Simu Liu Talks About ‘One True Loves’ & Small Wins For AAPI Representation In Hollywood

etcanada.com:

Simu Liu spoke to InStyle about his newest book-to-screen adaptation, “One True Loves,” in which he co-stars with Phillipa Soo.

The film casts two Asian actors in leading parts that were originally written for non-Asian characters in the book. In the conversation, he also discusses love, soul mates, and finding “the one.” READ MORE: Simu Liu Clarifies Air Canada Statement, Says ‘Was Really Touched’ By A Few Employees “I mean, for the longest period of time, I feel like when people saw an Asian man on screen, they assumed that it was, ‘Oh, well, he clearly does martial arts or he’s here to fight someone’,” Liu says. “I really hope that with every project that I do, including “Shang-Chi”, that dispel that notion that Asian men can only do martial arts on screen.

I think as an artist, I really want to explore all of the facets of human emotionality and nuance and relationships and love.

We should be able to do that regardless of what we look like.” One of Liu’s motivations for working on “One True Loves” was the opportunity to collaborate with Soo and add AAPI representation to lead characters who weren’t Asian in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s original book. “I hope in some way it reminds audiences that we all, regardless of what our cultural background is, what we look like, we all struggle with human emotion,” he says. “We all struggle with heartbreak, with anxiety, with the fear of losing the person that we love.” Liu wonders if the concept of a single soulmate exists after reading the premise of “One True Loves”, in which the main character gets engaged to her old high school love after her spouse is assumed dead in a helicopter crash, only for her husband to suddenly be found alive. “I was a big rom-com kid growing up.