Constance Wu Opens up About Attempted Suicide

Constance Wu

Wu suffered such intense backlash to tweets in 2019 that she tried to take her own life.

Constance Wu, star of Fresh Off The Boat, Crazy Rich Asians, and Hustlers has spoken out about her suicide attempt following the backlash she received from tweets in 2019.

Alleged harassment on Fresh Off The Boat

Wu posted that she was “really upset” that Fresh Off The Boat — her breakout show — had been renewed for another season, prompting outrage from fans who felt that she was being ungrateful for her role on the hit ABC sitcom. At the time, Wu was yet to come forward with accusations that a producer on the show had been sexually harassing her.

As she explained on Good Morning America this week, the producer had allegedly made inappropriate comments and, she says, came across as “intimidating and threatening” to her. She said that she didn’t feel able to speak out, because she was “constantly terrified of being fired” — and noted that this occurred before the #MeToo movement.

“It really was a conflict for me because 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,” Wu said.

“Compared to other stories of the harassment I endured, it, quote, ‘wasn’t that bad,'” she added. “In fact, to be honest, what I went through was pretty common … in Hollywood those days.”

Emergency intervention from a friend

Speaking to Jade Pinkett Smith on her podcast Red Table Talk, Wu described the immediate aftermath of sending the tweets about Fresh Off The Boat, explaining: “After reading these DMs from an Asian actress, I just got in this state, like my palms are still itching when I think about it. A friend who had come to check on me pulled me over from climbing over the ledge and dragged me into the elevator and took me into a cab and took me to a psychiatric emergency room where they checked me in and I slept the night on a cot in the waiting room in the psychiatric E.R. in New York City under observation. Then there were two counselors the next morning who talked to me. I had to be in therapy with a psychiatrist and psychologist every day for a while.”

“It was helpful, I needed it,” she said. “I was unsafe at that point. I was in a mental place of just beating myself and so much shame and just feeling like—feeling like I didn’t deserve to live. Feeling like the world hated me. Feeling like I ruined everything for everyone. Maybe I did for some people but, you know, you make mistakes. Right?”

Confronting the “uncomfortable issues”

Wu first opened up about her experience in a statement posted to Twitter in July, in which she noted that while Asian Americans are quick to celebrate representation, there’s “a lot of avoidance around the more uncomfortable issues within our community.”

“That’s why I wrote my book and why I’m here today,” she continued. “To reach out and help people talk about the uncomfortable stuff in order to understand it, reckon with it, and open pathways to healing.”