Constance Wu Says She Encountered Sexual Harassment And Intimidation At The Hands Of A “Fresh Off The Boat” Producer
Back in 2019, Constance Wu faced a hefty dose of backlash for being ungrateful when she tweeted “fucking hell” and “so upset right now that I’m literally crying. Ugh fuck” upon learning that the show that put her on the map, Fresh Off The Boat, had been renewed for a sixth season. Constance gave the excuse that she was upset that she had to drop out of a play she was passionate about to shoot FOTB, apologized, and then fulfilled her contractual duties by finishing the show; but ultimately ended up taking a social media break after showing her entire ass. However, Constance is now dipping her toe back into social media and has a new book coming out, and in it, she says that the reason she was so distraught about having to be back on the FOTB set is that one of the producers repeatedly intimidated and sexually harassed her.
Constance is promoting her book and decided that she’s ready to come forward about what she experienced while playing matriarch, Jessica Huang, on the show. According to People, Constance says that she didn’t come forward before because she feared damaging the image of a show with Asian Americans at the forefront.
In a conversation with The Atlantic on Friday to promote her new book Making a Scene, the actress, 40, revealed that she faced “sexual harassment and intimidation” on the set of the ABC sitcom by one of the show’s producers.
Though she was uncomfortable with the situation, Wu said she did not come forward with the story at the time in order to protect the show and its impact on the Asian American community.
“It was the only show on network television in over 20 years to star Asian Americans, and I did not want to sully the reputation of the one show we had representing us. I kept my mouth shut for a really long time about a lot of sexual harassment and intimidation that I received the first two seasons of the show.”
Constance says that once the show took off and she had more clout, she told the producer to fuck off with his bullshit and considered it handled. And while Constance didn’t name the producer, she did say he was also Asian American, so it probably wouldn’t take the FBI to figure out who she’s talking about.
“I was no longer scared of losing my job,” she explained. “That’s when I was able to start saying ‘no’ to the harassment, ‘no’ to the intimidation, from this particular producer. And, so I thought, ‘You know what? I handled it, nobody has to know, I don’t have to stain this Asian American producer’s reputation, I don’t have to stain the reputation of the show.'”
But then she realized that when you stay quiet about negative experiences and suppress bad feelings, they rear their ugly head elsewhere. Enter her inflammatory rage tweets.
“Those tweets that came out were the emotions I suppressed that I thought I could will away, coming out in another way.” Wu noted, “The thing is bad feelings don’t go away just because you will them to. They are inevitably going to come out somewhere.”
“I made some very profane, reckless tweets that sort of ignited this whole pile-on of hatred towards me because I just had a hit movie, Crazy Rich Asians, so it looked really bad from the outside. Like, ‘Oh, she thinks she’s this big movie star,'” Wu explained. “When really, I wanted to have a fresh slate where I didn’t have to start a show with all these memories of abuse.”
“Those tweets that came out were the emotions I suppressed that I thought I could will away, coming out in another way.”
I would also speculate that accusations that “pain in the fucking ass” Contance’s alleged diva behavior on the set of Hustlers made Jennifer Lopez look like a tame, docile flower who had to step in to defend her didn’t help Constance’s optics at that time either. Constance says that everything got so burdensome that it led her to attempt suicide. Luckily, a friend found her and rushed her to the ER.
Upon returning to the platforms this past July, Wu shared a lengthy statement that addressed what happened during her time away from social media, how she had attempted suicide following the backlash and her plans to release a memoir of deeply personal essays.
“I was afraid of coming back on social media because I almost lost my life from it: 3 years ago, when I made careless tweets about the renewal of my TV show, it ignited outrage and internet shaming that got pretty severe,” she wrote in a tweet posted Jul. 14. “I felt awful about what I’d said, and when a few DMs from a fellow Asian actress told me I’d become a blight on the Asian American community, I started feeling like I didn’t even deserve to live anymore. That I was a disgrace to AsAms, and they’d be better off without me.”
After a break from the spotlight and some therapy, she’s on a healing path and says she owes it to her past self and others who may be suffering to come forward. Here’s her full statement from July:
— Constance Wu (@ConstanceWu) July 14, 2022
Now that Constance’s inner turmoil is on the mend, I’d also like to know if her trusted bunny sidekick, Lida Rose, is still leaving outer turdsoils all over Manhattan penthouses. Constance had a secret baby girl early in the pandemic, making her a toddler by now. Toddlers don’t know the difference between bunny pellets and Cadbury Mini Eggs scattered all over the floor, and I’m not sure if I can stomach a tweet about that. I hope Lida has been dispatched to shit all over that producer’s bed instead.
Pic: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency