Actor Simu Liu is giving great perspective on a very difficult, emotional issue.
Over the weekend, entertainment industry trade publications reported that the Shang-Chi actor had signed on to work with Mark Wahlberg in a new adventure movie, Arthur The King. But almost immediately, many fans reacting to the news criticized Liu for taking the gig, especially after the actor had been so vocal against Wahlberg in a 2018 tweet regarding assaults the Boston native committed against two Vietnamese men in 1988.
Related: Eddie Van Halen Battled Surprisingly Severe Racism Growing Up In SoCal
In fact, Liu went so far as to delete the tweet in question, which led to a lot of understandable backlash from followers — did you mean what you said about Wahlberg’s violent past towards Asian men, or does it not matter now because you’ve signed on to do a major motion picture and make some money?
Feeling the heat, the Legend of the Ten Rings actor signed on to Instagram and actually delivered a pretty convincing and understandable response to those angry that he’d deleted the initial tweet. Writing about the entire issue, Liu first shared (below):
“I signed on to Arthur the King because I absolutely adored the script, which tells the beautiful story of how a dog changed the lives of four adventure racers in the forests of Ecuador. Especially having been a dog dad until last year, it hit me straight in the feels. I was and am very passionate about bringing this story to the screen, and playing a character that is undoubtedly a positive representation of an Asian man.”
And then he gets to the controversy itself, adding:
“I deleted a couple of tweets I made regarding the past actions of one of my costars as a gesture of professionalism and to open to door to progressive conversations and (hopefully) positive change. Obviously it’d be pretty weird to go to work with that tweet still up. I meant what I said in the moment; I was very angry hearing about what happened. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think there’s room to grow and work together to find an opportunity to educate and do some good- which I’m excited to do in addition to shooting the movie. Progressive discussion will lead to dialogue, and dialogue will lead to action.”
Very well stated, and not a bad point! Certainly a lot more understandable when framed in that light than what some of the more cynical among us may have believed, ya know?
Here is Liu’s entire post, along with screenshots of what had initially started the controversy online:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CI-gS99D2yb/?utm_source=ig_embed
Classy!
Of course, as many may already know, Wahlberg’s youth was marked by several disturbing and extremely violent racist encounters, both against Black people and Asian-Americans.
Related: Mark Wahlberg Says He’s Allergic To ‘Almost Everything’
In April 1988, then-17-year-old Wahlberg assaulted a middle-aged Vietnamese man on a Boston street, completely unprovoked. Later in the same day, he attacked a second Vietnamese man before being arrested. Investigators who asked him about the assaults at the time reported Wahlberg made “numerous unsolicited racial statements” using horrific and bigoted language.
Wahlberg was charged with attempted murder, though he eventually pled it down to felony assault. He was initially sentenced to two years in jail, but only served 45 days. In 2014, he attempted to receive a pardon for his crimes, citing the charity work and positive things he’s done with his life in the time since, but public outcry eventually forced him to back down from that request two years later.
What do U think of Liu’s take here, Perezcious readers?! Gotta be honest… we were skeptical about the optics of deleting the tweet for the job, but to hear the actor explain it like this was a revelation to us. And a good reminder for us all to be more forgiving and open to constructive dialogue! Lesson learned!
[Image via WENN/Instar]
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