Constance Wu alleges she was sexually harassed by Fresh Off the Boat producer for years
Wu alleges the man displayed controlling behaviour, telling her what to wear
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Your support makes all the difference.Constance Wu has alleged that a senior production team member on the show Fresh Off the Boat sexually harassed her for years.
Wu played Jessica Huang in the ABC sitcom following a Taiwanese-American family, which aired for six seasons from 2015 to 2020.
Wu makes the revelations in her upcoming memoir entitled Making a Scene, excerpts of which were published by The New York Times on Friday (23 September).
According to the Times, Wu alleges that the producer, who she names only by an initial, “controlled her, demanding that she run all her business matters past him and telling her what to wear”.
“Fresh Off the Boat was my first-ever TV show,” she said. “I was thrown into this world. I don’t have parents in the industry. And because I was 30, people thought I knew what I was doing. It made me paranoid and embarrassed.”
Wu said the harassment became physical at a sporting event when the man put his hand on her thigh and grazed her crotch.
During a panel at The Atlantic Festival on Friday, Wu spoke about her decision not to speak up at the time.
“I kept my mouth shut for a really long time about a lot of sexual harassment and intimidation that I received the first two seasons of the show,” Wu said, per Variety.
“Because, after the first two seasons, once it was a success, once I was no longer scared of losing my job, that’s when I was able to start saying ‘no’ to the harassment, ‘no’ to the intimidation, from this particular producer. And, so I thought: ‘you know what? I handled it, nobody has to know, I don’t have to stain this Asian American producer’s reputation, I don’t have to stain the reputation of the show.’”
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The Independent has contacted ABC for comment.
Wu also recently shared that she had attempted suicide after backlash over her “careless tweets” about the renewal of Fresh Off the Boat.
In a series of posts, the actor said that the experience helped her acknowledge that Asian Americans do not “talk about mental health enough”.
Making a Scene will be published 4 October by Scribner.
If you have been raped or sexually assaulted, you can contact your nearest Rape Crisis organisation for specialist, independent and confidential support. For more information, visit their website here.