Constance Wu recalls 'betrayal' by Asian American advocate who publicly praised abuser she told him about
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Constance Wu has revealed that a confidant once betrayed her trust after he publicly praised her alleged Fresh Off the Boat abuser.
Elaborating on allegations of sexual harassment she experienced on the set of her ABC sitcom Fresh Off the Boat (as outlined in her new memoir Making a Scene), the Hustlers actress told Trevor Noah on Thursday's episode of The Daily Show that she once told an Asian American advocate about the experience, only to have him laud the man at a panel discussion.
"One of the few people that I told in back in season 2 that I was being sexually harassed was one of the most vocal and prominent advocates for Asian Americans. Very progressive, very outspoken, and I sort of told him as a testing ground to see if he would believe me, and he just looked at me like my dog had died and never asked at anything again," Wu told Noah, noting that the exchange took place prior to the #MeToo movement. "A week later, I saw him introducing my abuser on an Asian American panel with the most profuse praise, and it felt like such a betrayal. I'm like, if even he doesn't believe me, who's going to believe me?"
Wu stressed that male members of the Asian American community should "stand for women, too, because that's 50 percent of that population."
In her book, Wu alleged that an unnamed producer on the sitcom intervened on professional matters, and made inappropriate jokes and comments about her appearance. She also wrote about a physical harassment that reportedly occurred at a basketball game.
The actress told Noah that part of coping with the trauma led her to feel "compassion" for those who've caused her pain — including the Fresh Off the Boat producer — so she could stop blaming herself for what happened.
Comedy Central Constance Wu discusses sexual harassment experience on 'Fresh Off the Boat.'
"I felt really bad with the sexual harassment on Fresh Off the Boat because sometimes I wanted to be part of the boys club, so when he'd do or say something that was inappropriate, I'd be like, 'Oh my God, you're such a dick,' like, laughing with him. I feel like that was a type of permissiveness, and I felt guilty because of that," she explained. "But then when I thought about how he's an Asian American man, and how Asian American men have traditionally felt very emasculated in this country, and what that does to a person and why and how they might exercise their feelings of powerlessness and exercise it on the women in their own community, because he was always respectful to white and Black women all around me, it was just to Asian women who weren't in positions of power that he sort of exercised his power. I considered that and I considered the pressure he was under. Not to excuse him, but just to understand people better."
Wu previously made headlines when, in 2019, she tweeted disappointment over Fresh Off the Boat's renewal. She said the fallout from the event led to a mental health crisis and a suicide attempt. She also felt ostracized by her community — particularly after actor Simu Liu made a joke about her while hosting a gala celebrating Asian representation after she said she was assured she wouldn't be mocked by the event host.
Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images Constance Wu
"I told them, 'I don't want anybody to make fun of it 'cause I'm still in a very raw place about it. I'm not ready to be mocked for it,'" she said Wednesday on the Red Table Talk series, adding that her peers didn't know about her suicide attempt when Liu made a joke about her as she sat in the front row of the event.
"I was sitting there alone, trying not to cry in a public setting and the whole audience was like, 'Oh, s---! They had promised they wouldn't mock me and they did it right off the bat. It almost felt like they were setting me up for it. And it truly felt like a betrayal from the Asian American community. A couple months prior to that, I was in the emergency room."
Wu said that the Shang-Chi actor later apologized. Reps for Liu didn't respond to EW's request for comment.
Watch Wu's full conversation on The Daily Show above.
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