'Shang-Chi' Star Simu Liu Once Earned $120 As A Getty Images Model

Simu Liu made history as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first leading Asian superhero with the premiere of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” But long before scoring his role as martial-arts master Shang-Chi, the actor once paid the bills by posing for stock photos.

Prior to the red carpet premiere of his Marvel film in Los Angeles in August, Liu, who was born in China but raised in Canada, took to Twitter to do an Ask Me Anything. One of the questions was about how much the 32-year-old actor got paid for the viral stock photos in which Liu appears as an office worker.

Earlier this year, social media users discovered the images, which can be found on Getty Images with tags including “East Asian,” “business person,” “smiling,” “cheerful” and “coworker,” The Wrap noted.

According to Liu, he was paid only $120 for the photoshoot, and he had waived all his rights to them in order to help pay off his credit card debt at the time. He previously tweeted that he did the shoot in 2014.

Liu's image in the stock photos wasn’t far off from reality as according to IMDb, he previously worked as an accountant for the top accounting firm Deloitte after graduating from the Richard Ivey School of Business.

Liu got his start in acting working as an extra on “Pacific Rim,” which was filming in Toronto, in 2012. He then made appearances in independent short films, TV shows and music videos.

He landed roles in “Nikita” (2012) and “Beauty and the Beast” (2014), before becoming a member of the “Heroes Reborn” stunt team in 2015 and appearing in three episodes as a stunt double.

He has since starred on “Blood and Water” (2015) and “Taken” (2017), and made appearances on shows such as “The Expanse” (2015), “Fresh Off the Boat” (2015) and “Bad Blood” (2017), according to IMDb.

In 2016, Liu landed his breakout acting role as Jung Kim in the Canadian sitcom “Kim's Convenience,” which aired on CBC from 2016 to 2021 and is now available to stream on Netflix. He was nominated for a Canadian Screen Actor award for his performance as Jung.

Following the cancellation of “Kim's Convenience” earlier this year, Liu took to Facebook to address rumors regarding the show’s controversies. While the series was slated for the sixth season, producers ended it on Season 5 after the two showrunners, Ins Choi and Kevin White, dropped out.

The actor alleged that there were tense relationships between crew members on set and that the show failed to represent Asian characters on-screen properly. Liu said that even if the series asked him to return, he would not want to reprise his role, Decider reported.

Meanwhile, nearly a decade before becoming part of the MCU, Liu crafted his own Asian superhero film. He spent $2,000 to direct, write and star in a film titled “Crimson Defender vs. The Slightly Racist Family,” which was released in 2015 and told the story of an Asian superhero who rescued a family who didn’t believe that he was an actual superhero because he was Asian.

After Marvel announced in December 2018 that “Shang-Chi” would be its first movie with an Asian superhero in the lead role, Liu immediately began campaigning for the titular role, tweeting, “OK @Marvel, are we gonna talk or what #ShangChi.”

After an extensive search, Liu was chosen and announced as the lead of “Shang-Chi” less than a year after he posted his tweet.

“I’ve been manifesting this kind of superhero role for myself for a long time since before that tweet. In my mind I had been chasing that role my entire life,” the actor said during an interview with the Washington Post.

“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” hit theaters Friday. It will arrive in Disney+ in October.