Simu Liu Doesn’t Want to ‘Repeat the Mistakes’ of His Parents When He’s a Dad

Simu Liu’s latest role has him envisioning life as a dad one day.

“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 of voicing a father of two in Netflix’s animated film In Your Dreams.

Streaming on the platform on November 14, the film, from director Alex Woo (Incredibles 2), follows Stevie (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and her younger brother Elliot (Elias Janssen) as they set out on a mission with a snarky stuffed animal, Baloney Tony (Craig Robinson), determined to keep their family together after sensing their parents may be headed for a breakup.

“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,” the Barbie actor continued. “There were a lot of complicated feelings — a lot of fear, a lot of internalized guilt and blame — just a lot of messy feelings. What would’ve been really fantastic is to have had a piece of art that would’ve helped us process these feelings and let us know that, as long as there’s love, it’s gonna be okay. Life moves on, not always in the perfectly gift-wrapped way you want it to, but it will go on.”

Born in China, life wasn’t always easy for the Shang-Chi actor.

“We were very poor growing up, so my toys were whatever we were able to gather from yard sales,” he said when asked if he had a favorite childhood toy. “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.”

In his 2022 memoir, We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story, Liu detailed “impossible expectations” that were placed on him due to the “tiger parenting” style of his parents, Zhenning and Zheng, and the peace he made with them after the childhood trauma of screaming matches and beatings when his grades slipped to a B-average.

“I resolved from a very young age not to repeat the mistakes of my parents,” Liu told PEOPLE of the type of parent he strives to be one day. “I’ve been very open, speaking about that. I’m very open speaking about that with them. We talk a lot about what was going through their head at the time, and I think it’s really important to realize how much growth they’ve done as well since that moment.”

After presenting his mom with an eight-page letter for her 60th birthday a few years back, the Kim’s Convenience star considers his mom, Zheng, one of his “closest friends.”

Both his parents appeared with him in a 2022 Google commercial for the Pixel 6, poking fun at their high expectations.

Engaged to marketing director Allison Hsu, 28, since May, the couple, who have been romantically linked since late 2022, are now focused on wedding planning, and Liu has dreams of building his own family. 

“I’m very excited about getting married and all the steps along that process,” he said. “Being able to grow up in a place where I’m not feeling constantly anxious about making ends meet or not having any sort of a safety net is something my parents never had.”

Of how he’ll approach parenting differently, The Copenhagen Test star said, “I would be leading from a place of joy, leading from a place of dreams and nurturing. I want to help my future children figure out what their dreams are and to pursue them to the best of their ability. At the end of the day, that’s what life is all about.”

“I’ve always felt like I was destined to be a dad,” he added. “And so, hopefully, I get to at some point in the future.”