People's Choice Awards host Simu Liu promises to 'punch up': 'It's not about slandering'

LOS ANGELES − He might play a superhero, but Simu Liu isn’t eager to make enemies when he hosts the 2024 People’s Choice Awards.

“It's not about slandering anyone. It's not about getting the most offensive joke that you can possibly get away with. It's not about being the guy that's cutting other people down,” he tells USA TODAY ahead of Sunday's live show (8 p.m. ET/5 PT on NBC, E! and Peacock).

Though he might be best known for his roles in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," "Barbie" and "Kim's Convenience," Liu has also racked up a handful of hosting credits, including, most recently, the 2023 Juno Awards.

“I have an incredible team of writers that are there to support that vision and to punch up and to suggest, 'How does this joke sound?' or ‘What if we instead did this?’ ” Liu says.

Writing the lines he’ll deliver as host, he says, “is almost the most fulfilling and fun part of the whole hosting thing, which is just getting to sit down and riff and create like 12 monologues, 11 of which will never be seen or heard by anyone.”

Though those “probably should never be seen or heard by anyone,” he jokes.

Simu Liu is betting on 'Barbie' at the People's Choice Awards

Last year was full of ups and downs for the 34-year-old Marvel star, who tore his Achilles tendon − and underwent a “successful” surgery to treat it − while on vacation, then had to drop out of an appearance last fall after experiencing “some health scares.”

“How much can we all be ‘all good?’ What does ‘all good’ mean?” he jokes. “I'm in good spirits. I'm walking, which I will never take for granted ever again.”

One of the highlights of his year was being able to see “Barbie,” in which he played one of the Kens, become a pop culture and box-office juggernaut. The Greta Gerwig-directed film arrived in theaters a week after actors joined Hollywood writers on strike, curtailing the cast's promotional plans.

“We got to watch people be affected by the movie in real time and not coerced by any sort of press that we were doing," Liu says. "It was just that organically, people cared about the movie and people cared about what it had to say.”

That said, he’s confident that the people’s vote will be in his − and “Barbie’s” − favor: “I don't think I will be doing any campaigning because I don't think I need to. People were affected by the movie. And I think that that's going to show in the vote.” (“Barbie” is nominated in nine categories, with Liu up for movie performance of the year.)

Simu Liu promises ‘no Taylor (Swift) slander’ in his jokes

Liu was quick to reassure Swifties after Golden Globes host Jo Koy’s joke about the pop superstar didn’t exactly land as intended.

“There will be no Taylor slander at the 2024 PCAs that's a personal guarantee,” Liu posted on X, formerly Twitter, in January.

“The People's Choice Awards is about the fan moments of the year that moved us as a population, as a people, and I don't think anyone had a year quite as influential, as impactful and as upward as Taylor did,” Liu says.

“We have to talk about Taylor, in the best way. And I think in terms of what we want the tone of the show to be, it's so celebratory in nature.”

Why Simu Liu thinks a host should ‘fade into the background’

The 2024 awards season so far has seen Jo Koy, Anthony Anderson (Emmys) and Trevor Noah (Grammys) take on hosting duties, with varying levels of success.

When asked if he had any takeaways from their performances, Liu praises Noah and Anderson for their "phenomenal" work but acknowledges, “I think these hosting jobs are so hard.”

“I don't want to say it's a thankless job, but it's tough. It's tough because the night isn't about you. But then if you mess up, then that's the one way that you can make it about you is negatively,” he says. “And if everything goes smoothly, it's almost like you're doing your job if you fade into the background in just the right way.”

He shouts out comedian Noah for “being a part of the crowd and really expressing his joy and adoration.”

Noah was “a part of the positivity rather than trying to be the, like, insult comic or trying to shock people. There (are) comedians out there that do it exceptionally well, and there's a time and a place and a room where that makes sense.”

He adds, “And then there's People's Choice Awards, which is one big party.”

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