Awkwafina is happy to be Awkwafina.
The “Crazy Rich Asians” star is on the new cover of Harper’s Bazaar, and in the issue she discusses her burgeoning career, as well as her relationship with her real name, Nora Lum.
“I always feel impostor syndrome because there are so many talented people out there. But I’m not going to today because I worked really f**king hard,” she admits.
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Talking about deciding to continue using her stage name for her turn in the drama “The Farewell”, the actress says, “It wasn’t the time. I’d been Awkwafina in my first movie, I’d been Awkwafina in my first YouTube video. I haven’t had the kind of sign that it’s my time yet to be like, ‘It’s Nora now.’ I wonder what it will take to get me there. I still feel like I have a lot to learn on this journey.”
In fact, as she explains, her “Awkwafina” persona has also helped her deal with mental health struggles.
“Awkwafina is still someone that comes without all of the layers of anxiety,” she says. “She is more confident than Nora. Nora does hide behind her still. I don’t see how Nora exists in Awkwafina’s world yet. I don’t see how I could have done this without Awkwafina, which is weird.”
Looking back on filming “Crazy Rich Asians” Awkwafina recalls, “I was doing this movie called ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ with actual celebrities that I idolized. I remember walking around Singapore in these malls being like, ‘I can’t afford anything in these malls.’ And then seeing these crazy houses. And it’s like literally, ‘Who am I?’ Those were the days. It just felt like I must be really lucky to be here.”
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After achieving huge success in the summer of 2018, the actress found herself hesitant to embrace her new fame.
“Maybe it does go back to depression. It comes in different forms your whole life,” she says. “I was scared about what this meant: ‘Was this the pinnacle of all those years of waiting? And why do I feel like I don’t want it? I don’t want this to be the summer that that’s it.’ Fame is not a cure for depression. It’s just not. It’s not necessarily the cause of it, but it’s also not the cure of it.”
