Simu Liu was a guest on Kevin Hart’s Celebrity Game Face game show. Simu appeared with Kelly Mi Li and played against Thomas Rhett, Wanda Sykes and their wives. The first game of the show was What the Blank, in which the stars divulged a secret the others had to guess. Simu’s was a doozy. He confessed that to train for his role as Shang-Chi, he took stripping lessons. Wow, looks like Marvel’s really branching out in their storytelling.
You never know what being a super hero is going to require. For Simu Liu, starring in Marvel’s latest blockbuster, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, called for some unexpected training.
In this sneak peek from the upcoming episode of E!’s Celebrity Game Face, Liu reveals — as part of a trivia question — exactly what it took to prepare for the action epic.
“As some of you may or may not know, I was recently in a little Marvel movie, no big deal,” begins Liu, who is joined by his friend, producer and entrepreneur Kelly Mi Li. “To prepare for that role, to be a Marvel super hero, I had to train in the fine art of something. Is it stunt driving, is it parkour, or is it stripping?”
Hosts Kevin Hart and wife Eniko give the episode’s contestants some time to mull it over. Thomas Rhett and wife Lauren settle on option three — stripping. Meanwhile, Wanda Sykes and wife Alex figure it has to be either parkour or stunt driving, and finally settle on parkour.
“So, the answer is, while there was parkour in our movie, I actually already do parkour, in my spare time,” he shared. “That’s why it’s stripping!”
Unfortunately, Simu did not elaborate any further about how the stripping lessons came into play. Thomas offered up that superheroes need to rip off their day clothes to reveal their superhero costumes. That’s DC, Thomas! As you know, I haven’t seen Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings yet, so I have no idea how stripping factors into the movie. Honestly, I don’t need to, my mind is filling in the blanks beautifully. Especially when I pair my images with all the Loki fan art dealing with the same. In all seriousness, I can see why stripping lessons would come in handy for anyone training for superhero movies. And a seasoned stripper looks like g-d superhero while performing so this makes perfect sense to me. However, Kevin had a real missed opportunity later in the show when Simu performed the game Name That Dance. There wasn’t a strip move among them *shakes head*.
Speaking of his record-breaking film, Simu had the perfect response for everyone who didn’t think they could do it. Not only did he laugh at his naysayers, he did it with his own stock photos:
Me laughing at the people who thought we’d flop pic.twitter.com/7UoLqRXlCJ
— Simu Liu (刘思慕) (@SimuLiu) September 6, 2021
Simu really should give a course in How to Tweet.
Here’s the full episode. The stripping part starts at 4:42 (it’s queued up):
Photo credit: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Avalon Red
Is there video footage of him practicing these techniques? I need it for….research.
Ahem, I too need it for…scientific studies…yes, that’s it.
I get why some people think Simu Liu’s not handsome enough to be a movie star or whatever (I think that is total bunk) but even if that were true, I totally see why Marvel picked him: b/c Liu is charming af. He has been slaying this promotional tour. Fantastic Insta game, top-notch interview game, and he went to an actual baseball game, threw a perfect pitch and then did a back flip from a standing position. Come on!!! Anyone who doesn’t respond positively to this guy at one glance has ice for a heart.
Agreed! His charm is totally making me consider seeing this at the theatre.
Charming af — yes!! On screen and off, Simu has an ease that is totally winning me over! Just saw the movie and can he carry a movie? Yes. As someone else noted, he can do action flicks but I would love to see him in a rom-com.
I’ve seen the movie, and no spoilers, but there’s a sequence/set piece where I can imagine some pole training would definitely come in handy.
Also, the movie is amazing!
Yes, I agree!
I’m so happy for his success!!!
i loved his interview. I wish the film all the success. Lovely actor with a great personality.
I don’t comment really on the site (I read a lot of comments and the site every day, however) but I want to support Hecate writing about Simu. It is difficult for me to believe that people think he is not good-looking enough to be a movie star! He is gorgeous! Also, he is so smart, articulate, funny, talented, etc., etc. And I absolutely agree that he is a fantastic interviewee too. I don’t listen to Anna Faris’ podcast much anymore but I did listen to the one where she interviewed Simu. He was so thoughtful, engaged, and honest. Even though she tends to ask a lot of the same questions to each guest, he was able to make it interesting and drew her out more as well. I recommend a listen to any Simu fans. I hope one of his next projects will be a rom-com as I think he would be amazing.
I have been such a big fan of Simu Liu since Kim’s Convenience. So, I’m so happy with his latest success especially because he got to represent for the Asian community after a 1 1/2 of racial violence against that community because of the ignorance/fear surrounding the pandemic. Also, I remember how much it meant for young Black kids to have their own superhero to admire in The Black Panther movie and how significant it was that Chadwick Boseman upheld the ideals of that character in real life. It seems like Simu will also be someone that kids can look up to.
Although I’m excited to see Shang Chi, I’m not ready to be indoors for 2 hours in a crowded theater.
Just here to say yes please on keeping the Simu Liu content coming!
It is absolutely wild to me that people are thinking he’s not movie star hot. He doesn’t have extremely westernised looks but jeeeeez he is smoking. Plus personality, strong social media game, charming when doing press – he’s coming out on top in the superhero movie star checklist to me.
+Yaasss
I was looking at all those old stock photo images of him that people were chuckling over and thinking, “Dang, that is a really cute boy.”
Yes, please continue covering Simu Liu!!!! I don’t even watch action movies but I am here for Simu because I am a Kim Bit (Canadians know from where that derives: Tim Horton’s are way more plentiful in Canada than Starbucks in the US). And yes, he may just remind me of my huge crush in Grade 6 on.
Signed by a Caucasian Canadian-born and raised now living in Orange County, CA.