Constance Wu, the star of Crazy Rich Asians, Hustlers, and the recent Amazon hit The Terminal List, sat down with ABC News’ Juju Chang for a wide-ranging interview airing Tuesday on Good Morning America and later on Nightline.
In the emotional conversation, Wu opened up about her recent allegation that she was sexually harassed by a producer on her hit ABC show Fresh Off the Boat, as well as a separate alleged date rape experience from a different man years earlier, both of which she details in her new book, Making a Scene.
Wu recently returned to social media after retreating in 2019 when she complained on Twitter that Fresh Off the Boat was being renewed for its sixth and final season. As she stated this past July, the blowback led to her attempt to take her own life.
Wu told Chang she was silently suffering behind the scenes of the show.
In her book, the actress said she was allegedly “sexually harassed” and “intimidated and threatened a lot” by one of the show’s producers, an Asian American man whom she did not name. The harassment, she said, included the producer asking her for “sexy selfies at night,” making inappropriate comments, and unwanted touching.
Wu said she was “constantly terrified of being fired” from what was her first-ever network TV job if she were to speak up, noting that this was “pre-#MeToo Movement.”
“…I didn’t want to talk about it because I didn’t want to … stain the reputation of the one show Asian Americans had to represent themselves,” she added.
She said the harassment she went through “…was pretty common … in Hollywood those days.”
When the show became a hit, Wu explained, she felt able to “say no” to him, “and that is what made him furious.”
Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.