Actor Simu Liu ran into problems with professional autograph seekers in Philadelphia this week, which led to an ugly incident that left the Kim’s Convenience star feeling “shook.”
The 33-year-old Canadian actor was at a book event in the City of Brotherly Love when he was harassed by an unknown number of professional autograph hunters.
These individuals track down celebrity autographs in the hope of selling their signatures for a tidy profit. Unfortunately, they targeted Simu’s book signing and made his genuine fans “uncomfortable.”
Simu Liu refuses to sign for professional autograph hunters
Simu says he refused to sign, and the incident then turned ugly. The actor says he and his team were followed outside and had soda thrown on their car windscreen. Thankfully nobody was hurt.
The Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings actor said they had someone at the venue “documenting” everything so that they could make a full report to the authorities. He wrote on social media: “Obviously, everyone is fine, but we’re just a bit shook that this could happen.”
Simu Liu took to Twitter to post a photograph of the car used by the autograph hunters. He admitted that they could not ID them as they had removed their front license plate.
Simu also explained why he wouldn’t sign an autograph for them in the caption: “Look, I’m trying to have a real moment with my audience. If you come to my events and harass me or make me or my fans uncomfortable, there’s no chance in hell I’m going to sign for you. Don’t cross that line.”
Simu Liu is not going to reward aggressive and toxic behavior
The actor sent a follow-up tweet thanking a fellow Tweeter for their support and reiterating how he wouldn’t allow autograph hunters to cross personal boundaries and he wouldn’t reward aggressive behavior.
He wrote: “At the end of the day it was just a couple bottles of soda but it’s indicative of a really toxic culture of autograph seekers (not all, some) that are willing to cross personal boundaries just to make a buck. I’m not rewarding that behavior.”
Simu Liu was in the news earlier this month after another hairy experience, albeit not as terrifying. Simu is all set to play Ken in the upcoming Barbie movie, which required him to get an all-body hair waxing; he described it as “one of the most painful experiences of [his] life.”