Constance Wu, known for her lead roles in “Fresh Off the Boat” and “Crazy Rich Asians,” said she attempted suicide three years ago after receiving backlash for tweets she wrote about the hit TV show.
In a statement shared on Twitter, Wu said she was making her return to social media after a three-year hiatus, during which she wrote an autobiographical book, “Making a Scene.”
“I was afraid of coming back on social media because I almost lost my life from it,” Wu said. “3 years ago, when I made careless tweets about the renewal of my TV show, it ignited outrage and internet shaming that got pretty severe.”
The tweets in question were published in 2019, after it was announced that the ABC sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat” was renewed for another season, Variety reported.
Wu, who plays family matriarch Jessica Huang on the show about a Taiwanese American family living in Florida in the 1990s, expressed some frustration about the show’s continuation.
“So upset right now that I’m literally crying,” Wu wrote, according to Variety. “Ugh. F—” and “F— hell.”
When a Twitter user said the show’s renewal was “great news,” Wu responded, saying “No it’s not,” according to Variety.
Wu later apologized for the comments and clarified them, saying that she loved the show, but would be forced to give up a project that she was “really passionate about” in order to keep playing her role, Buzzfeed reported in 2019.
“So my dismayed social media replies were more about that other project and not about FOTB,” she said, according to Buzzfeed.
But Wu opened up even more about the incident in her Twitter statement, saying that she “felt awful” about what she said.
“When a few DMs from a fellow Asian actress told me I’d become a blight on the Asian American community, I started feeling like I didn’t even deserve to live anymore,” Wu confessed. “That I was a disgrace to [Asian Americans], and they’d be better off without me.”
“Looking back, it’s surreal that a few DMs convinced me to end my own life, but that’s what happened,” Wu said. “Luckily, a friend found me and rushed me to the ER.”
Wu said it was a “scary moment” that made her “reassess a lot” and focus on her mental health. It can be especially difficult to be frank about mental health in the Asian American community, Wu added.
“While we’re quick to celebrate representation wins, there’s a lot of avoidance around the more uncomfortable issues within our community,” Wu wrote, adding that many of her Asian American colleagues “decided that was the time to avoid me or ice me out.”
“I’ll admit it hurt a lot, but it also made me realize how important it is to reach out and care for people who are going through a hard time,” Wu added.
Toward the end of her statement, Wu shared that “after a little break from Hollywood and a lot of therapy,” she feels prepared to step back into the public eye little by little.
“Even though I’m scared, I’ve decided that I owe it to the me-of-3-years-ago to be brave and share my story so that it might help someone with theirs,” Wu concluded.
Twitter users quickly expressed support for Wu, saying they can relate to her struggles with mental health and the pressure she felt to keep quiet about them.
Some users also pointed out that other actors have expressed dissatisfaction with past roles and not received backlash for it.
Asian Americans are the least likely to receive mental health treatment compared to people of other racial or ethnic backgrounds, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
On top of the cultural stigma and shame around mental health issues that Wu discussed, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders may also face a host of other barriers to accessing mental health treatment and support, NAMI says.
Those include:
—The “model minority myth,” or the stereotype that AAPIs are “uniformly well-adjusted,” attain “more socioeconomic success,” conform to social norms easily and excel academically
—Language barriers
—Insufficient health insurance coverage
—Fear of jeopardizing their immigration status or citizenship application process
—Faith and spirituality, as more people within the AAPI community identify as religious compared to the national average, NAMI says
—Challenges in AAPI-specific research
Wu, 40, who was born to Taiwanese immigrant parents in Virginia, had a breakout film role in “Crazy Rich Asians” in 2018 and another lead role in the film “Hustlers” in 2019. She currently appears in the “The Terminal List” series on Prime Video.
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If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health or suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text the Crisis Text Line at 741741.
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