
in sharing our culture and just to being a bridge
in sharing stories is part of the reason
why I loved 'Black Panther' so much,
why I loved 'Spider-Verse' so much.
I felt like I was sharing in other people's culture.
And even if I didn't grow up in that environment,
or if I couldn't relate personally
in the beginning of the movie,
I certainly felt that by the end,
that I had been taken on a journey
and I came to a greater degree of understanding.
- [Josh] Simu, congratulations man. This is a real pleasure.
I've been looking forward to chatting with you for a while.
This movie so delivers. You totally nail it, man.
Let's go back to how this one, kind of, sort of, begins
'cause it's got an interesting journey behind it.
Back in December of 2018, you tweet the following:
"OK Marvel, are we gonna talk or what, #ShangChi."
So, give me a sense, where were you at then?
Did it help the cause?
Is it just one of those funny stories or what?
- I think Steve Jobs said it best, you know,
you can connect the dots going backward,
but at the time, you just have no clue.
I mean, I had something like 500 followers,
maybe less at the time,
and I think two people were like,
undefined
[Laughs]
There wasn't any inclination in my mind
that I would actually have a shot.
And I honestly didn't even remember that I tweeted it
until after I was announced at Comic-Con
and then some people were like,
"Hey, you realize that you predicted this, right?"
- What they don't know is you were tweeting about
every potential role in every franchise.
So, this one just happened to be true.
- I know. It's like Nostradamus,
like, you don't know all the stuff that he was wrong about.
He just got lucky on a bunch of stuff.
- Well, you did get this one right,
and then flash forward to the following summer
at Comic-Con, you come on out.
There's a great photo that you put on Instagram that summer
where it looks like you're, like, long-time best buds
with Benedict Cumberbatch and, like, a cavalcade of stars.
Give me a sense of what it was like
to be with the Marvel all-stars.
Did you feel at one with all of them?
- Let me tell you what I wore that day Josh, all right?
I had a top that was maybe $19.99, all right, Canadian.
So, with the exchange rate is probably, like,
three dollars. - Fifteen bucks. Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, yeah, if that.
And then skinny jeans. Let's say maximum, $39.99.
And you know, just, like, an old, worn pair of Chucks.
So, that's what I was rockin'.
I had not shot a single second of a Marvel movie
and I was asked to be onstage next to, like,
Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan,
Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman,
Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, like, everybody was there,
and what's so hilarious about that photo is that
I was ushered onstage at the very end to take a photo.
And I just kinda blindly, they were like, "Oh, go this way,"
and I was ushered to the right side of the stage.
Most of the people were on the left.
- Right. - And I kinda just show up
and I'm like, what is going on?
And I feel this hand reaching around me, and I turn around
and I'm like, "No, it is Benedict Cumberbatch."
And he's like, "Hi, I'm Ben," and he's so nice.
And then we literally look at the photographer
and they're like right in front of us.
And so, if you look at the photo onstage,
it's like, the largest thing in the photo
is Benedict Cumberbatch's hand.
- Right. - He's holding it up
and it takes up like 50% of the frame
and then it's him, and then he's got his hand around me
and then it's, like, everybody else
is in this tiny little corner of the picture.
It's really just Benny and me.
- Yeah. - And the expression
on my face is exactly like, just not cool at all.
But I was like - [Laughs]
Like, just realizing that the person next to me
was Benedict Cumberbatch.
I mean, it was a very, very authentic moment.
But, if you ask if I had felt at home at all,
I mean, absolutely not.
You talk about experiencing imposter syndrome,
and I know that we all experience it to some degree,
but imagine being on that stage at that point
where it was like, you know, I hadn't done anything.
I'm just happy that we have a movie now, for sure.
Yeah. - You have a great movie.
And as you well know, being the first
Asian Marvel superhero, it's a privilege and a burden,
I would imagine. Give me a sense of sort of,
are you feeling both of those emotions
as you release this movie?
- Any burden that I might feel on any given day,
I think is offset by the fact that I got this role
and I built my career on projects
that really spoke to the Asian experience,
whether it was Asian American or Asian Canadian,
where I grew up basically.
I was on a show called 'Kim's Convenience'
for a number of seasons,
and that also featured a predominantly Asian cast
and dealt with our lived experiences
and was so incredible for that.
I'm very aware of what I owe my career to.
And so, anytime I think, I feel like
there's any sort of burden, I think back
to being on 'Kim's Convenience'
and just feeling so fortunate
that somebody out there wrote that story,
and that somebody out there opened the gate for me.
I think it's all I can do
to want to do the same and to pass that kindness forward.
- Yeah, I'm curious, speaking of opening gates
and, kind of, making headway, you think of Chadwick Boseman
who obviously had a similar kind of experience,
I would imagine on 'Black Panther.'
Did your paths ever cross before we lost Chadwick?
Or did you ever get a chance to talk to him about it?
- Unfortunately not.
I remember the day that we all found out about his passing
and it was so shocking and we had to go
and we had to shoot our movie the next day.
And I just knew that I had to say something to honor him.
I've said this a number of times before,
but our movie would not exist if it weren't for him
and what he put into the character of 'Black Panther.'
He was just such an incredible advocate and so poised
in every single interaction. I look up to him.
I shy away from any sort of comparison to him
because I quite honestly don't think anybody
could live up to that memory,
but I acknowledge the legacy that he left behind
and I hope that I can in some way continue it,
and be one of the people that continues it.
But we, kind of, did a moment of silence on set for him.
And I said a few words about how just deeply I felt
his loss and especially being in this unique position
of being his peer and his contemporary in a lot of ways,
just feeling how incredibly much
that everybody at Marvel missed him.
- One of the best things I can say about this movie is,
after the two-plus hours, it just leaves you wanting more.
You're like, "Just give me more, I'm ready,
"like, why do I have to wait years more for more Shang-Chi?"
And certainly this is his story,
but it's tees up, obviously, interactions in the future
with other Marvel heroes and maybe some even pop up
by the end credits, who knows, no spoilers,
but who are you excited to see your character interact with
in the future?
You must have daydreamed about what kind of fun interactions
Shang-Chi will have with other Avengers.
- I daydream all the time about so many things.
And the thing is, I do not possess
the level of security clearance to know what any of them
may or may not be in the future.
So, imagine my fingerprint being scanned in,
in that, like, big bunker and then being like,
undefined
[Laughs]
- But you're a writer yourself.
What would you write for your own character,
if you had the - - Oh my god, I would write me
kicking the crap out of everyone.
No. [Laughs]
In a friendly match, of course.
No, I think it was my dream,
before I was cast in this role, to be in the MCU.
That was my dream, and one of the things
that I loved about the MCU was how much
and how seamlessly the characters, kind of, wove in and out
of each other's stories and teamed up.
So, of course, of course, that's something that
I want for me.
I love a good team-up, I love a good team-up
and if I should be so lucky
to be with any of them, I would certainly, certainly
be up for it.
Just as long as we have a nice little friendly fight
and Shang-Chi wins.
- [Laughs] Of course, yeah, yeah.
I know you grew up idolizing, among others
and like many, the great Jackie Chan.
There's a 'Rumble in the Bronx' poster, I noticed, in this.
In some of the fight sequences,
are there little homages or moments or ways
to honor an icon like that?
And do you have any hope that he sees this film
and what would you want to hear from your idol
about this movie?
- I mean, anything that he would have to say
would be such an incredible honor for me to hear.
It would just be validation at the highest level.
I absolutely grew up, kind of, idolizing Jackie.
And as I got to know his approach
to action choreography more, I think I just admired
his craft progressively more.
One of the amazing things about our movie
and the stunt team that worked on it
is so many of them actually came from the JC Stunt Team.
And so, that influence was, kind of, evident from day one.
And whether we did it consciously or not,
the DNA is there, and I think you can really, really see it
in our bus sequence.
I think there's lots of little moments in there
that pay homage to the Jackie Chan movies of yore.
- Where did the jacket move come from?
Was that in the script?
The little, kind of, like, pull down the jacket
at the end of the fight?
- I think that was a character thing.
I don't wanna take credit for it,
I don't wanna pat myself on the back.
Maybe it was something that Destin and I
came up with together, but I think it was just,
I think I was just trying to straighten out
the jacket a little bit.
- Sometimes you just wanna look good after a fight.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- What's the next dream to manifest?
I mean, you've achieved a big one here on out,
but one of the things I love about you
and watching you in interviews and stuff
is like, you're like me, you're like us.
I know you love, like, 'Star Wars' and genre stuff.
Like, you grew up with all of it.
How do you dream bigger than being a Marvel superhero
at this point?
- That's a really good question,
and what you just mentioned, going to space,
going to exciting different worlds.
I think each of them would be a dream come true
in and of themselves.
I wanna say the one thing I wanna manifest,
I think for my career in the future
is that I continue to, kind of, take on these roles,
that challenge people's perception of Asian people,
of Asian Americans, of Asian Canadians.
Part of what we do so successfully with this movie
is we take something that could be seen as tropey,
like martial arts and kung fu,
and I think we really reclaim the space and we empower it.
And we surround that with incredible characters
that are three-dimensional and that are nuanced,
and that really, kind of, grab us and are compelling
more so than just the action,
which, of course, is front and center in this movie.
But I think that would be really great for me
if I just continue to just challenge the status quo
and to break new ground.