"LOL!" Shang-Chi's Simu Liu on *those* tweets, audition backflipping and... doughnuts?

[Music] you know doing fight scenes over and over again for hours on end there's nothing like i'm just gonna do it there's nothing uncle good christopher chrome i've just realized something was that the ten rings oh yeah yeah i bet you thought i was talking about these now they represent the ten donuts that i can eat in one sitting for sure all right okay oh i'm wearing away your shanky how the heck did that happen that's a really good question that's a really good question man i know that you don't like to talk about your life but a guy with a freaking machete foreign arm just chopped our butts in half well i was asked to audition for this film like any other of course i knew it was special because it was called untitled marvel project you know i'm no sherlock holmes but i put two and two together you know looked in the mirror and i was like i think i know what that is so that was the first inkling that i had i was it was it was two audition scenes from this movie goodwill hunting which is one of my favorite films um so i put these two scenes on tape i sent them in uh two weeks later got a call to fly to la and meet the director destin daniel crutin worked with him for a little bit and and came out of that feeling like oh my god i feel like i actually have a chance to book this thing and a couple weeks after that i got i got a call to do my final audition in brooklyn i met uh aquafina for the first time since we're doing a chemistry read i should also probably mention that my name's not technically sean what what is it it's shanxi just really kind of off to the races and she was so great and grounding me because i was just a nervous ball of insecurity and anxiety at that point of course i mean how could you not be you've got this one audition that that could change your entire life you know but she was so great she grounded me right away and and we did these scenes and we just just became kind of like these on-screen best friends right away sean and it was just such an easy chemistry and i feel like that played a big role in in the decision-making s.h.a.n.g and uh two days after that um got a call from the big head honcho himself yep two days and then and then best part is you know offered me the role and then he told me four days after that i had to i had to go to comic-con and uh introduce myself in front of thousands of fans yeah wow could you represent maybe a third of the planet at comic-con how about it yeah i don't even thought i didn't even think of that okay off i go and in which interview did you do your backflip black widow superhero post such a puzzle oh yes that would have been the first audition it had been in the tape that i sent i thought it was it would be my introduction to you know the casting director and to the and to the director destin and i thought hey you know what i feel like they should know that i could like be really physical and i thought what what a better way to show that than doing the cheesiest backflip to superhero landing pose of all time and tacky as i was back then i was i was like this is a great idea and it was only until later until after we had all gotten to australia we're preparing to shoot where when destin was kind enough to pull me aside and say you know that that backflip that you did it was so tacky and i was like what you mean you didn't like it like i thought i thought that was what got me the run he was like no no no if anything like he was like i remembered it but like not enough not in a good way um but he was just teasing me about it i mean it was fun uh but but obviously had nothing to do with that with the decision-making process of course i just thought it might have been a bold move of yours to wear the spider-man costume during it i think that was maybe what he's referring to yes i maybe should have you know i i didn't keep the spider-man costume from my from my work days as a superhero spider-man had i done that i probably would have would have put the suit on which would have been even more tacky so um thankfully thankfully it didn't happen oh hi my roommate who's just leaving uh well i have to get dressed first but uh it's nice to meet you and before kim's convenience you've told so many great stories about your your work before then like the um blue stuff in pacific rim how hard would it be for me to buy the blu-ray and and try and find you like how difficult it would be impossible i i literally don't even think i made a single shot if you if you bought an 8k version and you blew it up onto like the side of a building maybe you'd be able to catch like like a weenus yeah like like an elbow i cho you know you're familiar with the you know yeah that's the imdb credit elbow blue elbow and then you've got the stock photo stuff always always a treat oh god yeah that's the gift that keeps on giving isn't it yeah lovely stuff and do you remember the first line that you ever said on camera in nikita yes it was uh excuse me inspector you have a call from headquarters inspector you have a call from headquarters and then and then the inspector says headquarters and then i say uh headquarters beijing headquarters beijing and that's supposed to be like a big deal and uh and then so then the inspector clue your interview relieves the interrogation room and that was the scene thank you thank you very much i was i was asked to put on a a chinese accent um i was asked to do that a lot early on in my career and thankfully not not too much anymore son it's time for you to take your place by my side you better watch out cause it's my time i found some power in this old mine it's not gonna happen you originally an accountant then you chuck that in you are now the star of your own superhero movie an mcu film posters all over the globe you're flying everywhere it's incredible are you finally willing to admit that quitting accountancy might have been a good move thank you for uh for saying that uh yes i did not quit though i was fired i was led into i was led into my managing partner's office and i remember very clearly that whole day i was like wondering this this meeting had popped up in my outlook and i was wondering like what is this meeting about and i went through the whole day being like scratching my head being like i'm pretty sure i've covered all my bait like i don't think i have and then i like walked upstairs and and it was it was the managing partner of the firm and an hr lady sitting behind him and then someone from security standing behind her and i was like cardboard box time it's cardboard box time and i and i got the speech you know they're like we're terminating your employment you have you know uh 10 minutes to gather your things get out of the get out of the building and i remember you know just because because also we had like a very open concept office for some reason so just like walking out in front of like literally the entire office and and like going to the little cubby thing that i worked at and kind of collecting everything putting it in my little box it was dead silent like you could hear a pin drop everyone was like you know they knew what was happening nobody made eye contact with me everybody was just like oh my god you know but please please tell me you've bought tickets and send tickets to that boss to this movie opening night just buy him like 10 and just go thank you thank you for doing that no it's true i should i own i own something definitely i mean i i don't know that i would have had the courage to to quit um so it was it's really good that they did that for me now obviously the tweet thing is brought up all the time i'm not gonna ask you to tell the story again i'm gonna try and summarize it you did a tweet thank you later you did another tweet yes and then once you got the gig you responded to one of the tweets and said lol now that isn't why you got the job kevin feige said i didn't see the tweet you got the job because you're great at your job and that's the story that's the story could everybody stop asking samuel about the tweets that'd be really nice actually thank you are we done we just put a bow on it and it's done now i thought the lull would definitely have put the coffin on it you know the lull is the recognition of the tweet and and coming back full circle and putting the lull stamp on it and in caps if i remember correctly oh yeah lol [Laughter] god i really hope that becomes a me my son you can't run from your past so when you have been interacting with fans you're at the london premiere yesterday and you've done comic cons what sort of reactions are you getting i'm imagining pretty emotional stuff yeah yeah i mean i mean shanxi is a character that i think means a lot to a lot of people and and the funny thing is if you had said that name to me two and a half years ago i would have given you next to no reaction because he was such an obscure character in the marvel universe but you know the fact that he's gotten the mcu treatment and and he is now the the first title asian superhero in the mcu is an incredible thing and means so much to i think so many people who belong to a community that has never seen themselves reflected in that kind of way so it really really is special um i did get the one guy that really didn't read the room and he dressed up as iron fist i knew it i wonder i wonder if he knew what he was doing if he was just a giant troll trying to get a reaction out of me but i made sure to give him uh plenty of we're talking full yellow and green aren't we oh yeah he had the he had like the headpiece and everything i apologize on behalf of him and i don't even know the guy right oh dude no read that read the room guys understand the assignment you change your name from shang to sean yeah i don't i wonder i wonder how your father found you i was 15 years old you've talked before about your relationship your friendship with aquafina it is so fun on screen it's like hi my name is gina i'm gonna go into hiding my new name is gina yeah okay oh yeah you can hear me you get lots of karaoke with her as well do you guys now both know all the lyrics to hotel california we know oh geez oh geez oh we're gonna really have something right you know i can't speak for i'm sure that she i i know the first verse and a half and chorus to hotel california that's what we were that's we were you know that's what we filmed up to um and that's what you know that that's that's where i concerned myself with you know after this film if you're ever in a karaoke joint ever people are just going to swarm that booth they're going to be in there you think so they're going to be singing with you yeah for sure well well good i plan on i love karaoke mission okay you've got a mission you said it's fine yeah yeah ish i always need a jasmine you know i can show you the world and then somebody needs to say i could no heli i will not do it with me i can show you the world shining shimmering splendid [Music] damn it that was a that was a missed connection if you've done backstreet's back everybody back streets back all right i don't think you know i'm not sure if we found the same key but yeah oh i totally i don't think i picked one but that is the spirit of karaoke and in many ways the spirit of our movie is when you really tie it back to the journey of the character of sean i think you know his big lesson is it's okay not to be perfect and to put that pressure on yourself it's really about forging your own path it's about accepting all of the parts of yourself your strengths your weaknesses your weaknesses your weaknesses your many many weaknesses your flaws and your weaknesses and your flaws and your you know yeah your terrible singing which is also another weakness yes not forgetting obviously yes all of my problems it has been an absolute pleasure thank you so much for being so much fun thank you thank you so much and thank you for being so well researched oh stop it that's true all right i'm gonna go do some singing lessons let's call her a wrap look i'm not like if you want to head to karaoke right now yeah grab a donut get a lucky voice yeah definitely oh yeah i almost forgot about this guy i've still got over half thanks for watching if you enjoyed this video don't forget to subscribe and click the bell icon to keep up to date you can listen to my radio on movies and tv podcast screen time on bbc sounds and you can find these interviews in full on bbc iplayer by searching movies with ali plum

Channel: BBC Radio 1

Views: 397,128

Keywords: simu liu, shang chi, shangchi, shang-chi, shung chi, the legend of the ten rings, the legend of the 10 rings, ali plumb, radio 1, radio one, bbc, iplayer, movies with ali plumb, simu liu interview, ali plumb interview, marvel, mcu, marvel cinematic universe, marvel studios, awkwafina, kevin feige, iron fist, tweets, twitter, pacific rim, karaoke, tony leung, Destin Daniel Cretton

Id: qZoY3jHgUug

Length: 13min 21sec (801 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 03 2021