{"id":176636,"date":"2018-08-14T04:15:23","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T08:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=176636"},"modified":"2018-08-14T04:15:23","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T08:15:23","slug":"wus-fight-crazy-rich-asians-part-bigger-crusade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/08\/14\/wus-fight-crazy-rich-asians-part-bigger-crusade\/","title":{"rendered":"Wu’s fight for ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ part of a bigger crusade"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cIt’s a fairy tale, it really is,\u201d Wu said. \u201cAnd there are a lot of different shoes in the movie!\u201d (File Photo<\/a> By AudreyH610 – Own work, CC0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. \u2014 Constance Wu had resigned herself to the fact that \u201cCrazy Rich Asians\u201d was not going to work out for her. She was under contract for her sitcom \u201cFresh Off the Boat\u201d, both were filming in the fall, and that was that. \u201cCrazy Rich Asians\u201d would be the first studio-made Asian-American movie in 25 years, and Wu, who has established herself as a crusader for Asian-American representation in Hollywood, would have to sit this historic moment out.<\/p>\n

But then, feeling \u201ckind of dramatic,\u201d and thinking about the significance of the project to her and untold number of Asian-Americans who make it a point to tell her their stories because of her tweets and \u201cFresh Off the Boat,\u201d Wu decided to give it one last shot and composed an email to director \u201cCrazy Rich Asians\u201d director Jon M. Chu.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, I know the dates don’t work out and whoever you cast, I will be the first in line and I will be their No. 1 fan and supporter, but I did want to let you know that I would put 110 per cent of my heart into this project and I know what to do with it and how to carry a movie and if you can just wait for me, I don’t think you’ll regret it,\u201d Wu, 36, said. \u201cI did NOT think this email would work. I did it more for me so that I felt that I had told my truth. But then he read it and said, \u201cYou guys, we’ve got to push the production.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitting in a restaurant at the Beverly Wilshire, a hotel famous for co-starring in another \u201cCinderella\u201d story, \u201cPretty Woman,\u201d and sipping on a \u201ccocktail\u201d of grapefruit juice and sparkling water, Wu is describing how \u201cCrazy Rich Asians,\u201d out nationwide Wednesday is also a kind of \u201cCinderella\u201d story. Based the first book in author Kevin Kwan’s popular trilogy, Wu’s character Rachel Chu is a middle-class economics professor from the U.S. who finds herself navigating the upper echelons of Singapore’s wealthy classes when her boyfriend Nick Young takes her home for a wedding and to meet his disapproving family and all the jealous women also vying for the attention of the \u201cprince.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a fairy tale, it really is,\u201d Wu said. \u201cAnd there are a lot of different shoes in the movie!\u201d<\/p>\n

A native of Richmond, Virginia, and a classically-trained theatre actress with a passion for musicals, Wu has been working toward a moment like this her whole life, and taking it very seriously. During the shoot, she wouldn’t go out with her co-stars for karaoke nights or have a drink after a long day of work. She wanted to be clear of mind and she’d already promised her director that she was going to give it her all.<\/p>\n

She knew how unlikely it was that she’d ever get an opportunity as an Asian-American woman to lead a studio movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven a terrific actress like Sandra Oh was always No. 2 or No. 3 in the movie, she was never No. 1 unless it was an independent movie,\u201d said Wu, who is not shy about saying that she only wants to go out for roles where she is the No. 1 star. It’s a drive that has made some uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are like, ‘Who do you think you are? And it’s like, I guess I think I’m a talented actor and I guess I’m not a person who is going to let you make me feel small anymore,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But Wu isn’t interested in making people feel comfortable at the expense of her truth, which is why at least part of her time is spent amplifying underrepresented voices on twitter, even knowing that it’s affected her employment opportunities.<\/p>\n

Wu once heard from a friend that her liberal boyfriend said he didn’t like Wu’s politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m like, ‘Does he not like my politics or does he not like that I have politics?’ And she asked him and he was like, \u201cOh I guess it’s that,’\u201c Wu said.<\/p>\n

Fame, she said, is silly in that regard. She thinks it’s \u201cdumb\u201d that she has a bigger voice than other people, like journalists or academics who are more studied in discourse on race and intersectionality. But, she also realized that while she has this platform, she can at least do some good with it.<\/p>\n

Henry Golding, who plays Nick, is in awe of Wu’s fortitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe’s such a role model for so many people. She has a backbone, which a lot of people don’t. She’s not afraid of saying what’s on her mind and really driving home what she thinks should be done, or what’s not happening in the industry that should be happening,\u201d said Golding. \u201cShe’s going to go down as a real fighter and someone who can act the socks off anything. She is Rachel Chu.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for what’s next, Wu said she thinks she’s going to have a lot of choices in the coming years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m very privileged and lucky and I’m at a point where I can sort of get to decide where I want to go with my career,\u201d Wu said.<\/p>\n

And first up on her wish-list? A musical.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. \u2014 Constance Wu had resigned herself to the fact that \u201cCrazy Rich Asians\u201d was not going to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":176644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","mauthors-lindsey-bahr","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}