Simu Liu’s hosting reel keeps on growing.
The “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” star’s past hosting gigs include the Time 100 gala and the Junos. He also hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 2021 and has guest-hosted “Jimmy Kimmy Live!”
Now, he’s taking the reins of the People’s Choice Awards.
“The PCAs are unique,” Liu tells me. “It’s not an awards show about an academy that votes behind closed doors. I think it’s important that we have that, but that’s not us. That’s not the PCAs — it’s inclusive by nature.”
Fans vote for the PCAs online or by using their phones. “It’s meant to be celebratory. It’s meant to feel positive,” Liu says. “That isn’t to say that we’ll never make a joke that doesn’t make fun of someone. But we’re not really out there to take anyone down or to make the most offensive joke that we possibly can. It’s really about making people laugh.”
He insists he’s not manifesting hosting the Oscars … yet. “I certainly wouldn’t say no, but that is some rarified air,” Liu says.
“Barbie” is up for several PCAs, including one for Liu for movie performance of the year. Greta Gerwig’s cultural and box office phenomenon is also going into the night with noms for movie of the year and comedy movie of the year — as well as movie star of the year nods for Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, among others.
When the Oscars failed to nominate Gerwig for directing and Robbie for acting, Liu took to Twitter to express his disappointment. “They deserve everything. They ARE everything,” he tweeted.
He tells me he thinks The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences needs to continue its work to make sure its voting membership accurately represents Hollywood’s diversity. “The Oscars are by design something that is voted on by a very small group of people,” Liu says. “And I think organizations like that can be slow to change sometimes by nature because so much of their identity is in protection and is in the exclusivity and saying, ‘We’re the tastemakers and we need to protect that.’”
While Liu isn’t calling for a Golden Globes-like takedown after the HFPA came under fire for its lack of diversity and questionable business practices, he says, “We probably have to look at the individual voting bodies because they are different across the different categories. And we have to look at the membership and say, ‘OK well, maybe we are skewing a little older, or maybe we are skewing a little toward one gender and we’re over-indexing. We should have those conversations.”
Taylor Swift has multiple PCA noms, which excites Liu, a self-described “Swiftie” after having been inspired by his girlfriend Allison Hsu’s love of the music superstar. Liu insists his devotion goes beyond just Swift’s chart toppers. “If you have a real appreciation for the lyricism of her deep songs on an album — like ‘The Great War,’ ‘Daylight,’ ‘Out of the Woods’ — if you’re going deeper and deeper, these are incredible songs about heartbreak about relationships. If you are able to appreciate that broader scope of the songwriting … then you’re a Swiftie. I’m a Swiftie.”
Click the video below to watch Liu attempt an impromptu performance of “The Great War” during our conversation.
The People’s Choice Awards airs live across NBC, Peacock and E! on Sunday, Feb. 18, at 5 p.m. PT.
