Marvel's Simu Liu Opens Up About "Rough Spot" During Acting Career While on Picket Line

Shang-Chi star Simu Liu says he's picketing because his "working-class" life wasn't too long ago.

By Adam Barnhardt

Simu Liu is one of Marvel's newest stars, and he's been surprisingly candid about his career before landing the role of a lifetime. Now that SAG-AFTRA is on strike, Liu is reminiscing about his time prior to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. According to Liu, it wasn't too long ago he was part of SAG-AFTRA's sizable working-class corps, wondering when and where his next paycheck would come from.

"I've been there. I've spent time as a background actor and I've spent time in that type of gig economy where it's just gig to gig not knowing when your next paycheck is going to come and not qualifying for health care," Liu told Deadline from the picket line this week. "It's already a rough spot to be in as is, but what the AMPTP is suggesting is that the livelihood of these working-class actor is lowered even more with new guidelines about AI and new guidelines about replication. In my mind, I remember not just myself but all of the background actors and performers that I knew whose livelihood depended on their ability to go into work. It really hasn't been that long for me so to be in a position of privilege now, I think it's a responsibility to stand in solidarity with each and every one of the members of SAG."

Liu's AI comments are referencing the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers' desire to pay background actors a single day's wage in return for the ability to use their likeness without further payment or approval in perpetuity. 

"This 'groundbreaking' AI proposal that they gave us yesterday: they propose that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day's pay, and their company should own that scan their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation," SAG-AFTRA executive Duncan Crabtree-Ireland revealed earlier this year. "So if you think that's a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again."

Marvel Studios' Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is now available on Disney+, all major digital platforms, and wherever physical movies are sold. Shang-Chi 2 doesn't have a release window yet.

What'd you think of Shang-Chi's film debut? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!

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