Simu Liu talks about Hollywood’s lack of representation for Asian actors

Los Angeles, Nov 26 (IANS) Actor Simu Liu, who was seen in Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” has called out the Hollywood industry for the lack of visibility of Asian actors in cinema.

The star shared his thoughts on the lack of representation of his community on a post on social media.

“Put some asians in literally anything right now. the amount of backslide in our representation onscreen is …. appalling,” Liu shared on Threads. “Studios think we’re risky.”

Liu shared his view on the industry after reading a post calling for more Asian men to be cast in romantic lead roles, reports deadline.com.

The actor pointed to titles like Minari, Farewell, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Crazy Rich Asians and his own Marvel movie as examples of films that did well in the box office.

“Every single one a financial success (sic),” Liu added.

“No asian actor has ever lost a studio even close to 100 million dollars but a white dude will lose 200 million TWICE and roll right into the next tentpole lead. we’re fighting a deeply prejudiced system. and most days….(sic)”

This is not the first time Liu has called out the lack of representation of Asian actors in Hollywood.

In 2023, he replied to an article that noted he was getting “the bulk of Asian make roles.”

Liu replied to the Facebook post saying, “Way to attempt to put us against one another. What ‘bulk’ of roles are you referring to? Are there movies I’m in that I’m not aware of? Do you really think that there is a quota of ‘Asian male roles’ that is a zero sum game?”

“Everything I have taken post Shang-Chi was not written in Asian. We’ve been able to reshape stories to get more representation onscreen. Get your facts straight.”

–IANS

dc/