Simu Liu says agent pitched new movie “Atlas” to him as 'you're trying to kill J.Lo'

The "Barbie" star says the new movie is "not the first image of a J.Lo movie that conjured in my mind."

Simu Liu is about to move from the sunny, pink dressings of Barbie into the red-hot "mass-murdering, A.I psychopathic robot" realm of Jennifer Lopez's Atlas, and the new movie's villainous tinge got him excited to tackle a new era in his career.

The actor told Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos that his agent initially pitched his role in the upcoming Netflix film as a deliciously dark foray into territory he never thought he'd venture.

"Imagine getting a call from your agent. 'We want you to be in a movie with J.Lo.' What's the kind of movie that appears in your mind? A rom-com! Maid in Manhattan! Like, yes. Sign me up, please!" Liu said on Thursday's episode of Live With Kelly and Mark. "They're like, 'You're trying to kill J.Lo.' I was like, hold on a second, what do you mean I'm trying to kill J.Lo? That's the last thing I want to do."

Liu said he eventually came around to the idea of playing an evil character in the Brad Peyton-directed sci-fi flick, which follows Lopez as the titular agent hunting the world's first artificially intelligent superterrorist.

Related: See all the looks from the 2024 Met Gala red carpet

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

"I'm playing my first villain role, I'm in my villain era. It's really fun," Liu told Ripa and Consuelos. "Getting to work with Jen is a dream come true. It's not the first image of a J.Lo movie that conjured in my mind, but, yeah, I'd get into it."

Atlas — also starring Sterling K. Brown and Mark Strong — streams May 24 on Netflix.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.