“I’m really trying to grow this account. I’m not looking to act forever,” joked the actor, who rescued his dog, Chopa, from the Dominican Republic, where the film was shot.
Simu Liu is a multi-hyphenate star, and now he’s added a new job to his resume: dogfluencer!
While promoting his new film, Arthur the King, in a puppy-filled interview with TooFab, the actor opened up about what inspired him to dedicate an Instagram account to his rescue dog, Chopa, and share the adorable pup’s journey with the world.
Liu, 34, explained that he launched the social media account for his dog, Barkley, with the profile featuring many photos of the pup’s life with the Barbie star before he died in 2019. However, Liu didn’t delete the account, and after he met, fostered, and later adopted Chopa while filming Arthur the King in the Dominican Republic in 2021, he began to share photos of his dog dad life once again.
“I had an Instagram for my dog Barkley, who passed about a year before we made this movie,” he said while sitting alongside his costars Nathalie Emmanuel and Ali Suliman. (All three actors were holding puppies.)
“I just thought it’d be really beautiful to have a sense of continuity. And so, I made a post really grieving him and commemorating him, but then I thought it’d be really cool to just continue that journey [with] Chopa. So Chopa’s account is Barkley’s old account. I just changed the name, but you can see all the photos.”
After Emmanuel noted that she needs to follow Chopa’s account, Liu joked, “Join the other 21,000 other people!”
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As for what Liu thinks of being a “dogfluencer,” he joked, “If you have any tips, by the way, let me know ’cause I’m really trying to grow this account. I’m not looking to act forever. I’m really looking to just profit off of this as much as I can!
After Emmanuel noted that she needs to follow Chopa’s account, Liu joked, “Join the other 21,000 other people!”
“21,000? Chopa’s famous!” Emmanuel replied.
We’d like to point out that it’s over 22,000 now.
Arthur the King, based on a remarkable true story, follows a pro adventure racer, Michael Light (Mark Wahlberg), who forms a bond with a street dog named Arthur during a 400-mile endurance race in the Dominican Republic.
Liu, Emmanuel, and Suliman star as three athletes on Light’s team, while Wahlberg plays a fictional version of Swedish adventure racer, Mikael Lindnord.
Arthur the King, which is directed by Simon Cellan Jones, is based on Lindnord’s book, Arthur: The Dog Who Crossed the Jungle to Find a Home.
Meanwhile, also during their interview with TooFab, Liu, Emmanuel, and Suliman spoke about how Lindnord’s training program compared to how they prepared for their roles in Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Ring, Fast & Furious, and Jack Ryan, respectively, and shared the last time they felt their competitiveness take over in real life.
See what they had to say in the full interview, above!
Arthur the King is in theaters now.
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