Constance Wu shocked over nomination for Best Actress
LOS ANGELES: Crazy Rich Asians actress Constance Wu has expressed shock over her nomination for the Golden Globes Best Actress award.
Crazy Rich Asians, this year’s blockbuster romantic comedy, was itself nominated for best musical or comedy movie.
In her announcement on Twitter, Constance wrote: “What a morning to have had my phone on Do Not Disturb Mode till now... I’m ecstatic but also in shock! Thank you @ goldenglobes!!!”
The film’s director, Jon M. Chu, shared his own reaction to Constance’s nomination. He said he never thought the film would be as successful as it is.
“Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think our movie would be embraced to this magnitude by the audience and now the HFPA. What an honour to be included on such a beautiful list of diverse human experience stories amongst storytellers I have looked up to my entire life,” Chu said in a statement to ABC News.
“In response to Eleanor Young, we were always good enough,” he concluded.
Constance’s co- star, Henry Golding, sent congratulations to her on the best actress nomination.
“What a phenomenal achievement, congratulations @ constancewu on your ground breaking nomination for best actress at the golden globes!” he wrote alongside a photo of the pair. “She continues to fly the flag for many causes but most of all as a pillar of strength for young Asian actresses around the world.”
Golding added, “Our special collaboration to bring this story to the screen fought the good fight for diversity!”
However, bad news are emerging from China that Crazy Rich Asians itself is tanking over in the world’s second largest movie market.
Zhen Pei, manager of the Cinker Cinemas chain in Beijing’s upscale Raffles City mall, said the film had performed so poorly that it plans to replace it with Aquaman. In the past three days, the cinema sold only five tickets for six screenings.
“We can’t afford to keep a movie that no one wants to see,” she said.
The film’s opening in China came nearly four months after the American premiere. One factor in the slow ticket sales could be that Chinese audiences who really wanted to see the film already downloaded the movie or bought pirated copies, both common practices in China— although that hasn’t prevented some American films from becoming hits in Chinese cinemas.
Yu Jirui, a Beijing tour guide and self- described cinephile, said he has long been a fan of independent films from the US and elsewhere. Earlier on Monday, he was holding a bagful of bootleg DVDs including The Children Act (a drama starring Emma Thompson).
The 55-year- old said that after reading reviews of Crazy Rich Asians, he dismissed the movie as “a typical brainless love story.”
After a matinee showing in Beijing on Wednesday, 37-yearold Wang Jingling said she enjoyed the film’s over-the-top glamour and gorgeous scenery. However, she said it had a distinctly American viewpoint on Asians that Chinese people might find offensive or naive.
What a morning to have had my phone on Do Not Disturb Mode till now... I’m ecstatic but also in shock! Constance Wu, actress