Constance Wu felt ‘betrayed’ by Asian community after Simu Liu joked about her ‘Fresh Off The Boat’ tweets

Constance Wu recently discussed how she felt about a joke Simu Liu made as host of a gala event she attended following her controversial “Fresh Off the Boat” tweets in 2019.

In an episode of Facebook Watch’s “Red Table Talk” on Wednesday, Wu told co-hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris that people tried to convince her to attend Character Media’s Unforgettable Gala in 2019 to celebrate “Fresh Off the Boat” and the kids on the show.

“At that time, there was so much controversy around me that I was like, if I go, people are just going to want to talk about the tweets,” Wu said. “And like, I love my kids on the show so much. I want this to be a moment for them to celebrate.”

After ABC announced the renewal of Wu’s hit family sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat” in 2019, she posted several tweets including, “So upset right now that I’m literally crying. Ugh. F*ck” and “F*cking hell.” The tweets ignited online backlash, with many social media users branding Wu “ungrateful” and a “diva.”

Before agreeing to attend the Unforgettable Gala, the “Crazy Rich Asians” star warned that she was “not ready to be mocked” as she was still in “a very raw place.”

“They promised me,” Wu said. “They said, ‘No, no, no, no. We love Constance. It’ll only be warm energy and positive vibes towards her.’”

Wu recalled accepting the gala invitation after hearing that. The “Hustler” actor said she was sitting front row at the event when the show’s host, Liu, suddenly cracked a joke about her tweets.

“I was sitting there alone, trying not to cry in a public setting, and the whole audience was like, ‘Oh, sh*t!’” Wu recalled. “They had promised they wouldn’t mock me and they did it right off the bat. It almost felt like they were setting me up for it. And it truly felt like a betrayal from the Asian American community. A couple months prior to that, I was in the emergency room.”

Wu noted that Liu has already apologized for the joke he made during the gala. She also said Liu “did the right thing and he apologized, and it was a sincere apology.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Wu talked about the moment one of her friends saved her just in time while she was looking down at the streets of New York City from her fifth-story balcony. Wu first revealed her suicide attempt on Twitter after announcing her return to social media following a three-year break.

“A friend who had come to check on me pulled me over from climbing over the ledge and dragged me into the elevator and took me into a cab and took me to a psychiatric emergency room where they checked me in, and I slept the night on a cot in the waiting room in the psychiatric E.R. in New York City under observation,” Wu said.

Wu recently shared that the controversial tweets she posted in 2019 about the renewal of “Fresh Off the Boat” were in response to the alleged sexual harassment she faced from a senior “Fresh Off the Boat” producer, a detail she revealed in her recently released memoir “Making a Scene.”

Featured Image via Red Table Talk

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