112 HARPER’S BAZAAR JULY 2018
rnet trolls had their way, Constance Wu would
her mouth shut.But no, there is she is on Twitter,
g out the white-saviour narrative that put Matt
on at the centre of the American-Chinese film
Great Wall (2016). And there she goes again,
lighting the systemic racism that led to Scarlett
sson being chosen to play a Japanese character in
t in the Shell(2017).The subtext in some of theof their own identity. This year—when she spoke out against
Hollywood’s knack for dismissing sexual misconduct in our great
men—she chose honesty and fight over the neutrality so many
think they need to maintain in order to further their careers. It
was a hallelujah moment.” In 2018, she joined other celebrities
such as Natalie Portman and Viola Davis at the second Women’s
March in L.A., speaking out against the fetishisation of Asians.
Critics may see her as something of a gadfly when it comes
to Tinseltown’s poor record on diversity, but she shrugs it off.
“People will say a woman is mouthy if she says anything,”Wu
observes. If she had to guess, she thinks she has “probably” lost
some work as a result of some of her more trenchant critiques.
But even as she says her manager would shield her from knowing
she missed out on a role,“because he knows I’m really sensitive,”
there is a glint of steel in her eyes. “When I speak out about
something that means a lot to me, whether it’s sexual harassment
or whitewashing, that matters to me more than losing jobs.
“Because the types of people for whom those statements came
from would lower my credibility. I don’t want their company. I
don’t care if they’re the biggest studio head, I want to be around
people who feel like my tribe,” she continues defiantly.“So it’s
not that scary.”
Just as Wu has become a lightning rod in controversies about
Asian representation, so too have her biggest projects:Fresh off the
Boat, and nowCrazy Rich Asians. And interestingly, the most
vociferous attacks tend to come from other Asians who believe
these stories aren’t representative of them.
Some felt it was wrong to pick a half-white actor, Henry
Golding, to play the male lead, NicholasYoung, while others have
taken issue with the American and British accents of some of the
Asian cast as well as the dearth of non-Chinese Asian characters.
Wu will stick up for the film, but she also welcomes a debate.
When you’re blazing a trail and there are so few Asian-centric
stories to begin with, you have to grow a thick skin, she believes.
“The thing is, I’ve gone through all this before on a smaller
scale, because withFresh off the Boatit was the same situation—it
was the first TV show to centre on an Asian-American experience
in over 20 years.”And Asian viewers’ critiques ofFresh off the Boat,
which has been renewed for a fifth season, foreshadowed what
has begun to happen withCrazy Rich Asians.“There was a lot of
pressure because, obviously, one story can’t represent the whole.
People were anxious because of the way Hollywood has treated
and portrayed us before. And before you even watch it, you’re
defensive and ready to hate it and be offended.That’s a natural
response to not being heard or respected your whole life.
“But I think it’s okay to hate my movie. Maybe it makes
somebody so pissed off that they make their own. You don’t think
this movie or my TV show represents you? Then I want to see
what represents you. I value your story even if Hollywood doesn’t.”
Still, there has been a groundswell of support for both the
show and the new film ahead of its August release, which Wu
believes speaks to the burning hunger among Asians to see
themselves on screen. “There are people for whom it means so
much who relate to it, and that’s wonderful.
“Because what does it say to a young woman if her face is
never the centre of the narrative? She won’t ever think she’s meant
to be the star of her own show.”■outspoken—not just for a woman, but for an Asian woman. But
no brickbat is going to silence the fiery 36-year-old.
Wu’s biting commentary on Hollywood’s diversity blindspot
has made her one of the leading Asian-American voices holding
the entertainment industry to account in recent years. And
professionally, her star is only getting brighter, reaching a new
apogee in August when she headlines the much-anticipated Crazy
Rich Asians, the first major Hollywood movie with a mostly-Asian
cast since The Joy Luck Club, which was released 25 years ago. Based
on Kevin Kwan’s New York Times bestselling comedy of manners,
Wu stars as Rachel Chu, an Asian-American woman discovering
her boyfriend is one of Singapore’s richest bachelors.
Yet despite her growing celebrity, Wu seems to eschew the
spotlight. When she meets Harper’s BAZAAR Singapore for a
chat in a Los Angeles café, she is studiously low-key, her dainty
features half-hidden by a denim cap and honey-dipped tresses. It
is the actress who has asked to meet at this unpretentious vegan
spot in her neighbourhood, Silverlake, an artsy hipster enclave far
from the usual Hollywood power-meeting venues.
Wu, born and raised in Richmond, Virginia to two Taiwanese
émigrés—a genetics-professor father and computer-programmer
mother—calls this area home now. “I like the sensibility better,”
she explains. “If I go somewhere like Beverly Hills or West
Hollywood, I feel like everyone around me is clean and pretty,
and I’m just dirty,” she laughs.
The only attention she draws at the café is from the cashier,
who admires Wu’s 10-year-old Yeah Yeah Yeahs tee. “I like vintage,
well-made pieces. My style has stayed pretty much the same over
the years,” Wu says. Her hair colour, on the other hand, is a different
matter altogether. If you follow Wu on Instagram, you’ll know
she has been switching up her hair colour lately, going from
strawberry blonde locks to blunt black bangs in the same week.
Her advice on how to play with hair colours? “Don’t worry so
much in general—and especially don’t waste energy worrying
about something as temporary as hair colour. If you want to do
it, just do it. If it’s not great, it’ll grow back.”
Wu started out doing classical theatre in New York, before
progressing to indie films and guest appearances on television
shows such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. But it was her
portrayal of Jessica Huang on Fresh off the Boat, the Asian-American
sitcom that launched her career in 2015, that truly struck a chord
with viewers. Off-duty, Wu is equally entrenched in the cultural
zeitgeist. Time magazine chose her to be on its Most Influential
People list in 2017, where Lena Dunham wrote of her friend,
“On the road with her for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, I was not
only able to access a glint of Constance’s humour but also witness
her giving nature, her monstrously big heart, her passion for change
and the careful way she lets everyone around her share the challengesnastier brickbats hurled at Wu is that she’s just too
BY ALISON DE SOUZA