July 29, 2015
Features

She Rocks the Boat

It’s been a breakout season for Constance Wu, who runs a tight ship as the mom of Fresh Off the Boat.

Christy Grosz

“I’ve never been a very responsible, game-plan type of girl,” says Constance Wu.

Indeed. When the Richmond, Virginia, native left New York in 2010 to pursue acting in L.A., it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. “I impulsively booked a ticket the day after I was dumped by my boyfriend. It was a one-way ticket. I was like, ‘Let’s just see what happens.’”

What eventually happened was Wu’s casting in the ABC comedy Fresh Off the Boat and plenty of critical acclaim: for example, E! named her a breakout star of the season.

The series is loosely based on a 2013 memoir by chef Eddie Huang about growing up with his immigrant Chinese parents, Louis and Jessica, in Orlando, Florida.

Wu plays the strong-willed matriarch married to the aspiring restaurateur (Randall Park). As the family works to get their steak eatery off the ground, their eldest of three boys, Eddie (Hudson Yang), struggles to fit into his non-Asian environment.

At the time she read for the role, Wu was auditioning for every possible pilot, but Jessica stood out.

“She’s such an interesting lady,” Wu says of the real-life Jessica Huang. “She’s loud; she has big, curly hair; she wears miniskirts, smokes Virginia Slims. She may be the first person I’ve met who smokes Virginia Slims. It’s a treat to have such interesting source material.”

The first broadcast-network series with Asian leads since Margaret Cho’s 1994 All-American Girl, Fresh Off the Boat arrived amid some controversy.

Even before its February debut, the show was criticized for its title, which some called offensive. Huang has also reproached the show for its depictions, and ABC for its decision to hire a Persian-American showrunner instead of an Asian one.

“Any time you try something new and you expose a vulnerable part of yourself, that elicits a strong reaction,” Wu says. “So the controversy wasn’t a surprise, and I don’t think it was a negative either. It’s a gateway to continued dialogue about things that matter.”

Fresh Off the Boat is Wu’s biggest TV gig to date, and despite her credentials — which include studies at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and a BFA from the Conservatory of Theatre Arts at New York’s Purchase College — she faced a lot of rejection along the way.

Shortly after arriving in L.A., she booked a role in the Sundance film The Sound of My Voice, but it didn’t lead to as many offers as she had hoped.

“It was definitely a struggle,” she recalls. “I didn’t know anybody here. I didn’t have any connections to show business. It was a lonely, difficult process, but one for which I am very grateful.”

For now, she’s enjoying her success without worrying too much about what comes next. “It’s very new for me,” she says. “I don’t have friends who are in this territory, so I don’t have any model for what is going to happen. I go with the flow and always do my best.”


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