Simu Liu’s latest role has him remembering his tough childhood times and envisioning what kind of dad he wants to be.
Liu plays a dad of two in Netflix’s animated film In Your Dreams. The film follows two siblings, Stevie (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and her younger brother Elliot (Elias Janssen), who set out on a mission to keep their family together as they fear their parents are headed for divorce. The film is directed by Alex Woo.
“This movie, and this role in particular, has made me think a lot about how I want to show up as a dad and a parent,” the Marvel star, 36, told People.
“The overwhelming thing that drew me to this film is its embrace of imperfection,” Liu said. “I love the statement that families don’t look like this picture-perfect nuclear family — always smiling, never fighting. No family actually looks like that, divorced or not.”
“In speaking with Alex, we both had moments when we were younger where we weren’t sure if our parents were gonna make it,” he continued.
When asked what his favourite toy growing up was, the Shang-Chi actor shared that due to poverty, he didn’t have many new toys and would play with broken ones.
“We were very poor growing up, so my toys were whatever we were able to gather from yard sales,” Liu said.
“I was a big Power Rangers fan, so I had a not-fully assembled Megazord with an arm and a leg missing. I’d have a He-Man with no head — my ragtag group of action figures,” he added.
In Your Dreams streams on Netflix from November 14.
