Simu Liuis a household name nowadays thanks to his Marvel superhero status, but at one point in his life, he had to explain to his parents why he was an accountant one minute and not the next.
In a Thursday sit-down withStephen ColbertonThe Late Show, the 33-year-old actor said his mother and father were “ecstatic” when he landed a job as an accountant with the consulting firm Deloitte in his 20s.
“My parents were like, ‘Great, my job is done, all the money and the time that we spent on this kid is finally worth it,’ " said Liu of his dad Zhenning and mom Zheng.
“And how did youtell them that you got fired?” asked Colbert, 58.
“I didn’t,” admitted Liu. “At least not right away. I definitely took the requisite amount of time to be like, ‘Okay, I think I wanna try something I actually like to do now.’ "
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Simu Liu.Arturo Holmes/FilmMagic
TheShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Ringsactor said he then went on Craigslist to “find [his] way back onto a movie set” and “caught the bug.”
As for his parents' reaction to him getting laid off from his accounting position and using the opportunity to dive headfirst into acting, Liu said, “That was a tough conversation.”
But he was forced to have it after putting it off initially, as the Canadian actor had a national commercial coming out the next day that Zhenning and Zheng were bound to see.
“And no, it did not go over well,” he quipped.
“With my grandparents, I felt completely safe. To me, that’s what home is,” the actor, who writes about his experience growing up in an immigrant household inhis new memoirWe Were Dreamers, recently told in an PEOPLE exclusive conversation.
And while his relationship with his parents saw its fair share of challenges and hurdles over the years, as his career continues to grow — Liu will star in the upcomingOnes True LovesandBarbiefilms — he knows his mom and dad will be cheering him on.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found empathyas to what they were goingthrough at the time. We’ve come so far,” Liu told PEOPLE. “When we’re young, we think of parents as just monolithic, all-powerful beings that don’t change. It’s such an incredible thing watching our parents change and grow and mature in their own way.”
We Were Dreamersisavailable now.
source: people.com
