Constance Wu is stepping back into the spotlight. The actor returned to Twitter on Thursday for the first time in nearly three years to announce her upcoming book, Making a Scene, and reflect on what led to her hiatus from both social media and Hollywood. “I was afraid of coming back on social media because I almost lost my life from it,” Wu writes. “3 years ago, when I made careless tweets about the renewal of my TV show, it ignited outrage and internet shaming that got pretty severe.”
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When Wu’s ABC sitcom Fresh Off the Boat was renewed for its sixth and final season in 2019, she reacted to the news in a series of since-deleted tweets, writing, “So upset right now that I’m literally crying.” When a fan described the renewal as good news, she responded, “No it’s not.” According to Deadline, she even replied to Fresh Off the Boat’s renewal announcement on Instagram with a “dislike,” before deleting her comment. Amid backlash over her response, Wu clarified that the renewal meant losing out on “another project that I was really passionate about.”
Wu now says she “felt awful” about her remarks—“and when a few DMs from a fellow Asian actress told me I’d become a blight on the Asian American community, I started feeling like I didn’t even deserve to live anymore. That I was a disgrace to AsAms, and they’d be better off without me. Looking back, it’s surreal that a few DMs convinced me to end my own life, but that’s what happened. Luckily, a friend found me and rushed me to the ER.”
After earning a Golden Globe nomination for 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians and starring alongside Jennifer Lopez in 2019’s Hustlers, Wu says that her suicide attempt “was a scary moment that made me reassess a lot in my life.” She continues, “For the next few years, I put my career aside to focus on my mental health. AsAms don’t talk about mental health enough. While we’re quick to celebrate representation wins, there’s a lot of avoidance around the more uncomfortable issues within our community. Even my tweets became a subject so touchy that most of my AsAm colleagues decided that was the time to avoid me or ice me out. I’ll admit it hurt a lot, but it also made me realize how important it is to reach out and care for people who are going through a hard time.”
Wu, who welcomed her first child in the summer of 2020, says that after “a little break from Hollywood and a lot of therapy I feel OK enough to venture back on here (at least for a little bit).” She concludes her statement by writing, “And even though I’m scared, I’ve decided that I owe it to the me-of-3-years-ago to be brave and share my story so that it might help someone with theirs.”
If you need emotional support or are in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.