Wu lambasted after tweets about show

TRAVIS ANDREWS

CONSTANCE Wu received some devastating news last week: her popular sitcom, Fresh Off the Boat, was renewed for a sixth season. Well, at least, she seemed devastated by it.

The actress caused controversy by appearing to express unhappiness at the renewal of the sitcom in a series of expletive-ridden posts, some of which she later deleted. She issued a lengthy essay explaining her displeasure.

The kerfuffle began when ABC announced Fresh Off the Boat would return. The sitcom – which follows a Taiwanese family who has immigrated to the US – was praised when it debuted in 2015 for featuring Asian-american actors, an under-represented group on TV.

Wu wrote the word “dislike” in the comments of ABC’S Instagram post announcing the renewal. She also sent out a series of tweets. One read, in part, “So upset right now that I’m literally crying. Ugh.”

A little over an hour later, Wu wrote two more in a seeming attempt to clarify the situation. “That was not a rampage… Y’all are making a lot of assumptions about what I was saying. And no, it’s not what it’s about. Stop assuming,” she said. She later added: “Today’s tweets were on the heels of rough day&were ill timed w/the news of the show. Plz know, Im so grateful for FOTB renewal. I love the cast&crew. Im proud to be a part of it.”

Nonetheless, negative remarks kept rolling in. Wu’s lengthy essay on Twitter made things even worse. She said she “was temporarily upset yesterday not bc I hate the show but bc its renewal meant I had to give up another project that I was really passionate about”.

She ended with: “It’s meaningful when you make the choice to believe women,” in reference to her ability to feel both sad and happy about FOTB’S renewal. But that choice of words drew a firestorm from those who said she inappropriately referenced the #Metoo movement in a statement about sitcoms.

“Believe women? You weren’t sexually assaulted you were given a multimillion dollar contract extension,” tweeted Hollywood Reporter senior writer Seth Abramovitch. Another user tweeted, “Please don’t bring women’s issues and believing women into this. Yikes.” |