Shang-Chi and Barbie Star Simu Liu Explains Similarities Between Martial Arts and Dancing (Exclusive)

Barbie is finally being released this month, and it is set to star Margot Robbie in the titular role alongside Ryan Gosling as Ken. Barbie was directed by Greta Gerwig and will also feature big names such as America Ferrera (Superstore), Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live), Alexandra Shipp (tick, tick, …Boom!), Will Ferrell (Anchorman), Issa Rae (Insecure), Michael Cera (Superbad), Ariana Greenblatt (Avengers: Infinity War), Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), and more. Recently, ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with Liu and he revealed keeping Barbie secrets was harder than keeping Marvel secrets. During the chat, the actor also compared the martial arts skills he used in Shang-Chi to the dancing skills he showcases in Barbie. 

“Absolutely. No, you hit the nail on the head,” Liu replied when asked about the two skills being similar. “They are body skills. No, I think at the end of the day choreography is choreography. Whether you’re in the Barbie Dream World cul-de-sac and you’re in the middle of this huge dance sequence with a bespoke song and a block party and a DJ or you’re on a bus fighting for your life as these thugs come after you, it’s all an intricate dance in some way, shape or form.”

Liu added, “I was dancing long before I was doing martial arts, and I honestly think that’s what won me the role initially, was that background, because I remember my first meeting with Greta, she mentioned there was dance in it and I brought up the fact that I was on my university’s competitive hip hop team. She guffawed, she acted as if I told her I won an Oscar that she wasn’t aware of. She was like, ‘Oh my God,’ she was just floored.” He continued, “Then very quickly after she was like, ‘I want you to come be one of our Kens.’ I really have to pat past me on the back for having the dance bug. Yeah, it’s a very big part of our movie and it’s a very big part of Kendom and it’s just a lot of fun to watch on the screen.”

Simu Liu On Being Kens With Ryan Gosling:

“It was the best,” Liu told ComicBook.com about his Barbie feud with Gosling. “The irony was not lost on me that we’re both Canadian, and there’s no reason for two Canadians to ever be fighting like that, but this is a movie, and we are playing characters that are often at odds with each other, so we had to bury that preconceived Canadian niceness as it were, and really focus on hating each other. Which was hard! He’s a very likable human — but as Ken, maybe not so much, and that made it a little bit better.”

He continued, “I think the Kens are in such an interesting place in Barbieland at the beginning of the movie. There’s just so little that they have to themselves. They’re not a particularly empowered group of dolls. They don’t have jobs — their only job is the beach, which they do all the time every single day, and that’s it. And then every so often if a Barbie smiles at them or gives them the time of day, that’s great, but it also gets the Kens very competitive. Ryan’s Ken, very quickly in the beginning of the movie, makes a fool out of himself trying to impress Barbie, and that’s just too bad, because I think my Ken would never do that. My Ken would always impress the Barbies with his Kenergy and his dance moves — which you get to see later in the movie, and drives Ryan’s Ken green with jealousy.”

What Is Barbie About?

In Barbie, to live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken. From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig comes Barbie, which hits theaters on July 21st. Barbie stars Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Ariana Greenblatt, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, and Will Ferrell. The film also stars Ana Cruz Kayne, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans, Jamie Demetriou, Connor Swindells, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren. Gerwig directed Barbie from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach, based on Barbie by Mattel.