Mark Wahlberg: Simu Liu defends working with actor after criticising him for beating of Vietnamese man

Actor said that while he was ‘angry’ when he sent critical tweets, he has deleted them out of ‘professionalism’

Simu Liu and Mark Wahlberg (Rex)

Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu has defended his decision to work with Mark Wahlberg, having previously criticised the actor for assaulting a Vietnamese man.

Wahlberg was responsible for a number of racially motivated attacks as a teenager in Boston during the Eighties.

In 1988, a then-16-year-old Wahlberg attacked two Vietnamese men while trying to steal beer near his home in Dorchester. He served 45 days of a two-year sentence for the assaults.

Two years ago, Liu condemned Wahlberg for the attack, tweeting: “Let me get this straight, Mark Wahlberg beat a helpless Vietnamese man with a stick until he passed out when he was 16, and is attempting to get the courts to grant him an official pardon on the basis that he's 'turned his life around'?”

When Liu’s casting in the Wahlberg-starring Arthur the King was announced last week, he was called out by fans for deleting the critical tweets.

He has now defended himself on Instagram, saying he did it out of “professionalism” and he hopes he can start “progressive conversations” with Wahlberg.

“I signed on to Arthur the King because I absolutely adored the script, which tells the beautiful story of how a dog changed the lives of four adventure racers in the forests of Ecuador," Liu wrote.  

“Especially having been a dog dad until last year, it hit me straight in the feels. I was and am very passionate about bringing this story to the screen, and playing a character that is undoubtedly a positive representation of an Asian man.”

He continued: “I deleted a couple of tweets I made regarding the past actions of one of my costars as a gesture of professionalism and to open [the] door to progressive conversations and (hopefully) positive change. Obviously it'd be pretty weird to go to work with that tweet still up.”

Liu added that he “meant what he said” in the moment and was “very angry” at the time.