Constance Wu can’t help but cry when she talks about the sexual harassment allegations she made against an unnamed Fresh Off the Boat producer in her latest memoir, Making a Scene.
The actress, known for her role in Crazy Rich Asians, said she initially “didn’t want to write” about what she went through filming the ABC show’s first two seasons during her appearance on Monday’s episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers.
“That was the last essay I wrote for the book, and only after being, like, pushed by my editor, like, ‘You should write about this. This is what people want to hear,’” she shared to host Seth Meyers. “And I was like, ‘I’m done with that chapter of my life.”
In the essay, Wu states that the showrunner, whom she calls M —-, always meddles in her affairs, keeps an eye on her and her friends, makes inappropriate jokes and statements about her appearance, and physically harassed her at a basketball game.
Wu shared that, being a novice in the industry, she was afraid of what might happen after she spoke.
“I had never done anything big before. I had just graduated from being a waitress. I was scared of being fired,” she stated.
“Once I, sort of, felt a little bit of job security, then I started saying no to this producer, which infuriated him. But it was okay, so I thought, ‘You know what? I handled it. I don’t need to stain the reputation of this show or of this producer. I can just keep it inside.”
Subsequently, Wu recounted that she was “never really able to be myself on set,” further stating, “I’d see my abuser being buddy-buddy with everyone else, knowing what he had done to me.”
Read also: Wynonna Judd Still Emotional Over Mom Naomi’s Death
Wu Included the Incidents to Her Memoir
However, not huffing has never really helped either – in fact, Wu said her buried pain was part of what prompted her to react strongly to the show’s sixth season renewal, which she expressed on Twitter.
“So upset right now that I’m literally crying,” Wu wrote on Twitter at the time. “Ugh.”
“The thing I learned is that bad feelings and abuse don’t just go away because you will it to. It’s gonna come out somewhere,” Wu said as her tears poured.
“I think people didn’t understand the context of those tweets. And thank you for not making fun of it, because it led me to a really dark time.”
In July, Wu shared that the harsh criticisms she was thrown online made her want to take her own life.
“I decided to include it in the book because I think it’s important that we engage in curiosity and empathy before we go straight to judgment,” she revealed. “Because if somebody does something that is out of character for them, it usually means something is going on in their life.”
In an interview, Wu revealed to Good Morning America that she is “of course” scared of the criticisms ahead after sharing her experience in her novel, stressing that there’s “not much to be gained when survivors tell their stories.”
Additionally, Wu noted that the harassment happened “before the #MeToo movement.”
“I was just like, ‘Nobody’s going to believe men,’” she stated on Late Night. “I didn’t know what to do.”
Read also: Trevor Noah Talks The Daily Show Departure
Photo: Hearstapp
