Constance Wu speaks about her rise to fame and being an Asian-American playing Asian-American characters in a new interview with The New Yorker.
Wu, who stars in “Crazy Rich Asians”, “Fresh Off the Boat”, and “Hustlers”, gets asked about whether “the sense of being pigeonholed has increased with her fame” in the new profile.
The reporter writes, “I peppered her with questions about her Asian-Americanness, when it wasn’t the defining facet of her identity,” as Wu fires back: “Look, when Tom Cruise is in an interview, people aren’t, like, ‘What’s it like to be a white actor?’
“My answers coincide with Asian-American activism but that’s because those are the questions I’m being asked. It doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in it and that I’m not a proponent of it. But is it my reason for being alive? No.”
The interview also sees Wu hit back at some of the criticism she’s faced recently.
She’s been accused of being a diva by numerous publications, as well as famously going on a Twitter rant in May about how “upset” she was by “Fresh Off the Boat”‘s renewal.
“I’m glad people are talking s**t about me because it makes me think about other people’s feelings and the effects of things.
“It’s like negotiating authenticity with obligation, and I don’t have an answer either way, because I think you have to actually clarify what your obligations are first and what your authenticity is first.”
