BACKTRACKING

Constance Wu: I Was ‘Dismayed’ Over ‘Fresh Off the Boat Renewal’ Because I Had To Give Up a Passion Project

"I was temporarily upset yesterday not because I hate the show but because it’s renewal meant I had to give up another project that I was really passionate about,” Wu tweeted.

"Fresh Off The Boat" actress Constance Wu is apologizing for her disparaging comments about the show's renewal for a six season, saying her “ill-timed...dismayed social media replies” were geared toward a lost passion project and not the ABC comedy.

“I love ["Fresh Off the Boat"],” Wu wrote in a lengthy Twitter post less than 24 hours after the series regular took to the social media to express her anger and disappointment that the show had gotten another season. “I was temporarily upset yesterday not because I hate the show but [because] its renewal meant I had to give up another project that I was really passionate about.”

She continued that her “dismayed social media replies were more about that other project” and not the show, on which Wu has played Chinese immigrant mother Jessica Huang over the past five seasons.

“But I understand how that could feel interconnected and could get muddled. So here is me unmuddling it with my truth: FOTB is a great show that I’m proud of and that I enjoy,” she wrote. “I’ve gotten to fully explore my character and I know her like the back of my hand.”

The show, the first Asian-American comedy on broadcast television in over two decades, follows Huang raising a family in Florida during the ’80s and ’90s alongside her husband and her two sons.

In her post, the 37-year-old actress, who also starred in the blockbuster hit Crazy Rich Asians, went on to explain that while playing Jessica is “easy and pleasant,” the unnamed passion project she had to give up “would have challenged me as an artist.”

Shortly after news of the show's renewal broke on Friday, Wu immediately tweeted: “So upset right now that I’m literally crying. Ugh. Fuck.”

When a fan commented that she thought “Fresh Off the Boat” returning was “great news,” Wu replied in a now deleted tweet, “No it’s not.” The actress also commented on the show's official instagram post about the renewal: "Dislike."

Later Friday evening, Wu addressed her social media response, saying it was “not a rampage” and her followers were “making a lot of assumptions.” By Saturday morning, however, Wu recognized her rant was “insensitive to those who are struggling, especially insensitive considering the fact that I used to be in that struggle too.”

“I do regret that and it wasn’t nice and I am sorry for that,” she wrote. “I know it’s a huge privilege that I even HAVE options—options that FOTB has afforded me. But if one does have privilege, they ought to use that privilege as best they can. For me—that means pushing myself artistically. Constantly challenging myself by doing what’s unfamiliar and scary. So I am trying my best to use it well.”

“People ‘assumed’ that that meant I don’t love and enjoy FOTB. But I do love and enjoy it. I hope you believe me,” she wrote, adding that like other people, she can both love the show and be disappointed that she could not participate in the other project.

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Pilar MelendezSenior National Reporter

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