Following the renewal of ABC's Fresh Off The Boat back in May, lead actress Constance Wu sent out some confusing tweets.
"So upset right now that I’m literally crying," one read. "Ugh. Fuck."
She later clarified that the tweets were not a reaction to FOTB's renewal per se, but instead to the fact that the renewal meant she would have to turn down another acting opportunity to which she was looking forward. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times ahead of her new movie, Hustlers, Wu clarified once more that he reaction was in no way a reflection of her feelings towards FOTB — just her being "dramatic."
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“I had this moment of heat where I got upset because I had to give up a job I had been looking forward to and had been chasing for a while,” she explained to the L.A. Times. “It was moving to me how many people from the show reached out to me, and even on set … to say, ‘Just so you know, we love you and we know who you are, and you didn’t deserve any of that stuff.’ Because they also know that I’m an actress — I can be dramatic.”
The job, according to the outlet, was a “not Asian-specific” role in a play.
“I mean, that’s our toolkit, right?" she continued. "I’m dramatic. I’m emotional. But they also know that that doesn’t represent me because they have a hundred episodes of behavior that proves otherwise.”
Instead, this has served as a lesson about social media, and Wu also thinks it's beneficial for fans to see their idols stumble.
“I think a lot of why people are lonely in this world is because they go through these Instagram feeds and everybody’s life is perfect,” she said. “Nobody trips up. And sometimes I think, might it be good to see our heroes mess up a little bit and not always be perfect?”
Wu stressed that while she's certainly "grateful" for opportunities like FOTB, she is not an "elegant person." We're watching her learn and adapt and scramble in real-time. Which, if you squint, is more or less what Hustlers is about — with an extra dash of Cardi B.