'Last Breath' tells the terrifying story of a deep-sea diver trapped underwater

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Our guest today is actor Simu Liu. He's best known for his breakout role as Shang-Chi, Marvel's first Asian superhero in the film "Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings." Now he stars with Woody Harrelson in the new film "Last Breath." He spoke with FRESH AIR's Ann Marie Baldonado.

ANN MARIE BALDONADO, BYLINE: Actor Simu Liu has taken on some roles that are pretty physically challenging. He does killer fight sequences in the film "Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings," and who can forget him dancing as one of the Kens in the movie "Barbie"? His latest film may be even more extreme. The action thriller "Last Breath" is based on the true story of deep sea divers in peril at the bottom of the North Sea. In 2012, three divers were embarking on a routine dive when rough weather and computer errors caused one diver's umbilical cable to get stuck, leaving him trapped.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LAST BREATH")

FINN COLE: (As Chris Lemons) What happens now?

SIMU LIU: (As David Yuasa) Your umbilical, it's going to snap. You'll get pulled off the structure. Now, I will come back for you, but you have to do something for me, OK? You have to get yourself back to the top of the manifold. I can't rescue you if I can't find you. Understand?

BALDONADO: That Simu Liu with Finn Cole as the diver who's stuck with only minutes of reserve oxygen left. Simu Liu's character with another diver, played by Woody Harrelson, desperately try to bring the trapped diver back to safety. Simu Liu's first big break was in the CBC Netflix comedy "Kim's Convenience," which ran for five seasons. He says being fired from his accounting job is what helped him take the leap into acting. His bestselling memoir, "We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story," explores his family's immigration to Canada, his struggles growing up with immigrant parents, the challenges of breaking into the industry and of being an Asian Canadian in Hollywood. Simu Liu, welcome to FRESH AIR.

LIU: Thank you so much for having me.

BALDONADO: This new movie "Last Breath" is about saturation divers. Can you explain what saturation divers do?

(LAUGHTER)

LIU: It's a very blue-collar job. It's very dangerous. It's workers that work on the bottom of the sea, on the bottom of the ocean performing, you know, kind of routine maintenance and repair on pipelines, on, you know, underwater structures. It's typically extremely dark. There's not a lot of visibility. And the living conditions of these saturation divers is just so - it's unlike anything, I think, that is really out there in the world, except for maybe like an astronaut living in space.

So in order for those divers to be able to operate that far beneath sea level, you know, because of the differential in atmospheric pressure, they actually have to live in a pressurized kind of tube onboard a ship for 28 days. And during that time, typically, it's three divers that go in to sat together in one chamber. But they're living kind of on top of each other. The chamber is very, very small. You know, you're typically going to the bathroom, like, less than three feet away from where you're sleeping. And...

BALDONADO: For a month?

LIU: For a month straight, yeah, with the same, you know, two other guys. And when it's time to go to work, you all go into this, like, little sphere, this bell structure, but it's lowered down to depth, at which point the divers then come out. They're hooked up to the bell, and then, you know, to the surface of the ship, through an umbilical that feeds them all of their gas and their heat and their power. And then they will conduct these operations on the bottom of the sea for eight-hour shifts at a time. So it's, like, a really - there's nothing glamorous about this job. And yet, you know, there were many sat divers that were available to us over the course of shooting this movie, and some of them were the actual characters that we played in the movie. But the one thing that we found in common with all of them is just how much they loved it, which was very confusing to us.

BALDONADO: Well, right, saturation diving is one of the most dangerous jobs out there. These divers go down to the bottom of the ocean. They repair oil rigs and gas pipes, and it's to provide the infrastructure of the way people live their lives. And your character, David Yuasa, is based on a real diver. Just like you said, it's based on a real diver who made this rescue. You talked to him. It occurs to me it might be the first time you're playing a real living person. What was that like? What did you learn from him?

LIU: To have someone have done something as extraordinary as Dave did - and he doesn't care for any of the accolades. He doesn't care for any of the recognition when, you know, he's like the closest thing to a real superhero that there is. He threw himself into the bottom of the sea to rescue his coworker who had been trapped there. So he, you know, wound up finding an unconscious Chris Lemons on the bottom of the North Sea, clipped Chris onto him, and then climbed his umbilical back up to the bell, which is about, you know, it's - it was, like, more than 50 foot climb, you know, in the swell, in the, you know, in the sea, which was very turbulent at the time, and successfully recovered him and then, you know, revived him. Like, that's incredible. That's a miracle.

BALDONADO: Yeah, he was essentially doing, like, that - what people do in gym class, like, climbing the rope. And, you know, he has his coworker whose life he's trying to save, and it's just, like, the most high-stakes rope climb you could ever imagine.

LIU: Yeah, that's right. And sat equipment, you know, it's not light. You know, you've got, like, a 50-pound helmet - right? - that you have to - that you're wearing, and then you've got your bailout oxygen, which is at least another, you know, 30 pounds. And then you've got weights in your shoes because, you know, of course, they're not fins. You're not, like, recreationally diving. You have to have - you know, be boots on the ground and - to be able to conduct your work. So, yeah, just - it's a lot of weight.

BALDONADO: What was this shoot like? Were you shooting in extreme conditions? Because you play one of these divers, who's at the bottom of the North Sea. As you describe, you know, you're in this little tin can kind of isolated - even when there isn't a crisis, it's this isolated environment. Did you shoot that way?

LIU: It was pretty evident, you know, reading the script the first time that it wasn't going to be a cakewalk. You know, we knew that we were going to have to do a significant portion of this film underwater and/or in these really, really tight spaces. It was, like, three, four weeks of kind of diving every day, pretty much starting from square one, learning kind of not only the basics of scuba, and then getting quite proficient at that, but then also, at some point, unlearning a lot of the recreational scuba diving kind of mantras and philosophies and then relearning them in a sat capacity because, again, the equipment is very different. What you're trying to do is very different.

And then, you know, we had an incredible dive team around us that supported us and really kind of made us feel safe every day. That being said, we had a tank in Malta that was about 40 feet deep, and for - you know, every night, you know, we'd go down into the water, and we'd communicate ahead of time exactly the shots that we wanted to get. And in a way, you know, obviously challenging, but in a way, it was really nice to be able to immerse ourselves to that degree, especially in a world where I feel like in this industry there's - it's become increasingly easy to lie to the audience. You know, you've got green screen, you've got VFX. You've now got AI, you know, making it very easy for actors to not really have to do anything or to exist in very comfortable situations. And I think in that environment, it was really nice for us to actually go out and do it.

BALDONADO: Let's take a short break here, and then we'll talk some more. My guest is actor and writer Simu Liu. He stars in the Marvel movie "Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings," the film "Barbie," and the TV show "Kim's Convenience." His memoir is called "We Were Dreamers," and his new film is called "Last Breath." More after a break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF PAUL LEONARD-MORGAN'S "THEY WANT ME")

BALDONADO: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Ann Marie Baldonado, back with our guest, Simu Liu. He stars in the new film "Last Breath." His other films include "Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings," "Barbie," and he's the author of the memoir "We Were Dreamers."

I want to ask about the movie "Barbie." And I was kind of shocked when I realized that it's only been a year since you performed the song "I'm Just Ken" with Ryan Gosling...

LIU: (Laughter).

BALDONADO: ...And the other Kens at the Oscar ceremony. That was just a year ago (laughter). And I just want to remind people to go back and watch it if they want to experience joy.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDONADO: But what is it like performing the song for the Oscar audience? You guys were so committed, too.

LIU: Oh, man. Yeah, I mean, it's - look, it's a number and a character that begs, you know, 100% commitment and not a drop less. It was - I mean, obviously, it'll go with me for the rest of my life as one of my core memories, and I'll never forget that feeling. It was, I will say, a bit of a cluster in the lead-up to the performance. You know, for myself and, you know, Ncuti Gatwa and Kingsley Ben-Adir and Scott Evans, who are kind of the...

BALDONADO: They're the main Kens...

LIU: Yeah, yeah. I would - the...

BALDONADO: ...Behind Ryan Gosling.

LIU: I would say the main Kens behind - yes, the main backup Kens. We were kind of brought on relatively late in the process. And our first rehearsal was the Thursday before - so the Oscars are on Sunday. So our first rehearsal was the Thursday before. And then we show up to the Dolby Center on Friday to do kind of, like, a blocking rehearsal. And we realized that the choreography has completely changed, and we're like, OK, all right, this is completely different. We've relearned the entire thing now. But if - as long as nothing changes, we should be OK.

So then, of course, we show up Saturday for the dress rehearsal. And the choreography has completely changed again (laughter). That was supposed to be the last time that we did it before the show, and we do it. And I don't know if I'm blowing up any of my co-workers or anything, but, you know, there's 75 Kens onstage, and they're all moving around. And I remember, like, the rehearsal was - like, it didn't go poorly so much as it just didn't go. So we kind of get back into the dressing room, and everyone's kind of feeling like, OK, what's going to happen here? And then one of the stagehands kind of comes in and is like, yeah, so you're going to need to come in again early morning on the Sunday - so...

BALDONADO: The day of.

LIU: ...The day of the Oscars - and do, like, one last rehearsal because we're not ready. So we all met at the hotel connected to the Dolby Center in - like, the early morning, Sunday, and we ran through it one last time. And it was in that last run-through that we finally stuck it. And then, you know, I had something like seven minutes to get ready for the red carpet, but it didn't even matter at that point. I was just, like, the entire time thinking about the choreography and thinking about just, like, not messing up on - not only on live television, but also, like, in front of Chris Nolan and Downey and Cillian Murphy and, you know, Greta and Margot, you know? Just, like, the amount of - you think about the audience and who was sitting there and the amount of pressure that was. But, no, thankfully, it went really well. And Ryan - I mean, just such a credit to him - delivered one of the all-time greatest performances, I think, the Oscars will - has ever seen and ever will see.

BALDONADO: I want to play a scene from "Barbie." It's near the beginning of the movie. The main Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, has just tried to, quote-unquote, "beach." He was trying to run towards the water, and he ends up hitting the plastic wave, and he gets knocked down. And you play his No. 1 op Ken - like, his nemesis Ken - and you're laughing at him. And the other Ken in this scene is Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Margot Robbie as Barbie is also here, too. Let's hear it.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BARBIE")

LIU: (As Rival Ken) Oh, it looks like this beach was a little too much beach for you, Ken.

RYAN GOSLING: (As Beach Ken) If I wasn't severely injured, I would beach you off right now, Ken.

LIU: (As Rival Ken) I'll beach off with you any day, Ken.

GOSLING: (As Beach Ken) Hold my ice cream, Ken. All right, Ken. You're on.

KINGSLEY BEN-ADIR: (As Basketball Ken) Anyone who wants to beach him off has to beach me off first.

LIU: (As Rival Ken) I will beach both of you off at the same time.

GOSLING: (As Beach Ken) How are you going to beach both of us off? It doesn't make sense.

MARGOT ROBBIE: (As Barbie) OK. Kens.

LIU: (As Rival Ken) Why are you so emotional?

GOSLING: (As Beach Ken) You're going to beach yourself off. You're going to beach both of us off?

ROBBIE: (As Barbie) Nobody's going to beach anyone off, OK?

LIU: (As Rival Ken) Let's go.

BALDONADO: That's Simu Liu...

LIU: (Laughter).

BALDONADO: ...In the 2023 film "Barbie." How did you come to be part of this film?

LIU: I did a tape. I met up with Greta, and we - I kind of talked a little bit about my, like, dance background 'cause Greta has kind of an obsession with dance and, you know, musical theater and really just, like, spectacle and production, especially as it pertains to men doing it. And I think it was something that she really wanted in the movie was, you know, Kens that kind of were - always felt like they were performing to an audience that weren't there. And, you know, I told her about some of my dance background. I was, like, on my university hip-hop competitive dance team or something, and she seemed to really love that.

And, you know, in our first few rehearsals, I think Greta came up to me and was like, I think you are going to be, like, Ryan's main Rival Ken. And I was like, that's insane. And she's like, yeah, you're going to ride into battle against him on a beach of pink sand, and you're going to fight using lacrosse sticks and, you know, pool floaties (ph) and things. And I was like, what is this movie, Greta Gerwig?

BALDONADO: Yeah, you do show off your dance moves. And as you mentioned, you did a lot of dance when you were at university. Can you talk about what your dance troop was like?

LIU: Yeah, so, I - you know, freshman year of college. A lot of people are worrying about their studies or their partying or whatever. And for me, I was, like, meeting up three times a week with the hip-hop Western dance team and, you know, doing choreo. And that was - like, that was my No. 1 passion at the time. I wanted to be a professional dancer. And, yeah, we had - you know, we had competitions that we would prep for.

BALDONADO: Like, competing against other university teams?

LIU: Competing against other universities. And it was - you know, I got to paint a picture, right? It was the heyday of, like, dance competitions. This was, like, 2008, 2009, so, you know, "So You Think You Can Dance," "America's Best Dance Crew," hosted by Mario Lopez. Like, you know (laughter)...

BALDONADO: The Jabbawockeez (laughter).

LIU: The Jabbawockeez, exactly - thank you for understanding that reference - were everywhere. And so we were, you know, basically just watching the videos every single day, stealing all the moves, trying to add our own spin to it and popping and locking and, you know, using everything that we had in our tool set, which wasn't much. But just we just loved it so much. And I think it was where I kind of found my love of performing, especially, you know, I think, growing up, you know, I went to a very academically inclined high school and really, you know, had to navigate my parents' expectations for most of my childhood. And they were definitely pushing me to be - you know, they were both electrical engineers, definitely wanted me to follow in their footsteps, and if not that, then definitely, you know, medicine, STEM. Didn't want any of that for myself. You know, I wanted to kind of, I guess, be out there and be seen and dance to the music and to the beat.

BALDONADO: You were born in Harbin, China, and you were raised there by your grandparents while your parents were trying to start a life in Canada. What do you remember about that time, those early years?

LIU: You know, I remember flashes and feelings. But I do remember we had this tiny, little ramshackle apartment in Harbin. You know, there wasn't running water for many parts of the day. The water wasn't drinkable, so we had to boil everything that we drank. And there was no hot water. So any time, you know, anyone had to take a bath, it was always kind of a bit of a thing. Although, for me, I had no reference point. I just thought that that was how, you know, people lived. But I also, more than all of that, I remember this overwhelming sense of safety and belonging, you know, with my grandparents, my yeye and my nainai. I was very, very close with them. You know, they were my parents, for all intents and purposes.

And they had always tried to tell me that I had a mom and a dad that were, you know, abroad and that one day I would join them. But I don't think these words necessarily mean anything to, like, a 3 or a 4-year-old. It was very difficult for me to grasp that. And when my dad did show up one day - I was about 4 1/2 - to, you know, bring me back to Canada with him, it was very uncomfortable for me and a lot for me to accept because, you know, I had my family. And I loved my grandparents more than anything. And my dad at that point was a stranger. I very, very vividly remember watching him step through the door for the first time. And you know when you're a kid and all these adults are looking at you like you're supposed to be reacting a certain way? I very clearly remember my grandparents looking at me and saying, this is your dad, like, go to him. And I just remember being like, I don't want to.

BALDONADO: Yes, you're picked up by your dad when you're almost 5, and you moved to live with your parents in Canada. What do you remember about those early years, living with your parents who you didn't really know and trying to, like, acclimate yourself to this new country?

LIU: There's a couple of funny things. I remember not understanding English. Like, I remember being brought to day care my very first day and just crying my eyes out the entire time because nobody was - I couldn't understand anybody. And I remember that's what it was for the longest time. And I know I was learning English through flash cards, and my parents were trying to teach me. And then one day it just kind of clicked. And I'm sure that's not how it actually happened, right? Like, we remember things very differently as children. But it honestly felt to me like one day, I woke up and, like, my brain had switched between thinking in Mandarin and thinking in English. And I remember my parents were very confused because I think one day I just stopped speaking Chinese to them.

But, you know, once I made the switch, you know, I really kind of embraced it. And I remember those early years just that we were very, very poor. You know, my parents were living off of scholarship money until they graduated. My parents were doing their postgraduate studies. And once they were able to get jobs, you know, our living conditions slowly started to improve. But for the longest time, like, this was a very unglamorous foray into Canada. You know, a lot of our furniture was kind of picked up off the street. Yeah, I don't know. When I look back, it really gives me, I think, a unique perspective because I do feel like I've lived pretty much every single rung of the socioeconomic ladder. And I know what it feels like not to have running water, (laughter) you know? And then I know what it feels like, you know, to live in a place as wonderful as Canada but, you know, starting off at the very bottom as well.

BALDONADO: Our guest is actor Simu Liu. His films include "Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings," "Barbie" and the new film "Last Breath." More after a break. I'm Ann Marie Baldonado, and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONTY ALEXANDER'S "SIMMER DOWN")

BALDONADO: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Ann Marie Baldonado, back with actor Simu Liu. He stars in the new film "Last Breath" about the real-life rescue of a deep sea diver. His first big break was starring in the CBC-Netflix sitcom "Kim's Convenience." He starred as the first Asian Marvel superhero in the film "Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings," and he played one of the Kens in the movie "Barbie." He's also author of the bestselling book "We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story." When we left off, we were talking about Liu's immigration from China to Canada. He was born in China, where he lived with his grandparents. He moved when he was five to live with his parents in Canada, where they were students.

In your memoir, you write about how difficult it was for you growing up as a teenager with your parents and their unrealistic expectations for you. What was so hard about your relationship back then in your teens?

LIU: Yeah, I think when you have parents who weren't necessarily present in your formative years, in the first five years of life, like, that's when a lot of your personality is solidified, you know? And when you don't have that bond, there's bound to be a little bit of distance. And, you know, I was effectively adopted by my own biological parents, right? You know, on the other side of that, for my parents and to their defense, like, they also weren't necessarily in the rhythm of child care. It's a never-ending job in and of itself. And so I think to have, one day, no kid, and then overnight have a 5-year-old just dropped into your life I think is a pretty violent change. And so, yeah, I mean, I think, growing up, there was definitely, you know, some tougher times for us to get along. And it really came to a head when I was a teenager, when I went through puberty.

I think I was actually pretty good in the beginning of being the perfect kind of immigrant kid and getting good grades. But then I got older and hormones happened. And of course, every kid, you know, starts to get to a place where they're questioning their parents. And for me, you know, I knew that I was being pushed in a certain way. And I really - like, I wanted to do sports. And I wanted to, you know, have a girlfriend and do all these normal people things that my parents, you know, being from a different generation, a different culture, were like, why are you concerned about these things? You should be focused on your studies. And it really just came down to just very, very different values.

BALDONADO: Your memoir is this beautiful, I think, way to try to reconcile what a lot of Asian American and Asian Canadian children of immigrants go through, that tension between knowing that your immigrant parents gave up so much for you, but they put all this pressure on you to succeed in a way that they understand.

LIU: Yeah.

BALDONADO: And it's not open to other ways of life. And I feel like you telling the story of your grandparents and your parents and your own story, trying to understand what they went through, it was like you were trying to repair, like, the hurt across generations - the way you do that by explaining their lives and their hardships and, like, what they came, you know, to parenting with as their background. Can you quickly describe what their teen years were like? Because it's this contrast to your teen years, obviously.

LIU: Yeah, for sure. You know, my parents grew up in the midst of the cultural revolution in China, which, you know, between 1966 and 1976 was, you know, a very tumultuous time for a lot of the people living in China. It was very hard for a lot of reasons, but one of the things about the cultural revolution was that college studies all across the country were kind of shuttered. So instead of going to college, you would kind of go to work in the fields. That was a way to, like, teach Chinese youths about proletariat life. And so, yeah, my mom is a couple of years older than my dad, which I know if she hears this, she will kill me.

But she had graduated high school and was fully working in the fields. And my dad was kind of just on the verge of graduating when, actually, Mao Tse-tung died. And his successor kind of reinstated the college pipeline and the national entrance exam. And so because of that, you know, my mom was able to go to college. You know, she was studying for the standard test, called the gaokao. But she was studying for that every day after working, you know, 12 hours in the field. And my dad was lucky enough kind of to go straight from high school to college, to university. And that was where they met. And, you know, from there, you know, they fell in love. They got married, started to live in Beijing together and became very enamored and very fixated on this idea of studying abroad. And then the rest is history.

BALDONADO: For them it was, like, literally the education that saved them.

LIU: Yeah. And also, you know, when you're immigrants coming to an entirely new country and, you know, there's culture shock and there's a new language, there's also a complete lack of support network. There's no safety net to fall back on, you know? And so I think there's quite a bit of fear and anxiety that immigrants experience every day that everything they have, if they're not able to make money and put a roof over their heads and their family's heads, like, that's it. You're out on the street or you're going back home, you're packing your bags. There is no friend that you can call. There's no parents. It's a very stressful existence every day, especially when you have a son like me, who growing up is, like, trying to try out for the basketball team and doing hip-hop dancing. And you're like, no, please, be an engineer.

BALDONADO: Now, even though you loved performing in high school and college, whether it was starting a high school boy band or performing in front of other students, you still went through school and university and got a business degree and graduated and became an accountant. But your accounting career was short-lived. Can you talk about what happened there? Your acting origin story?

LIU: My acting origin story. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think as rebellious as I was, even I couldn't, like, fully disabuse myself from my parents' notion of success. Like, you know, I'd been working as an accountant, just completely and utterly miserable. I start going on Craigslist because for whatever reason, I had some friends who knew some people just tangentially related to, like, film and television. And there was a fair amount of stuff that shot in Toronto. I had friends from the parkour community that were stuntmen, people that I knew that were kind of extras on TV and movie sets. And I just remember being so jealous of them. And I started going on Craigslist to look for these acting opportunities, just, you know, initially for fun. I really had no endgame in mind. But I wound up skipping work one day to be an extra on a Guillermo del Toro movie that was shooting in Toronto, and it was called "Pacific Rim."

BALDONADO: That's pretty high-level, too. High-level.

LIU: Yeah. Yeah.

BALDONADO: (Laughter) I mean...

LIU: A pretty amazing first set to be on, and I, you know, turned my phone off all day. And when I turned my phone back on, I had something like 47 missed calls. And I was like, oh, I'm in trouble. I got fired very, very shortly after that, which, you know, honestly - understandable. But, yeah, that was the end of my very short-lived career as an accountant. But I was very lucky to kind of book a couple of things very quickly. And then I caught the bug, and I thought, look, if I could just keep doing that, you know, wouldn't that be a pretty incredible thing?

I was waking up every day really motivated to go out and look for work. And I was just kind of experiencing this entirely new version of myself because my whole life, I thought that I was just a lazy, under-motivated guy. I thought that I wasn't smart, and I thought that I wasn't a great student because I wasn't a hard worker. And, you know, all of a sudden, I was kind of pleasantly surprised by how motivated and hardworking I could be. And I just knew that there was something to that - that I had to keep going and obviously kept it from my parents for a very long time but, in secret, started to, you know, audition. And I got an agent in Toronto and, yeah, was off to the races.

BALDONADO: What was it like breaking into acting and performing having no past experience, no training, no family in the business? What kind of jobs did you get?

LIU: Yeah, thank you for saying that. I really had no idea what I was doing. And it was very much a trial by fire, like, make every mistake in the book. And I guess where I was lucky, too, was - it was around a time where I think these kind of very preliminary conversations about diversity were starting to happen. So I was an Asian actor in Toronto, Canada, so it was already a small market. I was thrown into my first few auditions right away, and my first role was Desk Cop No. 1 for this show called "Nikita," and I had to speak with a Chinese accent. And in doing those kind of day player roles, I remember; I did every accent in the book. I played a Japanese air traffic controller for the show called "Mayday." And then it became very obvious to me that I needed to kind of deepen my skill set if I wanted to progress, right?

You know, I took, like, Second City acting classes and improv. I took every single night acting class that was available to me in Toronto. Basically, any money that I made on the job, I put back into the business and then somehow wound up in a situation in 2016, where I - a sitcom called "Kim's Convenience came" along, and I just happened to, you know, be in the right place at the right time.

BALDONADO: Let's take a short break here, and then we'll talk some more. My guest is actor and writer Simu Liu. His films include "Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings" and "Barbie." His new film is called "Last Breath." More after a break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONTEFIORI COCKTAIL SONG, "GNE GNE")

BALDONADO: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Ann Marie Baldonado back with our guest, Simu Liu. His first big role was in the TV comedy "Kim's Convenience." His films include "Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings," "Barbie," and his new film "Last Breath." His memoir is called "We Were Dreamers."

You've talked about this before, but I want to ask you about being hired to do stock photos. So, you know, if someone needs a photo of a diverse workplace or people working in an office at all, they could find a photo of you. What was - was that a good job for you at the time, and why are those photos still out there?

LIU: Yeah, I wouldn't say it was a good job. I would say it was a job. I just kind of was doing everything that I could to pursue my dream and to fuel my passion. So one of those things was to be a stock photo model. And I'm sure I didn't realize the full consequences of my actions at the time...

BALDONADO: ...(Laughter) of your hundred bucks.

LIU: ...Of my hundred bucks, but I remember it paid a hundred bucks for a day of work. And I show up, and I've got all these different changes. I've - I actually showed up with all of my work outfits. So, these were outfits that I actually wore to my job at Deloitte that, obviously, I wasn't wearing anymore 'cause I wasn't an accountant. But, you know, I was like, oh, I think I could accurately portray this, like, office environment, having lived it for a short time.

So I showed up with all my work outfits. We did all these different poses and - in the boardroom. I put on a suit. I pointed at computers and smiled at people, and then I thought that would be it. Little did I know the photos would actually do really well. And I've seen myself on billboards. I've seen myself on corporate, you know, websites, and I've seen myself on...

BALDONADO: Accounting books.

LIU: ...The cover of accounting textbooks. And so when you're a stock photo model, you basically sign away your rights to the images in perpetuity, and the stock photo company can basically take those images and just sell them over and over and over and over again. So, you know, I probably made that company, like, hundreds of thousands of dollars and have not seen a single penny because, again, when you're a stock photo model - I think it's actually pretty exploitative.

BALDONADO: Right.

LIU: But, you know, you get paid your hundred bucks, and then that's it. You sign a waiver and then - you know, that you relinquish any and all rights to those images. So let that be a warning to anybody who's considering pursuing a career in stock imagery. Be warned, you know?

BALDONADO: Watch out.

LIU: You will end up in random places, and your friends will make fun of you endlessly for it.

BALDONADO: I want to ask you about "Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings," and Shang-Chi is the first Asian character to be a lead in the Marvel universe. The film was released in 2021. Let's play a scene from the film. And as with a lot of Marvel films, it's kind of challenging to set up the story. But when we meet you at the beginning of the film, you play Shaun, who lives in San Francisco and spends a lot of time with his friend, Katy, played by Awkwafina. You're attacked by assassins on a bus, and it comes out that your character has a secret identity. Your father was an - a mortal warrior, and your mother was also a magical fighter. And when your character was still a child, your mom gets murdered, and your father wants you to avenge her death. Instead, your character flees to the U.S. It's now a decade later, and the father is looking for you and trying to call you back. Now, in this scene, it's your character explaining the story to Awkwafina.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS")

LIU: (As Shang-Chi) I know this is a lot to dump on you.

AWKWAFINA: (As Katy) I'm sorry about your mom.

LIU: (As Shang-Chi) I should also probably mention that my name's not technically Shaun.

AWKWAFINA: (As Katy) What is it?

LIU: (As Shang-Chi) It's Shang-Chi.

AWKWAFINA: (As Katy) Shaun-Chi.

LIU: (As Shang-Chi) No, Shang-Chi.

AWKWAFINA: (As Katy) Shaun-Chi.

LIU: (As Shang-Chi) Shang.

AWKWAFINA: (As Katy) Shaun.

LIU: (As Shang-Chi) Shang.

AWKWAFINA: (As Katy) Shaun.

LIU: (As Shang-Chi) S-H-A-N-G. Shang.

AWKWAFINA: (As Katy) Shang?

LIU: (As Shang-Chi) Yeah.

AWKWAFINA: (As Katy) You changed your name from Shang to Shaun?

LIU: (As Shang-Chi) Yeah, I don't - yeah.

AWKWAFINA: (As Katy, laughing) I wondered how your father found you.

LIU: (As Shang-Chi) OK. I was 15 years old, all right?

AWKWAFINA: (As Katy) What is your name change logic? You're going into hiding and your name is Michael. You - come on - change it to Mishael.

LIU: (As Shang-Chi) That's not what happened.

AWKWAFINA: (As Katy) It's like, hi, my name's Gina. I'm going to go into hiding. My new name is Gyna.

BALDONADO: That's a scene from the film, "Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings." The story goes that before you got this role, you tweeted at Marvel about how they needed to have an Asian superhero.

LIU: Sure.

BALDONADO: You did this?

LIU: I did, yeah. Yeah, I was very chronically online as a young adult. Yeah, and, you know, I would have these moments at 3 a.m. where I'd get intensely frustrated about my career. And, you know, I was starting to have all these kind of rudimentary thoughts about representation. But, of course, yeah, I was watching Marvel movies. I loved Marvel movies, and I was just like, when are we going to have ours, you know? When are we going to have an Asian version of Thor or Captain America? When are we going to have our superhero Avenger guy that we could look up to, you know, or girl?

By the way, I have to say, you did a fantastic job setting up the story of Shang-Chi. I really - the - I was blown away by how succinctly you captured the story of the - yeah, the Wenwu and the Shang-Chi of it all. And then the clip that you played - really, it's so funny listening to it without the picture. It just reminded me just how talented of an improviser Nora - Awkwafina is - a really, really good friend of mine today, still - and just brought back a lot of a lot of amazing memories. So thank you for sharing that.

BALDONADO: Well, yeah, that's - watching this film back, you know, it's so funny. You two are very funny together. And of course, it's this action movie, but there are also all these parallels between your character and your life. You know, there's the idea of parents wanting you to be something you're not. Of course, in the case of the movie, it's about being an assassin, but still. And then there are also these ideas, as we heard in the scene, like, these ideas of trying to assimilate and trying to blend in.

LIU: Sure.

BALDONADO: Was that one of the things that was attractive about this movie?

LIU: I mean, yeah. Look, I would have done this movie for free. I would have paid to do this movie. Let's just be clear. But, no, I remember auditioning - over the course of auditioning for this movie, you know? And, you know, in my mind, I immediately go to, oh, are they going to cast somebody from Asia? Are they going to cast a - you know, a national champion martial artist or something, you know? What is the story that they want to tell here? It didn't necessarily feel like, you know, immediately apparent that it was going to be the kind of story that it was.

But then, you know, Destin Daniel Cretton being attached as director, I think, informed a lot of the direction that I think the studio wanted to go with it, which, you know, I'm not going to say was an Asian American story because I do think that the movie is for everyone. But, you know, it's just really incredible that Destin was able to find a way in and to, you know, tell this story about a flawed but ultimately human character who, you know, is running away from who he is and running away from his parents and eventually chooses to embrace it but on his terms.

BALDONADO: My guest is Simu Liu. He stars in the Marvel movie "Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings," the film "Barbie," and the TV sitcom "Kim's Convenience." His new film is called "Last Breath." More after a break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOEL P WEST AND SAMUEL KIM'S "XU SHANG-CHI")

BALDONADO: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Ann Marie Baldonado back with my guest, Simu Liu. He stars in the new film "Last Breath." His other films include "Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings" and "Barbie."

I think many people first saw you on the CBC show "Kim's Convenience" about an immigrant family in Canada who runs a convenience store. The show was picked up by Netflix and got a lot of viewers through that, including my mother, by the way.

LIU: (Laughter).

BALDONADO: And I want to play a scene from the pilot episode. Your character, Jung, is estranged from his dad, who runs the convenience store. They haven't talked for years. Jung is working at a car rental place when his dad shows up one day to return a car. Jung doesn't want to talk to his dad, so he asks his boss to talk to him instead.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "KIM'S CONVENIENCE")

LIU: (As Jung Kim) Hey.

NICOLE POWER: (As Shannon Ross) What's up?

LIU: (As Jung Kim) Here's the thing. When I was 16, my dad kicked me out, or I might have run away. It's all kind of blurry.

POWER: (As Shannon Ross) OK.

LIU: (As Jung Kim) The thing...

POWER: (As Shannon Ross) We're sharing. When I was 15, I got a perm - really didn't suit me.

LIU: (As Jung Kim) No. That's my dad.

POWER: (As Shannon Ross) OK.

LIU: (As Jung Kim) I don't know how he knew that I worked here. I can't talk to him. Can you handle this?

POWER: (As Shannon Ross) I've been trying to get my cellphone plan upgraded for the last 40 minutes.

LIU: (As Jung Kim) Please. I will owe you big time.

POWER: (As Shannon Ross) OK, fine. But I'm talking to Peggy, and I want unlimited texting in Canada and the U.S. Not Brazil, not Costa Rica, not Paraguay.

LIU: (As Jung) Got it.

BALDONADO: That's a scene from the first episode of "Kim's Convenience." I thought it was interesting reading your book that there was this echo in the show in this first big role that you got early in your career.

LIU: I remember being kind of 23-years-old and deciding that I was going to be an actor. I mean, that catalyzed a moment of extreme tension with my parents. And so we would not speak to each other for long periods of time. I think it was very, very difficult for my parents to understand that choice. So yeah, when "Kim's Convenience" came along - it was originally a play, actually, and I had watched the stage play before auditioning for the show. But the play left me in tears because, really, the first time that I had seen that parent-child dynamic play out on stage, and it was so true to life. It was so relatable to what I had been through and what I was going through even in that moment that I was just overwhelmed. I remember sitting in my seat crying and realizing that that's what it felt like to have art that you could connect with. And getting to play Jung and getting to act his - you know, act out his dynamic with his umma and his appa I think helped me make a lot of sense of what my parents are going through, right? And I think that actually set the stage for a reconciliation quite nicely. Not only in that it gave me consistent work as an actor, and so kind of made my parents actually kind of realize that I was going to do this.

BALDONADO: And they used to watch it with friends, too.

LIU: Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was quite a big deal in Canada before it was kind of blown up to a global audience with Netflix. But the other part of it was, I think, through the characters, we were learning about each other. You know, I was learning about what my parents were going through through the umma and appa character, and they were learning about what I was going through and what I wanted through the Jung character, and it kind of brought us closer together, which I will always be so endlessly grateful for, among other things.

BALDONADO: How are your parents feeling about you being an actor now?

LIU: Feeling pretty good.

(LAIUGHTER)

LIU: They're both retired. My dad retired at age 60, he retired during the pandemic. He didn't necessarily feel like he would have to spend, you know, time supporting me, and he was like, I think I'm going to be OK, so he was able to retire. And my mother retired very, very shortly after that. And now they kind of just travel the world, and they don't experience any more anxiety about having to, you know, subsidize my life or support me. So it's a wonderful, kind of happy ending for them. I think they're - every time I talk to them, they've always kind of just come back from a cruise or are just about to go on a cruise. I think they're due to, like, be in the Caribbean, like, next week or something. And, you know, it's some cruel reversal of roles, being on set on a 16-hour night shoot and, you know, having your parents send you photos of them on vacation on your phone. It is a really ironic kind of role-reversal situation. But I'm very, very glad.

BALDONADO: Simu Liu. Thank you so much for speaking with me today.

LIU: Thank you so much for having me.

GROSS: Simu Liu stars in the new film "Last breath." He spoke with FRESH AIR's Ann Marie Baldonado. To find out what's happening behind the scenes of our show and get our producers' recommendations for what to watch, read and listen to, subscribe to our free newsletter at whyy.org/freshair. And this week, we have a special exclusive for our newsletter subscribers. I just interviewed comic Bill Burr. It was hilarious and a wild ride. Also, very hard to edit down to fit our broadcast. It's airing Monday, but we're offering an early listen of an extended version of that interview if you subscribe to our newsletter. To sign up, go to whyy.org/freshair. It'll come directly to your inbox Saturday morning.

(SOUNDBITE OF JONAH DAVID'S "RHYTHM-A-NINT")

GROSS: FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Briger. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Roberta Shorrock, Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Anna Bauman and Joel Wolfram. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Susan Nyakundi directed today show. Our co-host is Tonya Mosley. I'm Terry Gross.

(SOUNDBITE OF JONAH DAVID'S "RHYTHM-A-NINT")

Transcripts are created on a rush deadline, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of Fresh Air interviews and reviews are the audio recordings of each segment.