{"id":3285,"date":"2026-06-10T23:42:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T23:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/06\/10\/i-love-boosters-star-poppy-liu-on-working-with-boots-riley-trojan-horsing-social-commentary-into-films-and-hacks-ending\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T23:42:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T23:42:00","slug":"i-love-boosters-star-poppy-liu-on-working-with-boots-riley-trojan-horsing-social-commentary-into-films-and-hacks-ending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/06\/10\/i-love-boosters-star-poppy-liu-on-working-with-boots-riley-trojan-horsing-social-commentary-into-films-and-hacks-ending\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I Love Boosters\u2019 Star Poppy Liu on Working With Boots Riley, Trojan Horsing Social Commentary Into Films and \u2018Hacks\u2019 Ending"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\tPoppy Liu<\/a> is seemingly entering a new phase as an actress. <\/p>\n

\tIn her latest film, the Boots Riley-directed I Love Boosters<\/a><\/em>, the actress stars alongside names such as Keke Palmer, Demi Moore, Taylour Paige, Eiza Gonzalez, Naomi Ackie and Lakeith Stanfield. \u201cThis level of visibility or mainstream-ness feels really new, and like I\u2019m in real time still wrapping my head around that,\u201d Liu tells The Hollywood Reporter<\/em> on a recent Zoom. <\/p>\n

\tOn one hand, she\u2019s closing a chapter \u2014 Hacks<\/em>, where she first found mainstream Hollywood success, has ended. On another hand, she\u2019s preparing to dive headfirst into a slew of projects. \t<\/p>\n

\tLiu stars alongside Stephanie Hsu and Andrew Liu in a new Netflix adult animated comedy, Dang!<\/em> She\u2019s working on a new feature that she describes as an \u201cerotic horror\u201d about a character she plays that has \u201ca sexual awakening\u201d in the form of a ghost from the Chinese Exclusion Act period.<\/p>\n

\tThen there\u2019s the Chinese American western she\u2019s been trying to find the shape of. \u201dThat\u2019s been a dream project and a thing that\u2019s been on my mind for a long time,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cIt feels exciting that Boosters<\/em> is the kickoff for this era,\u201d adds Liu. \u201cIt feels fitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tBelow, the actress digs into working with Riley, why she loves films that \u201cTrojan Horse\u201d social commentary, the importance of mutual aid and how she\u2019s feeling about Hacks<\/em> ending. <\/p>\n

\tWhat was it like working with Boots Riley?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tHe\u2019s a bucket list director that I have wanted to work with. I admire him so much. His voice is utterly singular as an artist. I love the maximalism, the absurdism. I love that he uses satire and surrealism as a way to make very poignant social commentary. Sometimes I get the ick when people are writing stuff about social justice or whatever and I\u2019m like, yeah, but there\u2019s a way for you to also show up in your own life in that way too with the things that are happening around you. Seeing a lot of people not step up to the plate versus Boots, he\u2019s walked the walk for forever. He\u2019s so about this. It just makes me respect his work that much more because I know the kind of life that he leads. I know what his values are and what he cares about. I do feel like the artist outside of the art matters. \t<\/p>\n

\tHe\u2019s known for using these surreal settings and absurdist ideas to make genuine commentary. What is it about this kind of story that draws you in?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tWith the absurdism and social commentary piece, I kind of like that it\u2019s a little bit of a Trojan horse. Even with the color and the fashion and everything. Maybe you\u2019re drawn in, or even based on what the trailer looks like, you\u2019re like, \u201cOh, this is going to be a fun, awesome fashion heist.\u201d You come out of it and realize this is about global class solidarity and how all of our oppressions are interlinked, etc., etc. But I feel like the veneer of the fashion and the beauty, and the humor of it, is part of what lets your guard come down. There\u2019s people that have an immediate allergic reaction to social commentary, which is wild because every aspect of your life is political. It\u2019s a willing blind eye to not see it that way, but sure, it\u2019s your prerogative. Whereas, I think that people don\u2019t really have the chance to put up that defense ahead of time [with Boots\u2019 films] because there\u2019s too much else happening in this world and there\u2019s too many interesting and wild things going on. You\u2019re drawn in for all these different reasons, and then the story unfolds as it does. That ability to disarm somebody through art and through story and through beauty is a very, very important form of soft power.<\/p>\n

\tThere is a weird aspect of this job. You have these red carpet premieres with a opulence and these award shows. Even though sometimes it feels like the world is burning. I wonder how you deal with it yourself. It\u2019s a part of your job, but sometimes it is hard, I think, to reconcile that within yourself.<\/strong> \t<\/p>\n

\tIt\u2019s honestly really front of mind for me a lot. Just there\u2019s the cognitive dissonance, a bit, of it all and also this is part of \u2026 I don\u2019t know, I\u2019ve only been working in Hollywood for the last seven years. For most of my adult life, most of my 20s, I was just doing very indie, hyper-indie, grassroots [projects], mostly theater. Even the filmmaking was a very indie level. Even working in Hollywood, most of it has been TV, which I\u2019m just learning is a really different beast than the visibility of film. This is the first high profile film that I\u2019ve done. This is my first theatrical release film. I think the only other films I\u2019ve done have been straight to streaming. I\u2019ve had premieres for the shows. I\u2019ve done the circus and the performance of the press, the bells and whistles that come with it and all of that. This level of visibility or mainstreamness feels really new, and like I\u2019m in real time still wrapping my head around that.<\/p>\n

\tWhat do you think is different?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tIn the past, working on stuff, especially story that has meaning and with friends and whatever, it\u2019s almost like we\u2019re just conversing amongst each other. You just get to be in your bubble of community. The net hasn\u2019t been cast this wide before. People like Keke [Palmer] and Eiza [Gonzalez], I have a lot of admiration for how long they\u2019ve been under the spotlight. How everything is under such public scrutiny, especially being a young person and still figuring yourself out and making mistakes. I\u2019m a grown adult at this point. I didn\u2019t join Hollywood until my frontal lobe was developed, so even if people are mad at me or something\u2019s going [on], I can put it in perspective. I know what matters and what doesn\u2019t matter. \t<\/p>\n

\tDo you have thoughts on this in the context of I Love Boosters<\/em> specifically?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tWe\u2019re promoting this particular film, and there\u2019s so many themes of anti-capitalism and global class solidarity and revolution. This is the movie, and we obviously want people to see it and we believe in it, but also we\u2019re performing capitalism at its highest in order to do that also. It\u2019s like, how do you grapple with that? Maybe you don\u2019t. If I wasn\u2019t in the movie doing this and watching it, I probably would also be like, what? I think having this realization in it \u2014 we are performing this because we are also the commodity too. We\u2019re selling the movie, but we\u2019re also selling ourselves and this is the commodity and the performance is part of the labor. I can write an essay about this.<\/p>\n

\tIt\u2019s very interesting because if you make a movie about these ideas and then no one sees it, is that helping?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tIf it does really well, then you\u2019re peak capitalism, but then it\u2019s like\u2026 we\u2019re all complicit under capitalism.<\/p>\n

\tExactly.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tObviously, in so many ways the hypocrisy is unavoidable on so many levels. I can [talk about] worker exploitation [but] I\u2019m talking to you on my iPhone, probably made in Congo. I held off on getting a new one as long as I could, but then still was like, \u201cOh, fine. I\u2019ll trade it and get an iPhone 16.\u201d Sometimes I think about this too \u2014 knowing also Boots\u2019 revolutionary spirit and what the takeaway is \u2014 just how daunting it can be when what we\u2019re up against is something like capitalism. Who ethically can even speak on that? Nobody. Also what do we do? It can be so debilitating, which I think is also a method of the ruling class to make you feel so hopeless you can\u2019t do a single thing. \t<\/p>\n

\tHow do you aim to combat that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tThe practical thing that I can touch and hold onto is mutual aid. I actually feel like the evil of buying into the system is actually the evil of believing the lie that it is every man for himself. That it is an individualistic thing. We live collectively, and we live interdependently. At the end of the day, I care less about where maybe someone is on a political spectrum than I do about [whether they\u2019re] practicing mutual aid with their community. During a time of crisis, who do you show up as? Are you the person that\u2019s responsible for the people around you? [Are you] going to do what you can? Or are you like, \u201cFuck off, I got mine. The hell with the rest of you.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t Going back to I Love Boosters<\/em>, something you said at the SXSW screening made me pause. You said you lived in \u201cwindowless\u201d hotel bedrooms in Atlanta. Please tell me more about that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tThank you for bringing this up. It\u2019s actually a beautiful hotel. It\u2019s called Forth Hotel. It\u2019s kind of newish, but their second floor is their longer term stay floor, and it\u2019s a nice apartment. You have a little kitchenette and a living room, but it\u2019s just that the placement of the bedroom because it\u2019s long, it\u2019s kind of railroad style. It\u2019s just one long hallway that goes to the end. The window could have been for bedroom or for living room, and they chose for living room, so the bedroom is within a windowless, completely pitched black cave. When you have a long day on set and you just go to pass out \u2026 I have slept in that room for 15 hour stretches at a time. \t<\/p>\n

\tI feel like that would be an incredible sleep.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tIs an incredible sleep, but also at some point your circadian rhythm doesn\u2019t know anything anymore. As your film days get longer throughout the week, and then you\u2019re starting at 4 p.m. finishing at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m., you go to sleep then you have days without seeing sunlight because you\u2019re just asleep in your windowless room during those hours. There\u2019s no idea what\u2019s going on out in the world. It\u2019s quite a liminal space being on set.<\/p>\n

\tI\u2019d love to quickly chat about what Hacks<\/em> ending means to you? It was such a pivotal moment for your career.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\tIt feels kind of like graduating from high school. Cue the Vitamin C \u201cGraduation\u201d song. Especially for my character, Kiki, since I\u2019m not there all the time. I just bop in, bop out. It\u2019s not so much that my daily life is that different now than it is the emotional feeling of an era coming to an end, and that era just spanning some really pivotal milestone moments for all of us. We started filming in 2020 during COVID, everything was covered in saran wrap. Everyone was spraying down the vegetables. We all had the masks, the visor. I was living in an RV during this time to do social distancing and hadn\u2019t moved to L.A. I was still living in New York, I lived out of an RV for a little bit, and then the show came out and also the vaccine came out. The world opened back up again, but now with this show emerging. And it was such a huge hit. For my career, it really marked the beginning of [something]. I have been working ever since, which I feel really, really grateful for. I feel like Hacks was really the catalyst.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poppy Liu is seemingly entering a new phase as an actress. In her latest film, the Boots Riley-directed I Love Boosters, the actress stars alongside names such as Keke Palmer, Demi Moore, Taylour Paige, Eiza Gonzalez, Naomi Ackie and Lakeith Stanfield. \u201cThis level of visibility or mainstream-ness feels really new, and like I\u2019m in real time still wrapping my head around that,\u201d Liu tells The Hollywood Reporter on a recent Zoom. On one hand, she\u2019s closing a chapter \u2014 Hacks, where she first found mainstream Hollywood success, has ended. On another hand, she\u2019s preparing to dive headfirst into a slew of projects. Liu stars alongside Stephanie Hsu and Andrew Liu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1046,164,60,1906],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hollywood","category-i-love-boosters","category-movie-features","category-movies","category-poppy-liu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}