Simu Liu celebrates being fired 10 years ago

Simu Liu celebrates being fired 10 years ago
PHOTO: Instagram/Simuliu, Twitter/Shangswilson

Canadian actor Simu Liu celebrated a special anniversary on Tuesday (April 12).

The date marked ten years since he was fired from his accounting job at Deloitte in Toronto. 

While he’s been public about his former career path as an accountant, he opened up about the fateful day on April 12, 2012, in a social media post.

“Ten years ago to the day, I was lead into my managing partner’s office at Deloitte and told that they were terminating my employment effective immediately,” Liu wrote.

The Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star didn’t hold back, detailing how HR and a security guard escorted him in front of a silent office where “nobody moved (or) offered a whisper of encouragement.”

“I fought back tears of humiliation, grabbed my things, and never looked back,” he wrote.

In the post, the 32-year-old who was born in Harbin, China, talks about the next 10 years of hustling to make it as an actor, referencing Canadian author Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours, a concept that says it takes that many hours of intense practice to master a skill.

“Ten years or 10,000 hours,” said Liu. “I spent four of those years running around like a headless chicken trying to figure out how to break into the industry, struggling with credit card debt and taking any job I could.”

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero added that he spent another three years “sinking” his “precious life savings” trying to break into Hollywood.

“It’s really only been these past three years that anything I’ve done has begun to bear any fruit,” he said.

After his big break in the sitcom Kim’s Convenience, Liu clinched his history-making role in Shang-Chi. Despite being released during the height of the pandemic, the film was a box-office hit, and a sequel has been confirmed.

Since then, Liu has become a household name worldwide. He’s hosted Saturday Night Live, presented at the Oscars, and is set to host the 2022 JUNO Awards.

Now that’s one way to balance the books. 

This article was first published in The New PaperPermission required for reproduction. 

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