Constance Wu opened up about her time on “Fresh Off the Boat” this week, giving some new insight into the sexual harassment she experienced from a producer in the show’s first few years.
In his new book, “Making a Scene”, Wu explains that, in the early days of the ABC sitcom, he was being regularly harassed by a senior producer, and that the situation was part of the reason he decided on the show’s renewal. Why tweeted his outrage, which later led to a harsh backlash. Appearing on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” on Monday, Wu was asked if he thought it was necessary to make the tweets relevant.
But, according to the actress, she didn’t really want to write about this particular time in her book. Her editors inspired her to do so.
“I was like ‘I’m done with that chapter in my life,'” Wu explained. “Because all the sexual harassment, inappropriate touching, like, asking me to wear a short skirt and like, intimidating, it all only happened in the first two years of the show, when I was still so scared that I — you know, I I had never done anything big before. I just graduated as a waitress. And I was afraid of being fired.”
Wu noted that once he began to feel “a little bit of job security,” he began to backtrack against the producer, saying, “That angered him.”
“But it was okay, so I thought ‘You know what? I handled it,'” she continued. ‘ And, as a result, I feel like I could never really be myself on set, ’cause I saw my abuser be friends with everyone, knowing what he’d done to me.
Wu explained that she realized she had to speak up about what happened, as she could not overcome the trauma, and eventually broke up with Meyers in tears.
You can watch the full interview in the video above,