Simu Liu shows Jimmy Fallon his unfairly rejected Saturday Night Live impressions
Wait, Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings villains aren't timely any more?
TV News Simu Liu
You get the sense that some Saturday Night Live hosts don’t exactly bring a lot to the table. There to promote an upcoming project, some actors (or [shuddering] athletes) wind up putting their various talents in the hands of the show’s writers, with everyone involved just hoping for the best. Not so, Shang-Chi star Simu Liu, who, on Thursday’s Tonight Show, debuted the two (pretty much spot-on) impressions he’d worked up for the big, pre-hosting Monday morning meeting with the SNL staff.
Sadly, according to Liu, none of his hard work and preparation will be in evidence on Saturday, at least not in the form of sketches built around either his Emperor Palpatine or Gollum impressions, which the actor showed of to an appreciative Fallon’s amazement. It appears that the current Saturday Night Live writers just can’t see it when an acclaimed Asian-Canadian thespian pitches sketches built around two British villains from popular sci-fi fantasy franchises. Their loss.
And, okay, Liu didn’t have all of his Palpatine’s dialogue down yet, growling out the Emperor’s lines, “Something, something, something—dark side!” But, hey, that’s why they’re the writers, and Liu’s just the major MCU movie star. And the actor’s Gollum is even better, wowing Fallon with a stellar approximation of Andy Serkis’ anguished work as everyone’s favorite little ring-obsessed monster-hobbit. Anybody can squeak out a serviceable “My precious,” but Liu really went for it in his extended Gollum riff, nailing Serkis’ throat-swallowed cadence, and the high, squeaking rage that Frodo just won’t give up that damned ring.
So the ball’s in SNL’s court to give Liu some roles better than those, as the actor joked that he was “a little offended” that nobody at the show was picking up what he was putting down. Liu did mention his upcoming real-life role alongside the Sesame Street gang (speaking of lovable little monsters), helping to introduce the first-ever Asian Muppet, the Korean-American Ji-Young.
Not to pitch ideas to the evidently super-picky SNL writers room, but that team-up seems ripe for a cold open, what with Republicans currently being mocked into smithereens for frothing at the mouth over the beloved children’s show’s perennial commitment to battling ignorance and bigotry through kindness, reason, and understanding. (After all, Mikey Day and Alex Moffat have already shown us their terrifying live-action Bert and Ernie.) There’s still time to get Lui into some felt, people.
20 Comments
He stole that line from family guy. “Something Something Dark Side.”
Why would you expect a pop culture journalist to know that?
Heard that Star Wars line from family guy
I wonder if getting Simu on SNL was Disney damage control for the Eternals.“See everyone remember the new Marvel property we made this year that wasn’t a pretentious mess”I finally saw Shang Chi last weekend and really enjoyed it.
For as formulaic as Shang Chi was, it was still a really a nice change of pace for the MCU. Going to watch it again tonight.
The movie was helped immensely by how charming and charismatic he is. My wife kept saying “I can’t believe that’s the guy from Kim’s Convenience!”
Whoa – I’m not a grey anymore?
Eternal’s narrative and themes may be muddled (imo because of challenges inherit within MCU’s formula and continuity) but i don’t find it pretentious. Colonist/caretakers who are changed by the interaction with their charges is common and accessible in both sci fi and historical fiction. We’ve seen these ideas in books by Arthur C. Clark and Ray Bradbury, EC comics, episodes of Star Trek, a show like Raised by Wolves, Westworld and numerous stories where westerners go to civilize a region, only to be themselves transformed by the land and its people. It’s a standard story type in comic books, it just (surprisingly) hasn’t been explored in a comic book movie.
I was less talking about the plot and more the press leading up to it about “how beautiful it was” and how it would have the first marvel “love making” scene.
I watched Prince of Darkness last night.
Dennis Dun would’ve made a cool Shang Chi in the ‘80s.
Talk about an under-used actor. Carpenter knew, and we who love Big Trouble in Little China and Prince of Darkness, we know. But nobody else seemed to pick it up.
You could write a series of books on great actors who went nowhere because they were PoC/women/unwilling to play the Hollywood meta.
anyone else get the sense that there’s a barely concealed rage boiling beneath the surface
In fairness, who wouldn’t feel an overwhelming sense of rage when sitting next to Jimmy Fallon.
I found three errors in this article:Not so, Shang-Chi star Simu Liu —> Not so Shang-Chi star Simu Liu the actor showed of —> the actor showed off SNL writers room —> SNL writers’ room
Last line Lui->Liu
Jesus Christ, I can’t believe I missed that. Well I guess that’s what you can expect from free labor
Remember that one time he compared gay people to pedophiles? Pepperidge Farm Remembers.
Do the AV Club editors know how nakedly obvious it is when they’re publishing marketing copy from someone’s publicity team? I don’t have any issue with Simu Liu, and I really liked Shang-Chi, but this is very clearly paid content. Who actually wrote this? Don’t be surprised if multiple articles gushing about Simu Liu appear over the next few days to couple weeks around here. Same thing happened with Harry Potter recently.
Who else has discovered Kim’s Convenience SINCE seeing Shang-Chi?