Poppy Liu
POPPY IN BLOOM
Actor Poppy Liu candidly discusses their upcoming film I Love Boosters, losing a role for taking a stance, and the importance of empathy in art.
Summer 2026
PHOTOGRAPHY Steven Simione
WORDS Kish Lal
I FIRST ENCOUNTERED POPPY LIU (THEY/SHE) AS KIKI, the blackjack dealer in Hacks. Their intoxicating irreverence and devotion to “Lose You to Love Me” by Selena Gomez had me instantly hooked. Of course, people aren’t the characters they play, but when it comes to Liu, they feel like a sparkling mosaic of everything that’s come before: every character, song, belief, and experience.
While the 35-year-old has devoted most of their life to acting, from leftist puppetry and naked theater to roles in No Good Deed, The Afterparty, and the Peabody Award–winning series Dead Ringers, it’s a disservice to define Liu only by what they’ve done on screen. As a full-spectrum doula, they’ve assisted people through abortions and complex births as a translator. They’re also an activist who speaks out on reproductive justice, queer rights, and Palestine.
It was their vocal stance on the genocide that led to Liu’s losing a major TV role in 2024. But just five days later, they’d be on the phone with Boots Riley, discussing the role of Jianhu in I Love Boosters. “This isn’t just one of the greatest highlights of my career so far, but also cosmic reassurance that if I stay true to myself I’ll attract the right people.”
JACKET Sandro / SKIRT Vintage / SHOES Alohas
KISH LAL: You were just in Oakland for the Boosters premiere. Can you tell me about the project?
POPPY LIU: It’s probably my favorite thing I’ve worked on. Boots Riley is a dream, bucket list director. I really admire and respect him politically and how outspoken he’s always been. Before I did my tape we got on a Zoom because Boosters is so magical—mixing realism and surrealism with elements of sci-fi—it needed a discussion. I remember thinking, Even if I don’t book this job, getting to talk to Boots is alrady a career highlight. Afterwards I felt so invigorated—like, Hollywood isn’t all ick. This also happened around May or June of 2024, right around the time of covert industry blacklisting of people outspoken about Palestine. I was definitely feeling certain repercussions around that.
KL: What happened?
PL: I lost a pretty big job just five days before I got my meeting with Boots. If I hadn’t lost that job, I wouldn’t have been available to do his movie. So, it was a huge blessing. For me, being an artist is about caring very deeply about humanity, taking in injustices, working on the muscle of empathy, and giving a shit about people outside our own communities.
JACKET, BOTTOMS & SPATS Erik Charlotte / BRA Stella McCartney / SHOES 3.1 Phillip Lim
“Art imitates life in such freaky ways.”
KL: Boosters also casts a critical eye over the fashion industry. What’s your connection to fashion?
PL: I do love fashion. It took moving to New York and meeting other queer Asians, artists, and activists doing circus and puppeteering and naked experimental theater, to finally begin putting the pieces of myself together. Fashion played a really big part of that exploration. There was a period in my twenties where I just looked so much like a twink [laughs]. I’m a parent now, which is the best thing that’s happened in my life, but I’m also in this new era of myself. It kind of feels like I’m constantly going through puberty.
KL: Do you think about fashion politically?
PL: We’re culturally at a point where we’re all talking about how fashion is political. With Boots’ movie you get to see the system broken down. Who is making your clothes? What is the supply and labor chain? Who is being exploited? Boosters is a really anti-capitalist movie. It contends with the obsession and disease of consumerism. The hopeful part for me is that it builds this global class solidarity and connects the dots. And Boots conveys all of these heavy concepts in such a delightful way using a parallel universe, which is part of his genius.
TOP & BOTTOM Aknvas
“We’re culturally at a point where we’re all talking about how fashion is political.”
KL: Speaking of fashion movies in a parallel universe, one of your favorite movies is The Devil Wears Prada.
PL: Yes, and The Devil Wears Prada 2 rocked my world. I watched it in the Bay Area for the Boosters premiere with my bestie. We walked to AMC from the hotel, passing Waymos, billboards for AI services that don’t make sense, and people sleeping on the street with delivery robots driving around them. So, starkly dystopian. Seeing the film explore the downfall of craft and beauty and culture, and the new villain that is Big Tech, felt so interlinked. Three days later, we have Jeff Bezos at the Met Gala. Art imitates life in such freaky ways. I wrote a really long-winded Letterboxd review of it, which is my preferred social media of choice. And by that, I mean, I use it as a live journal where I just kind of, much like this interview, share thoughts as they occur to me.
KL: Bring back live journaling! I’m dying to know more about the naked theater and puppetry.
PL: I did naked theater with a company called Blessed Unrest, collaborating with an Albanian theater company. We’d drink a lot of Fernet and smoke a lot of cigarettes. One was a beautiful piece of theater about loss, trauma, intergenerational PTSD, and the ways the body remembers. The story starts with our ensemble walking on stage butt naked, and just staring and smiling at the audience for about three minutes. Then, my friend started Puppetsburg, writing leftist puppet shows. We’d bike through the city with backpacks full of puppets and perform for toddlers in condo building playrooms. I’d make $45 per show.
SUNGLASSES Anna Sui / BODYSUIT Simkhai / GLOVES Handsome Stockholm / SHOES Francesca Bellavita
“Being an artist is about caring very deeply about humanity.”
KL: I love imagining you bike across New York on your way to radicalize children. You also became a doula around this time?
PL: That started because I made a short film about my abortion in 2015. I self-produced a tour of it to college campuses, teaching workshops about storytelling as a vehicle for activism. People started reaching out who were about to have abortions or just had them, wanting to talk. So I fell into abortion doula work, but then decided to train as a full-spectrum doula. A physician eventually reached out who had a complicated-pregnancy client and had scoured the city for a Mandarin-speaking doula. The hospital had no infrastructure for translators, so I became her primary translator.
KL: So what do you want to do next?
PL: I love indie films. It feels like the marriage of working in Hollywood but with the grassroots community collaboration of my twenties in New York. As everything gets tech-washed, you still have these bubbles of independent artists that can never be squashed out. Ever. And if anything, I think it actually makes that space so much more interesting and so much more vital. Speaking of which, I’m teaming up again with my friend Jess X Snow for an erotic horror film about a Chinese American PhD student who encounters a utopian ghost community from the Chinese Exclusion era and has an erotic and identity awakening. ❤
JACKET & SKIRT Aknvas / SHIRT Melke / SOCKS Sandy Liang / SHOES Jeffrey Campbell
STORY CREDITS
PHOTOGRAPHY Steven Simione / WORDS Kish Lal / CREATIVE DIRECTION Scott Oliver Hart-Sussmann / STYLIST Lindsey Hartman / SET DESIGNER Zac Mitchellat Atelier Management / HAIR Tammy Yiat Tracey Mattingly Agency / MAKEUP Valerie Vonprisk / PRODUCER Becca Hong
HERO IMAGE CREDITS
JACKET & SKIRT Aknvas / SHIRT Melke / SOCKS Sandy Liang / SHOES Jeffrey Campbell
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