Simu Liu isn’t here for AI-generated actors — especially when it comes at the expense of real people trying to make a living.
The Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star recently pushed back on Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary’s claim that using artificial intelligence to replace extras could help reduce Hollywood’s bloated production costs. O’Leary made the remark while promoting his acting debut in A24’s Marty Supreme.
Liu, who got his start as a background performer, fired back on X: “sure, blame the extras making 15-22 dollars an hour struggling to make a living and not above the line people making multiple millions.”
i also took econ 101 lil bro, you don’t have to regurgitate rudimentary textbook stuff to me. kindly read some material on techno-feudalism and how tech breakthroughs overwhelmingly benefit the hyper-wealthy and leave ordinary people in the dust. nobody needs AI extras.
— Simu Liu (@SimuLiu) October 24, 2025
Speaking with Deadline this week while promoting Netflix’s upcoming animated film In Your Dreams, Liu elaborated on why he found O’Leary’s take “really dumb,” “tone deaf,” and “out of touch.”
“The idea that these background actors who are making minimum wage are somehow the reason why movies are now costing too much, that’s simply not true,” Liu said.
For Liu, the issue is personal. Before becoming a Marvel hero, he was laid off from an accounting job and found his footing on set as a background actor in Pacific Rim. Those early experiences, he said, were “invaluable” to his understanding of filmmaking.
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“This idea of replacing actors with AI, it’s so antithetical to my development as an actor,” he explained. “I think if I was able to learn from that experience, then how many other people are doing the same? In depriving the world of background actors, you’re also depriving people the opportunity to kind of pick up these skills.”
Beyond nostalgia, Liu believes AI-generated performances threaten the essence of what makes cinema human.
“Film is such an artist’s medium. Of all the uses of AI that have come forth, replacing art is just, I feel like, the last thing that anybody wants to do with AI,” he said.
“I feel like art is art because it’s human. It comes down to even the way that extras move…it all plays into the frame, and it’s all meaningful to the story. I really do feel like human beings are smart. I feel like when we see somebody in the background not moving like a human, we know. I feel like we could still tell the difference, at least right now.”
Liu’s stance aligns with a growing resistance among filmmakers. Pacific Rim director Guillermo del Toro recently doubled down on his own anti-AI views, declaring he’d “rather die” than use the technology — just days after yelling “f*ck AI!” during a screening of Frankenstein in New York.
For Liu, the debate isn’t about technology — it’s about preserving the humanity that fuels art.
