Constance Wu says she didn’t report the sexual harassment she allegedly experienced on the set of “Fresh Off the Boat” out of fear of getting fired from the ABC sitcom.
“I was scared of losing my job, and compared to the other stories of the harassment I endured, it ‘wasn’t that bad,'” she said in an emotional new interview on “Good Morning America” Tuesday. “In fact, to be honest, what I went through was pretty common.”
Wu explained that she “repressed” her pain, because her alleged abuser, a producer on the show, was an Asian American and was “such a good proponent for Asian American issues that I don’t want to bring him down.”
“It really was a conflict for me, because I didn’t want to stain the reputation of the one show Asian Americans had to represent themselves,” she added.
However, by Season 2 of the hit ABC show, Wu began to turn down his “inappropriate requests” which “made him furious.” She clarified that since then, she has not spoken to her abuser.
ABC has not commented on the allegations.
The “Crazy Rich Asians” star, 40, explained that her prior sexual harassment experience played a part in her infamous 2019 tweet expressing how “upset” she was that “Fresh Off the Boat” got renewed for a fifth season.
“I’d gotten these other jobs that I was really excited about and I was ready for a clean slate,” Wu said on “GMA.” “I was ready to stop working at a place that held so many memories of sexual harassment and shame and fear. So when I found out that I couldn’t move on, I felt — honestly, in that moment, I felt betrayed and I felt lied to.”
Wu admitted that the tweet was “reckless,” “graceless” and “dramatic,” but she didn’t think the punishment fit the crime.
“The backlash was immediate,” she continued. “There was a huge pile on. I was essentially canceled for coming off as ungrateful, and the most painful thing of all was that it was really the Asian American community that either ostracized or avoided me the most.”
“Do I think the proportion of the hatred and the cancellation pitted at me was equal to the amount of error I did? No,” she simply put it.
During this period of time, Wu also struggled with suicidal thoughts after a fellow Asian actress sent her DMs “shaming me to the point of me thinking that I needed to end my own life.”
“She basically said I had become a blight on [the] Asian American community, and nothing I could ever do would make up for the damage I’d done to the community,” Wu said. “That I was like, a disgrace. And it made me feel like Asian Americans feel like it would be better if I just didn’t exist.”
The “Making A Scene” author revealed in a July 2022 statement that she attempted suicide.
“I pulled myself over the balcony of my apartment building, you know, and I was going to jump,” she told the morning show. “Talking about it now makes my palms itch, ’cause I remember, like, holding onto it. But ultimately, it ended up being something helpful because it made me get help. I was in therapy and under observation for a long time.”
Wu has since been slowly returning to the spotlight and social media, but she clarified that she did so to spread her message to those who are active social media users and might not read her new memoir.
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).