Constance Wuis pulling back the curtain in her new memoirMaking a Scene.
In the book, Wu offers her thoughts about rising to fame as one of the stars of ABC’sFresh Off the Boat, puts forth allegations ofrapeandon-set sexual harassment, and reflects on what motherhood means for her career.
The actress, 40, also details asuicide attemptfollowingrenewal dramaduring her time onFOTBand shares how she’s moved on as anew momwhile also starring on the Amazon Prime Video seriesThe Terminal List.
Below, read some of Wu’s struggles and triumphs as chronicled inMaking a Scene.
Constance Wu.Frazer Harrison/Getty
She was allegedly sexually assaulted before finding fame
The alleged assault took place on their second date. “I felt a twinge of warning in my gut, but I ignored it — he didn’tlookthreatening or shady in any way, and if you had been there, you would have agreed,” Wu writes about Ty’s invitation to go to his place.
After the two began to get intimate, Wu asked to stop, but Ty continued and Wu did not resist.
“Some people might say that I should have fought back against Ty,” she writes. “But if I could go back in time, I wouldn’t change how I reacted that night. Because when I think about the girl I was back then, I understand what she was going through.”
Wu moved passed the alleged assault and on with her life. “I started to find success in my acting career — giving me a front-row seat toHollywood’s latent sexismand misogyny,” she writes.
Only after filming her star-making turn in 2018’sCrazy Rich Asiansdid the memory return. “I’d just woken up from a nap when the realization hit me like a flood. Ty raped me. He raped me, and I hadn’t done anything about it,” she recalls.
Wu claims a male producer harassed her on the set ofFresh Off the Boat
“I was a theater actress who’d never done a network sitcom before and I’d screen-tested for the role against two beautiful, talented women with lots of television work under their belts,” she writes. The male producer would tell her, “Nobody wanted you. I had to fight for you,” recalls Wu.
Byron Cohen/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
M’s attention could be oppressive, says Wu. “He demanded a direct line to me at all times,” the actress recalls. He would also remark on her looks. The producer told Wu he preferred her hair long and “told me I looked better in short skirts and should wear them more often ‘while you still can,’ he’d say with a smirk,” she recalls. “He asked to see pictures of my female friends and would tell me if he’d f— them or not. He constantly questioned me about my dating life, past and present…Sometimes, he texted me late at night, requesting selfies. It made me feel uncomfortable and I didn’t want to.”
Wu says she would try to laugh off his advances or redirect conversation, but producer’s actions intensified at a Lakers game he pressured her to attend, at which he put a hand on her bare thigh. “Your skin is so smooth,” she remembers him saying, before sliding his hand up and grazing her crotch. Wu sternly shut him down. On the car ride home, Wu recalls him saying, “You know what the best thing about producing this show is? That I can f— whatever aspiring Asian actress I want to.”
Constance Wu.Steve Granitz/WireImage
Wu says that “aside from that basketball game, he never touched me inappropriately,” and that she downplayed it at the time. But afterFOTBwas picked up for a second season, she felt weary. “That’s when I started getting tired. Tired of M—’s cues for an excessive show of gratitude, tired of the casual sexism, tired of him keeping tabs on all areas of my life,” she writes.
Wu attempted suicide after the backlash she received followingFresh Off the Boat’s renewal
The actress reveals in her memoir that she attempted suicide following the backlash she received from her tweets aboutFresh Off the Boat.
In 2019, Wu wrote on Twitter that she was"really upset" about the show’s renewal, sparking outrage from fans who didn’t think the rising star was appreciative of her position on the ABC comedy.
Constance Wu onFresh Off the Boat.Kelsey McNeal/ABC via Getty
Wu was remorseful, but found she couldn’t apologize satisfactorily. “I apologized to a very upset former colleague of mine over DM. She replied with DM after DM shaming me … telling me that nothing I could ever do would make up for my atrocious behavior and disgusting ingratitude. How I had sullied the one shining beacon of hope for Asian Americans. How selfish I was to not consider everyone else’s jobs on the show,” she writes.
The woman’s messages made Wu feel “helpless and desperate,” she recalls. “Why wouldn’t she believe my remorse? That I hurt as badly as she wanted me to? My head spinning, I realized I needed a wound to prove it, to prove that I hurt as bad as everyone said I deserved to hurt and it couldn’t be a little wound, it had to be the biggest wound in the world for it to be enough. That’s how I ended up clutching the balcony railing of my fifth-floor apartment.”
A friend pulled her from the balcony edge and Wu checked into the psychiatric ER of a mental hospital. Wu writes that she’s grateful the experience ultimately pointed her toward therapy. “The social media backlash and hospital stay made me finally get help,” she says.
Her life has changed since joiningThe Terminal List
Wu writes that ultimately she learned to disengage from public opinion after theFOTBrenewal backlash.
Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Prime Video (2)
And she feels supported as a new mom on the show. “The producers and crew were supportive of my family needs from the get-go, carving out time for me to pump or breastfeed or hop on a call with the pediatrician. It films in Los Angeles, so I didn’t have to uproot my family,” she says. “My role on the show doesn’t require as much press or media scrutiny and I am glad to just be able to focus on the acting part of it. I enjoy my work on the show and I feel good there.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Making a Sceneis out now everywhere books are sold, andThe Terminal Listcan be streamed in full on Amazon Prime Video.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go tosuicidepreventionlifeline.org.
source: people.com
