Simu Liu is once again calling out Hollywood’s treatment of Asian actors — this time in response to growing concern around Manny Jacinto’s ongoing battle with typecasting.
The conversation kicked off after Screen Rant published an interview with Jacinto, who revealed that the roles landing in his inbox look nothing like the kind of work he’s capable of doing. Following his appearance in Freaky Friday, studios apparently decided he should be everyone’s dad.
“Now I think I’m getting dad roles, or dad auditions. I’m like, ‘Guys, I don’t think that’s me yet. I’m sorry. Let’s pull it back,’” he said, adding that the shift has pushed him into a narrow box that doesn’t reflect his range.
Fans quickly rallied online, arguing that Jacinto deserves far better — and far more — than Hollywood’s one-size-fits-all caricatures. The conversation widened, and that’s when Simu Liu stepped in.
Reacting to the discourse on Threads, Liu didn’t hold back: “put some asians in literally anything right now. the amount of backslide in our representation onscreen is f**king appalling. studios think we’re ‘risky’.”
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Liu highlighted the success of Asian-led films — Minari, The Farewell, Past Lives, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Crazy Rich Asians, and his own Shang-Chi — pointing out that the data already disproves the industry myth that Asian talent is some sort of gamble.
He continued: “no asian actor has ever lost a studio even close to 100 million dollars but a white dude will lose 200 million TWICE and roll right into the next tentpole lead.”
For Liu, this isn’t an isolated problem — it’s symptomatic of a system that’s been broken for decades. “we’re fighting a deeply prejudiced system. and most days it SUCKS.”
Both Liu’s frustration and Jacinto’s candidness underline a reality many Asian actors have voiced for years: despite visible wins and celebrated milestones, the fight for fair, nuanced representation is far from over.
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And once again, fans are demanding better — not just from Hollywood’s storytellers, but from the people who decide which stories get told in the first place.
