{"id":3030,"date":"2017-06-29T16:57:29","date_gmt":"2017-06-29T16:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2017\/06\/29\/reluctant-accountant-changes-careers-for-a-better-role-as-an-actor\/"},"modified":"2017-06-29T16:57:29","modified_gmt":"2017-06-29T16:57:29","slug":"reluctant-accountant-changes-careers-for-a-better-role-as-an-actor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2017\/06\/29\/reluctant-accountant-changes-careers-for-a-better-role-as-an-actor\/","title":{"rendered":"Reluctant accountant changes careers for a better role \u2013 as an actor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guy Dixon \/ Globe and Mail<\/em><\/p>\n

Actor Simu Liu is the shining example of using a business degree toward a creative and very unexpected end, not toward a career in accounting.<\/p>\n

The rising Canadian actor, most recognizable for his role as the son, Jung, in the CBC-TV sitcom Kim\u2019s Convenience<\/em>, fell into acting after jettisoning accounting and a corporate path which he had been following without much gumption.<\/p>\n

After relocating to Canada from China and growing up in Mississauga, his parents would have liked him to become a doctor, engineer or lawyer, basically anything professionally minded. Accounting fit the bill.<\/p>\n

Yet, \u201cI was very unfocused when I was little,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Mr. Liu attended the University of Toronto Schools, a private secondary school affiliated with the university, and then received an honours business administration (HBA) degree from the University of Western Ontario\u2019s Ivey Business School. The degree allows undergrads to enter the business stream midway through their undergraduate studies.<\/p>\n

But then he found himself on a path that wasn\u2019t for him. Not graduating near the top of the class, he felt that the higher rungs of Bay Street weren\u2019t attainable. His marks were \u201cmiddle\/middle-bottom, so my option was basically accounting,\u201d he says. This led to a job working for accounting giant Deloitte in downtown Toronto, but Mr. Liu didn\u2019t feel he was a good fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvidently they didn\u2019t think I was either. Eight months in, they laid me off. The first round of cuts, and I was right out,\u201d he says. There is no hint of sour grapes in the retelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething was telling me I should probably take some time and pursue something that I hadn\u2019t before, maybe just to try it. I had been so miserable as an accountant, at least take a few months and do something cool with your life,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was the original plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, as he remembers it, a new calling arose, wrapped up in a deep interest in film and television. \u201cI was raised as an only child. My parents worked a lot. I was basically raised on TV and movies. They would drop me off at a movie theatre on a Saturday morning and say, \u2018Here\u2019s $20, knock yourself out,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cAnd so I would often times watch four or five movies every weekend. I had always been curious and enamoured with that whole industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then came the pivotal point.<\/p>\n

On Craigslist, he answered an online call for extras on the set of the big-budget, effects-laden, Earth-in-peril, giant-robots-versus-giant-alien-monsters action epic Pacific Rim<\/em>, being shot in Toronto and directed by Guillermo del Toro. It was a little different than Bay Street life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the first time I had ever set foot on a set,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019d show up at 4 in the morning, getting paid $11 an hour, significantly less than I was as an accountant.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I fell in love with the whole thing. The set was so big and intricate. I was surrounded by not just working actors, but also everybody from the grips to the gaffers to the ADs [assistant directors]. It felt to me like everybody was so passionate about what they were doing, so focused. It was a totally different world.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cGuillermo del Toro notoriously pays attention to detail that he puts into a world visually. So, of course, stepping in, I was, oh my god, this is so cool?\u201d<\/p>\n

This led to more shoots, a music video here or there, sometimes working for $50 or $100 a day, sometimes free. \u201cThe goal was getting that experience, finding my footing in the industry,\u201d Mr. Liu says. \u201cAnd then I started to realize, as an Asian performer, I was getting a lot of opportunities ahead of my pay grade, ahead of my experience, because the talent pool is not big enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I was, like, oh that\u2019s interesting. There\u2019s an opportunity here. It\u2019s not just something I can do because I\u2019m passionate about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bigger roles came, and more of them, \u201cand all that was missing now was for me to up my skill level. That meant taking acting night classes and building experience that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

In retrospect, it wasn\u2019t entirely a new discovery, but a rediscovery of an interest he had blocked himself from pursuing. He hadn\u2019t participated in theatre at school. \u201cI never really gave myself the permission. I couldn\u2019t say I wasn\u2019t interested, but I didn\u2019t know what it would be like broaching the subject with my parents, who were very, \u2018Get a technical degree, get a stable job.\u2019 Acting seemed to fly in the face of all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It only really came to him after he \u201clost kind of everything,\u201d after leaving an accounting career. Yet the business education helped, Mr. Liu says, with personal skills, networking, all of the soft skills that business people and actors share, plus a later appreciation of how the film industry works business-wise.<\/p>\n

Just don\u2019t equate the happiness that Mr. Liu\u2019s character shows on Kim\u2019s Convenience<\/em> for office work with Mr. Liu\u2019s own career experience.<\/p>\n

The chance of returning to accounting is \u201cinfinitesimally small. I\u2019m such a different person now. My mind has been opened in so many ways, it would be impossible to pigeonhole me back into that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guy Dixon \/ Globe and Mail Actor Simu Liu is the shining example of using a business degree toward a creative and very unexpected end, not toward a career in accounting. The rising Canadian actor, most recognizable for his role as the son, Jung, in the CBC-TV sitcom Kim\u2019s Convenience, fell into acting after jettisoning … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReluctant accountant changes careers for a better role \u2013 as an actor - Thunderbird Entertainment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2017\/06\/29\/reluctant-accountant-changes-careers-for-a-better-role-as-an-actor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reluctant accountant changes careers for a better role \u2013 as an actor - Thunderbird Entertainment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Guy Dixon \/ Globe and Mail Actor Simu Liu is the shining example of using a business degree toward a creative and very unexpected end, not toward a career in accounting. 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