Constance Wu has revealed that she almost didn’t take the Crazy Rich Asians role.
AOL reports that Constance Wu almost did not take the Crazy Rich Asians role.
In the all-Asian cast film, Wu plays lead character Rachel Chu, but she almost did not take it due to a timing conflict with Fresh Off The Boat.
“I actually let the part go, because I met with [director Jon M. Chu] and I was like, ‘I really want to do this, but I can’t, because I’m under contract with my show and we shoot in the fall,’” Wu said.
Nonetheless, Wu was willing to support whoever took on the role.
“I was like, ‘Cool, another actress will get that and I will be 100 percent behind her because I want there to be more Asian actors out there,’” she said. “So I kind of let it go.”
However after being reminded by someone that “life is too precious,” she reached out to Jon M Chu in an email.
“[I was like,] ‘Listen, I know the schedules don’t work out, whoever you end up putting in the movie, I want to support you, but I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you what this means to me and why,” she recalled.
Even though Chu liked Wu, he still made her audition for the role, which came as a shock for the Fresh Off The Boat star.
“Oh, my God. I was threatened,” the 39-year-old actress said. “Asian Americans don’t often get the opportunity to audition for a lead role, so that in itself is a setback because white actors have the opportunity to practice auditioning in charged situations. If they don’t get that part, they’ll probably audition next week. So it’s not as precious as somebody who gets to audition maybe once a year, maybe once in their lifetime.”
In related news, Wu recently said she hopes that Crazy Rich Asians will open the door for Asian Americans.
