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Actor Simu Liu made headlines on Friday after he called out the celebrity look-alike cam during the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game for being disrespectful. Now, he is doubling down on his take while also clarifying his message.
To recall, during the festivities, the jumbotron featured a Celebrity look-alike segment. When it was Liu's turn to be showcased, the camera panned to a young Asian boy who looks nothing like the “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” actor. Liu took offense of the segment, especially since it highlighted the stereotype that all Asians look like each other.
On Twitter, he shared that while he enjoyed the game, the Asian stereotyping “wasn't cool.”
A day after he sent out the tweet, Simu Liu sent a follow-up tweet to clarify that he is not lambasting the whole Utah Jazz organization for the incident. Instead, he merely wants to call out the cameraman who made the rather insensitive move.
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“To be perfectly clear the entire org and ops team surrounding all-star have been nothing but absolutely stellar to myself and all my friends,” Liu wrote. “This was just one person with a camera. And no disrespect to my man in the videotron either! He's gorgeous, we just don't look alike,” Liu said.
It is unknown if the Jazz or the NBA will take action on the matter, though it's worth noting that Utah has been on the receiving end of some backlash because of it.
While some are pointing out that it's normal for the celebrity look-alike cam to show people that don't really look like the featured personality–which is actually the joke–the fact remains that it could always come off offensive for others. The latter is the case in this one, especially since it hits a particularly sensitive issue for Asians.
