UPDATE: A day after her controversial posts, Constance Wu returned to Twitter with a full statement of explanation, saying she was upset about the Fresh Off the Boat renewal but only because it meant she couldn't be part of another project. She proceeded to praise the ABC show's cast and crew:
Original post:
A lot of shows were cancelled yesterday, but ABC's Fresh Off the Boat was not one of them. Instead, the comedy was renewed for Season 6. Usually when a TV show is renewed, it's GOOD news to the cast and crew. Not for Constance Wu, or at least that's how it seemed. The actress who plays Jessica Huang had very surprising reactions to the cancellation, and later deleted some posts and tried to argue her tweets weren't in reference to the show.
Here's the first tweet, which is still up on Constance Wu's account:
This "fucking hell" one is also still active:
However, what's gone is any direct connection between her social media and Fresh Off the Boat. But the internet saves everything -- including her "Dislike" comment on an Instagram post about Fresh Off the Boat being renewed, and her response to a fan who congratulated her on the renewal; he tweeted that it was "Great news" and she replied "No it's not."
Those were pretty direct responses to the ABC show's renewal, so it was surprising when Constance Wu returned to Twitter to defend herself and tell fans to stop assuming they knew what she was writing about. Fans broke out what the Crazy Rich Asians star had posted to remind her the receipts were still out there:
Constance Wu continued to defend her tweet about being upset and crying, saying fans were just assuming it was about Fresh Off the Boat:
Ultimately, Constance Wu explained the tweets by arguing it was a case of unfortunate timing with the renewal of the show -- without mentioning her own comments on renewal-specific posts:
You can imagine her agent, publicist, manager, or someone connected to Fresh Off the Boat contacted her after the initial posts to ask her what she was doing. Even if she hates being on the show -- and there could be valid reasons for her frustration that we don't know! -- it comes across as disrespectful to the entire cast and crew to be so negative about the show continuing. Especially when she doesn't go into detail about what's going on, and deflects afterward as if she wasn't really commenting about the renewal when it's clear in at least two cases she was.
If she's unhappy with something on set or the production of the show, it would be better to either explain it all to the public or just handle it all behind-the-scenes with The Powers That Be. This halfway tease-and-retract stuff just makes her look bad.
Constance Wu's Crazy Rich Asians co-star Gemma Chan also got her name dragged into this when she reportedly "liked" a tweet criticizing Wu. That "like" is not active at this point, but it added fuel to the fire.
Constance Wu is a movie star now after Crazy Rich Asians. On top of that, there are posts like the Slate article from last fall arguing that "Fresh Off The Boat Has A Jessica Problem" with the show losing sight of what made her character great. Maybe Wu agreed with that and has frustrations about how her character is depicted on the show. That would be nothing new for a TV star. But her posts after the show's renewal brought out old references from past stars like David Caruso and Katherine Heigl who spoke out like this and were sent to actor jail.
So the first day on set for Fresh Off the Boat Season 6 may be pretty awkward, unless Constance Wu can find her way out of the contract. Or maybe she can successfully spin this as just a bad day and she's really excited to return. But if she wants out, why not let her out? They could recast Jessica or write out the character as TV has done countless times before. Meanwhile, Crazy Rich Asians has two sequels in the works filming in 2020.
