Shang-Chi: Simu Liu Details Rigorous Training That Went Into the Role

Marvel fans are only days away from finally getting to see Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on the big screen, and the movie’s star has been busy promoting the highly-anticipated origin film. Simu Liu has been sharing a lot of fun and interesting content on social media, including a behind-the-scenes look at the Los Angeles portion of his press tour. Today, the actor took to Instagram to share a video of his rigorous training and detail all of the hard work that went into preparing for the role of Shang-Chi.

“Part of the joy of being an actor is the process of becoming one with a character. Whether it’s jazz piano, tap dancing or beating the living daylights out of people, a performer inhabits the character and fully gives themselves to the transformation process,” Liu wrote. “Asian actors don’t just do kung fu; but Shang-Chi does. It’s just one of the many things that flesh out his personality, but it’s easily the most challenging from a physical perspective. That meant I had to get to work. Hours each day, in addition to bodybuilding and conditioning with my trainer, were spent in order to build my character. Movement, speed and explosiveness were paramount; we couldn’t just build muscle for sake of bulk. Flexibility was massively lacking, and had to be stretched out one painful session after another. Little by little, I got better. Now, we are finally ready for this movie to come out. Make history with us this Friday; I promise you’ll be blown away. (As for the jazz piano and tap dancing… stay tuned.) Shot by @josephle_art.”

You can check out the video in the post below:

Shang-Chi has already been met with positive reviews from critics. The movie currently has a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes after 120 reviews, and ComicBook.com gave the movie a 4.5 out of 5, calling it “one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s best origin stories to date.” In addition to Liu, the new film will also feature Tony Leung as Wenwu, Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, Awkwafina as Katy, Meng’er Zhang, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu, and Ronny Chieng. The movie was helmed by Destin Daniel Cretton and will be released with a 45-day exclusive theatrical window.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is scheduled to premiere in theaters on September 3rd. The rest of Marvel’s 2021 line-up includes What If…, which releases new episodes on Disney+ on Wednesdays, Eternals in theatres on November 5th, Hawkeye on Disney+ on November 24th, and Spider-Man: No Way Home in theatres on December 17th.