Marvel Star Simu Liu Goes Viral After Announcer Mispronounces Name: 'Close'

Actor Simu Liu is going viral after an announcer failed to say his name correctly at a basketball game.

The Barbie star, 33, attended Sunday's NBA battle between the Los Angeles Clippers and the New Orleans Pelicans at L.A.'s Crypto.com arena.

When Liu was spotted in the audience, the announcer gave him a shout-out but butchered his moniker.

"He played Shang-Chi in the 2021 Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and is Marvel's first-ever Asian superhero, let's hear it for Simu Liu!" the man said.

The actor posted the video to Twitter and added in the comments, "SUMYOO LOO?!" seemingly poking fun at what the pronunciation sounded like.

"Close enough," Liu can be seen mouthing in the clip, which is also what he used for his Twitter caption.

At the time of publication, the video—which was initially posted by the L.A. Clippers' official Twitter account—has been watched more than 500,000 times.

In the comments, people were quick to defend the author.

"Hey do you want to do a quick Google check for pronunciation? - No I got this," Emmy Award winner Allana Harkin wrote.

"I don't want to laugh at this because damn, this guy couldn't take two seconds to look up how to pronounce your name but his slight hesitation as he's saying it has me dead lol," someone else tweeted.

"People think it's funny. I don't. It's the inability of people to try and do better...," another added, while a fourth chimed in, "The live reaction to it was pure class, man."

The People's Choice Award winner was born in Harbin, China, in April 1989 and moved to Canada at the age of 5, according to his bio on IMDb.

After being laid off from his job at an accounting firm, Liu pursued a career in film and television and has since starred in mega hits like Fresh Off the Boat in 2015, Taken in 2016 on television and more.

Liu spoke out about his name in a 2021 interview with USA Today. "I would've given anything to change my name to something a little bit more Anglicized," he said. "I gave my parents a lot of crap and asked, 'Why didn't you just name me 'Steve' or 'Tommy?'"

He added that "it requires a degree of patience when introducing oneself."

"I never say my Starbucks order without spelling it out: I'll always say, 'Simu. S-I-M-U,'" Liu said. "We all know Starbucks baristas are bad enough as it is at spelling normal names correctly, so I figure there's just no chance whatsoever with me."

The Bad Blood alum even went as far as putting his name pronunciation on Twitter in 2019. "A little how-to guide," he tweeted at the time, alongside a YouTube video.

Months later, he posted another name-related tweet, writing, "So y'all can pronounce 'Daenerys' and 'Joaquin' easily... but not my simple-a** name?"

Most recently, in May 2021, Liu tweeted his name is pronounced "SEE-moo LEE-ew" and Shang-Chi is pronounced "SHONG-chee."

"Your friendly #AsianHeritageMonth reminder," Liu wrote. "Thank you for coming to my TED Talk."