NEED TO KNOW
Simu Liu didn’t walk away unscathed from filming stunts in his new Peacock series The Copenhagen Test.
The Shang-Chi star, 36, revealed to PEOPLE that he participated in his own stunts in the new espionage thriller series, in which he plays a Chinese-American intelligence analyst who is “caught between his shadowy agency and the unknown hackers,” per a synopsis.
“I got kicked in the face. Yeah. Many, many, many times,” Liu said with a laugh.
The actor went on to say that despite the “phenomenal” stunt coordinators on the project — James and Chris Mark — working to make the set “as safe as” possible, there’s always a little “risk” when it comes to stunt work.
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“When you’re doing fight scenes or you are, you know, you’re running full speed through a hallway and you gotta blast through three people or whatever it is, stuff’s gonna happen. Stuff’s gonna go wrong,” he explained.
“I remember I got … been kicked in the face, been thrown against things… and things like that [on the set],” he added.
He explained that while some actors avoid doing their own stunts to prevent injuries — and there’s “nothing inherently wrong with that” — it can create challenges in post-production since editors are limited to certain angles and some shots with a stunt double “just aren’t gonna sell.”
Conversely, the Barbie actor said that when actors handle their own stunts, “it gives the editor infinite more optionality in terms of where to cut and when.” He admitted that he’s among those who embrace the challenge of action work.
“Here’s the thing, probably to my own detriment, I’m way too competitive of a guy. And I think ever since I was 4 years old, if I see someone doing something and I think I could do it just as good or better,” he said. “I always, I’m like, ‘Great. Look, get me in there. I want in.’ ”
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He said his The Copenhagen Test co-star Melissa Barrera is also of a similar mind, which is why they worked “so well off of each other.”
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“I just remember her just going like, ‘Again, again, again,’ and really kind of impressing all of our stunt team and just really insisting on being the person [to do the stunts],” he recalled. “And it’s just one of the things that I love the most about her.”
The series follows Liu’s character Alexander, whose “brain has been hacked, giving the perpetrators access to everything he sees and hears,” per a synopsis. Caught in this predicament, “he must maintain a performance 24/7 to flush out who’s responsible and prove where his allegiance lies.”
The Copenhagen Test will premiere on Dec. 27 on Peacock.
