Constance Wu addresses those 'Fresh Off the Boat' tweets: 'I can be dramatic'
Constance Wu learned a valuable lesson over what she called the Fresh Off the Boat "Twitter fiasco" from earlier this year. But, "I'm not beating myself up for it," she said.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Wu addressed the drama that occurred after she tweeted her frustration that her hit show was renewed for a sixth season. ("So upset right now that I’m literally crying. Ugh. F**k," she wrote in a series of deleted tweets.)
"I had this moment of heat where I got upset because I had to give up a job I had been looking forward to and had been chasing for a while," the 37-year-old explained, echoing the swift apology she issued in May. The part wasn't for a film, but a play she'd been hoping to do.
"It was moving to me how many people from the show reached out to me, and even on set ... to say, 'Just so you know, we love you and we know who you are, and you didn’t deserve any of that stuff,'" she recalled.
By "stuff," Wu is likely referring to the negative response and press she received in the aftermath of the messages. Reports surfaced about the Crazy Rich Asians star having a reputation for being rude, ungrateful and a "diva" on set.
"They also know that I’m an actress — I can be dramatic," she said of her cast and crew. "I mean, that’s our toolkit, right? I’m dramatic. I’m emotional. But they also know that that doesn’t represent me because they have a hundred episodes of behavior that proves otherwise."
Wu told the L.A. Times that part of her worries she’ll be blamed if Season 6 of Fresh Off the Boat is its last, although she is under contract for another two years. The ABC series premiered in 2015 and was Wu's breakout role. In 2017, she was named one of Time’s Most Influential People and was cast in the lead role in Crazy Rich Asians. Still, the actress was surprised at how her tweets took off.
"I’m not beating myself up for it, because I know me," she shared. "But I don’t think I realized that people were paying so much attention to my Twitter."
Wu added that she regrets that her tweets affected her castmates, colleagues and network president Karey Burke. (Earlier this month, Burke said she hadn't spoken to Wu about the outburst.) But the actress learned a lesson from the backlash.
"I like that people are expressing their feelings about it, because it improved my awareness of what it means to be a... public figure," she said. "I’ve had a back and forth about it. It’s the line between being a role model, but also authenticity.
"I think a lot of why people are lonely in this world is because they go through these Instagram feeds and everybody’s life is perfect," Wu continued. "Nobody trips up. And sometimes I think, might it be good to see our heroes mess up a little bit and not always be perfect?"
Wu can be seen next in the upcoming film Hustlers alongside Jennifer Lopez.
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