Simu Liu and His Fiancée are Fans of Love Island, Which Reminds Him of The Copenhagen Test
Simu Liu says he and fiancée Allison Hsu adore Love Island, and he sees similarities between the show and his Copenhagen Test character.
One may wonder what a reality dating competition show and an espionage thriller have in common, but Simu Liu sees some similarities between Love Island and his new Peacock series, The Copenhagen Test.
Liu stars as Alexander Hale on The Copenhagen Test, an intelligence analyst who discovers his brain has been hacked. He "must maintain a perfect performance 24/7 to flush out who’s responsible and prove where his allegiance lies," a synopsis for the show explains.
It's serious, life-or-death stuff, and seemingly could not be more different from Love Island, which puts singles in a villa and monitors them as they form romantic bonds and try to find love and avoid being eliminated.
But Liu has said that he and his fiancée Allison Hsu are fans of Love Island, and that the dating show has even helped him better understand his character in The Copenhagen Test.
Why does Love Island remind Simu Liu of his Copenhagen Test character?
In The Copenhagen Test, the intelligence agency Alexander works for assigns Melissa Barrera's operative character — who goes by several names, including Michelle — to pursue him as a romantic interest. Since the unknown brain hackers can see and hear everything Alexander does, the two must make their relationship seem authentic and play it up.
Liu told Entertainment Weekly for a November 2025 story that Love Island "gave me a really key insight to what Alexander's feeling." He explained, "You see this all the time on Love Island. You see people play it up for the cameras. They know that people are watching, and they know that people are voting on whether or not they get to stay on the island. So how they are with each other and the connections that they forge... there's a level of artifice to it."
"Maybe... there's something there"
While Alexander and Michelle are putting on an act for whomever has hacked his brain, that doesn't necessarily mean that the characters don't have real feelings for each other, as Liu pointed out.
"Can you say that that negates the authenticity of the relationship completely? Maybe not," Liu added to EW. "Maybe they each know that there's something there, but they're playing this duality of like, 'Okay, it's you and me, and we're both in understanding that we need to play something up for the audiences out there.' Maybe there's something going on under as well when all the cameras are turned off."
How can I watch The Copenhagen Test?
To discover more about the dynamic between Alexander and Michelle, watch The Copenhagen Test, which drops in full on Peacock on December 27, 2025.
Who is Simu Liu's fiancée, Allison Hsu?
As for Liu's fiancée, Allison Hsu, whom he said is also a Love Island fan, she's a digital marketing director for Interscope Records, according to her LinkedIn profile. The couple announced their engagement in May of 2025.
Liu wrote at the time in an Instagram post, "From weekends in Paris, day trips to Palm Springs, long nights on set, afternoons vegging on the couch and everything in between, I choose you forever and always."
