Simu Liu is coming off a major 2021 following the release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and it seems as if he trained just as hard as his Shang-Chi character to give viewers a comical night during his Saturday Night Live hosting debut.
Liu kicked off the night with a hilarious monologue, touching on being Marvel’s first Chinese superhero, how he landed the role of Shang-Chi, and shared a story about working a job dressing up as Spider-Man.
“I really can’t believe my life right now because 10 years ago I actually had a job dressing up as Spider-Man for kid’s birthday parties,” Liu said. “Look, I don’t know if you ever been kicked by a seven year old while wearing a $30 Wal-Mart Spider-Man suit, but it will break you.”
Shang-Chi, which topped the U.S. box office for three-straight weekends in September, quickly earned the title of the the second-highest grossing fim in the pandemic era, following Marvel’s other film Black Widow. The Liu-starring action flick brought in an impressive $75.5 million during its opening weekend.
“I think it would have made me feel proud of where I came from,” Liu told Complex Canada editor Alex Nino Gheciu of what the film means to him. “I think it would have made me proud of my face, proud of my language, of my culture. And not having that meant that, you know, I kind of inherently knew that those things were ‘other.’ And those things weren’t desirable. And so, I grew up ashamed to be Asian. I just hope that kids watching this movie will be proud instead.”
Joining Liu on the 30 Rock stage was rapper Saweetie, who took over SNL as a performer Saturday night, one episode after Taylor Swift did so witha. 10-minute version of “All Too Well.” Saweetie is currently promoting her new single “Icy Chain,” which dropped this Friday.
