Next summer’s hottest (pink) movie release is Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, a live-action comedy starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken. In anticipation of the upcoming 2023 movie, we’ve seen some incredible set photos of the pair and seen Barbie’s stacked cast list, but now Simu Liu is really hyping it up. The Barbie star’s description of it sounds fab.
CinemaBlend caught up with Simu Liu at Wednesday night’s first ever BoxLunch Gala Honoring Feeding America in Los Angeles, and the actor had this to say about Barbie:
'Weird' is a great way to describe it, but weird in the best possible way. Before I read the script, I had an agent that was like ‘You need to do Barbie, I bet my career on this.’ Basically, he was like, 'Fire me if this movie doesn’t turn out well,' and I was like ‘Ok, dude.’ Learned Greta [Gerwig] was a part of it and instantly was like, ‘Show me the script right now, please.’ I read it and it’s one of the best scripts I’ve ever read, probably the best script I’ve ever read.
While speaking to our own Law Sharma at the event, Simu Liu sounded hyped to be part of Greta Gerwig’s followup to Ladybird and Little Women, which he was cast in back in February. Continuing, the Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings star said,
If only you knew. It’s absolutely bonkers and it’s absolutely weird and fun, heartfelt and all of the things. I’m trying to dance around giving away actual plot details because trust me, you don’t want that; you want to be surprised in the movie theater. It was such a pleasure to shoot, a lot of pink. I’m glad we kicked off an entire fashion trend.
Ahead of any sort of trailer for Barbie coming out, we’ve seen a couple glimpses of the movie with first looks at Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken. You know it’s going to go viral because numerous people already dressed up for Halloween as the movie versions of the Mattel dolls – hence the mention of the “fashion trend.”
We don’t know what role Simu Liu is playing exactly in Barbie, but he definitely seems to be playing a doll considering he’s previously shared that he waxed for the role. Liu has also hinted at a dance sequence he’ll be part of in Barbie as well.
What the heck is this movie?
Simu Liu spoke about Barbie while attending BoxLunch’s celebration, which raised a lot of money for Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization. Along with the clothing brand offering up a $100,000 donation to celebrate 150 million meals to Feeding America, Liu surprised attendees by matching with another $100,000 in donation from his personal checkbook.
Also among the attendees of the BoxLunch Gala was fellow Marvel star, Xochitl Gomez, who debuted her role as America Chavez in this year’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Here’s hoping the pair will meet again as members of the Avengers in upcoming Marvel movies.
Simu Liu is set to reprise his role as Shang-Chi, and the actor's upcoming slate also includes the rom-com One True Loves, the dog-centric drama Arthur the King, and Netflix’s sci-fi/action film Altas . We’ll look forward to seeing him in Barbie when the movie hits theaters on July 21, 2023.
