Constance Wu couldn’t be an ordinary actress even if she tried. When you’re the leading lady of Fresh Off the Boat, the first network sitcom centered on a primarily Asian American cast in two decades, there’s a lot weighing on your shoulders. Fresh Off the Boat is a loose adaptation of a memoir of the same name written by chef and food personality Eddie Huang, chronicling his family’s life as they move from Washington D.C.’s Chinatown to the overwhelmingly Caucasian-populated suburbs of Orlando, Florida. In every interview I’ve read about Constance, there’s a similar set of questions asked about the popularity of Fresh Off the Boat and the importance of Asian American representation and stories. While Constance’s answers are eloquent, thoughtful, and honest, the similar interview format illustrates the rarity of conversations about diverse leading characters, especially Asian Americans.
Fresh Off the Boat Star Constance Wu
In a long history of Asian Americans playing peripheral roles, like the nerdy best friend or computer hacker, Constance Wu shines in her lead role as Jessica Huang, a badass, hard-to-please but loving matriarch whose natural sass and brilliant comedic timing has already earned her Television Critics Association and Critics’ Choice nominations. That’s pretty impressive for someone whose prior comedy experience consisted of one failed Amazon pilot. Constance studied acting and performed theatre in New York City. Growing up, she looked up to actors such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Mark Ruffalo, and Cate Blanchett, who were given complex characters to play, unlike the few Asian actors she saw cast in small, supporting roles. Early in her career, Constance says that being Asian seemed like an advantage in terms of getting auditions because production companies were looking to hire more diverse casts, but she soon realized this tactic translated to sprinkling a few minority actors around the lead Caucasian actors. Just like her onscreen character, Constance is unabashedly honest and blunt, especially when it comes to addressing the challenges and criticisms of representing Asian Americans. She doesn’t pretend to represent every Asian mother, nor is Fresh Off the Boat supposed to capture a universal Asian American story.
‘The burden is to represent an Asian story with as much truth as possible so that it may touch something in other people and strikes up a curiosity for an experience that is different than [their] own. Then that gets the ball rolling for others to make individual stories based in truth, intelligence and compassion.’
- Constance Wu, interview with Jezebel
Constance’s goal isn’t to portray Jessica as a watered-down, people-pleasing character so that audiences can project these characters into their own personal lives and say, ‘Oh, they’re just like me!’ Her job is to illuminate specific experiences of one Taiwanese American family as truthfully as possible, which includes the accent she adopts onscreen. As someone who has studied psycholinguistics, Constance listened to and watched videotapes of the real Jessica Huang (who is a Taiwanese immigrant) saying her lines in order to get all her nuances and mannerisms down to a tee. On the show you can clearly tell in the way Jessica Huang speaks and carries herself that yes, she’s aware she’s different, but she doesn’t equate that disparity with shame or lowering her voice. Jessica’s accent is there for the purpose of authenticity, not as a stereotype or a humor tool.
Like many fellow Asian American actors, Constance used to think that playing roles that had nothing to do with being Asian would mean progress or success, but she’s since switched her perspective on that.
‘I think wanting a role that has nothing to do with your racial identity can actually be indicative of an element of shame and embarrassment, and I don’t think that’s healthy for us. Now, I definitely don’t think every Asian actor’s story should revolve around their race. After all, we have problems—like heartbreak, financial difficulty, or dealing with death—that everyone deals with. But the lens with which we go through those experiences is special, and it’s unique to us. If there’s a reason Asian Americans haven’t broken through in entertainment, it’s probably because we haven’t taken advantage of how special our viewpoint is. It’s not something to be ashamed of.’
- Constance Wu, interview with GQ
All of this being said, before she booked FOTB, Constance wasn’t at a place in her career where she had the luxury to think about Asian American issues. As someone who was at one point $30,000 deep in credit card debt (she’s been completely on her own financially since she was 18), Constance needed jobs to survive and pay the bills. Even though she’s reached a certain level of financial success with FOTB, Constance is still incredibly focused on working hard, and finding purpose through that work.
‘I used to sort of equate my personal worthiness with employment, and it took me feeling empty, over and over again, to understand that that’s not where the real work lies. And anyone who judges you based on that, they’re sort of not your people.’
Aside from the success of Constance and Fresh Off the Boat, let’s look at the numbers: as of October 2015, there are more than 90 primetime scripted TV series on the five major U.S. networks with main casts totaling nearly 700 actors. Only 49 out of 700 (or 7.1%) main cast actors are of Asian descent, and less than 4 shows (4.3% of >90) have a lead character of Asian descent. While the recent introduction of shows like FOTB, Dr. Ken (starring Ken Jeong), and Quantico (starring Bollywood A-lister Priyanka Chopra) have contributed towards increasing Asian American visibility on TV, we’re far from truthfully and comprehensively incorporating Asian American characters who aren’t walking, talking racial stereotypes (like Han Lee on 2 Broke Girls) into mainstream entertainment channels.
‘I wouldn’t say that just visibility is important. I would say visibility as the stars of a show is important. That says that our stories matter. We’re not here to do the taxes of the white person, or to be the chipper best friend to the white person…[Imagine] that a producer says, “Guy and girl meet-cute at an ice skating rink. They fall in love, but then she has to move away.” If you say that to anyone, including an Asian person, you picture a white person because that’s what’s become normative to us. If it’s “Asian-American meet in a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown,” that’s the only time you picture it. We need to have a picture of Asian Americans. We have a unique experience that has myriad opportunities for storytelling, if other people are willing to tell those stories.’
- Constance Wu, interview with Time
I’m thankful I have more Asian American role models to look up to.
In the media-obsessed age we live in today, there are millions of bytes of content created every single day. Something as simple as a web series on YouTube can have astounding and far-reaching results. More than ever before, viewers and content creators have the ability to influence and dictate what they want to see in the media. The success of the first season of FOTB and its subsequent renewal for a second season proves that there is a demand and interest for Asian American stories. Fresh Off the Boat isn’t a successful show because it adheres to normative Hollywood standards or ‘a white level of cool…[or] sexy,’ but because the show celebrates the unique perspective and storytelling capabilities that Asian Americans possess.
‘I want to support uniquely Asian-American stories. I don’t want to just play the hostage in some big studio movie. If I get that, that’s great. But if it coincides with an opportunity about the Asian-American experience that pays me, like, a quarter of the salary, I’d rather do that.’
- Constance Wu, Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
As a young Asian American, I’m thankful that I have more Asian American role models to look up to, compared to Constance when she was my age. And hopefully with the likes of intelligent, inspiring, and resolute individuals like Constance, future generations will witness more Asian Americans in the limelight.
‘If you’re always chasing truth and meaning and things that matter to you, you’ll never get enough of that, and you’ll feel like you did something useful while you were on the planet.’
- Constance Wu, interview with NYT Magazine
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