Fresh Off the Boat—ABC's sitcom inspired by a memoir of the same name by chef Eddie Huang—returns for a second season on September 22. Earlier this summer, we had a chance to catch up with the breakout star of the show, Constance Wu, who plays Eddie’s strict and often very hilarious mom Jessica Huang on the show. She told GQ about the upcoming season of Fresh Off the Boat, why she's still warming up to the idea of being a TV star, and why she won't let anyone laugh on set while she films her funniest scenes.
In your interview with the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (“CAPE”), you talked about how Asian American roles shouldn’t be neutral, and they should show who these people really are in terms of their race and the backstory related to that. Why is that important to you?
It’s something I’ve started to think about in the past year. I came to the realization that too many Asian actors would say, “I just want to have a role that has nothing to do with me being Asian, and that’s when we’ll be successful, when I can be like Tom Hanks or Jennifer Lawrence.” I understand that, because we’ve always been peripheral characters who have supported other characters with actual, real stories. But the thing that’s alluring about those other characters isn’t their whiteness, it’s that they’re given rich stories that have a complete emotional arc, and those stories often times have to do with their background.
I think wanting a role that has nothing to do with your racial identity can actually be indicative of an element of shame and embarrassment, and I don’t think that’s healthy for us. Now, I definitely don’t think every Asian actor’s story should revolve around their race. After all, we have problems—like heartbreak, financial difficulty, or dealing with death—that everyone deals with.
But the lens with which we go through those experiences is special, and it’s unique to us. If there’s a reason Asian Americans haven’t broken through in entertainment, it’s probably because we haven’t taken advantage of how special our viewpoint is. It’s not something to be ashamed of. If some motherfucker made you feel ashamed for it and teased you about it on the playground, then they’re the asshole. Don’t let that be the thing that dictates how you’re perceived.
So, have a bit of pride about your Asian background.
Right. I don’t know, it’s a difficult question to look at from a big perspective. For example, I was talking to a friend the other day about HBO’s Togetherness. I was like, “It’s a show about white people.”
And he said “Oh, come on, they’re just people.” But if somebody says my show is about Asian American people, nobody bats an eye. If you think about what that says about the normative context of TV, white people are allowed to exist as just people.
And everyone else is defined separately.
I don’t think it’s bad to say our show is about Asian people, but if you’re going to do that, then qualify other shows too. It gives creators an awareness of what they’re creating. Right now, shows that are accused of being too whitewashed have this defensive tactic in which they respond with, “I didn’t even think about that; it didn’t even occur to me.” So, instead of using your intelligence to escape culpability, use it to consider the framework from which you speak.
I could talk about this all day; it really pisses me off. It’s not an easy topic to talk about. You have to take ego out of it to talk about it in an intelligent way, and that’s hard to do about anything.
So, I want to go back a little, because I know you’ve been doing this acting thing for awhile. At what age did you know you wanted to pursue this career?
I was a theater actress when I was 10. I always did it because I enjoyed it, because it felt more like family. The theater community felt like such a wonderful place where you could be creative and there was almost zero judgment. I’m learning how to make television people my tribe and seeing if that works. I’m actually not sure if it does, to be honest.
Why is that?
There’s a lot more practicality in the execution of television because there are a lot more voices chiming in from people who aren’t theater people, like network and studio executives. There are Nielsen numbers, things like that. There’s this common French saying, raison d'être—it basically means your reason for being alive, your life mission. I found that with my tribe in theater, and I’m learning to navigate my way through television people.
Did you ever picture yourself doing anything else when things weren’t working out so well?
I went through a period where I wanted to study linguistics. So I actually did three semesters of post-bachelor studies in psycholinguistics in New York. After that, I applied for a graduate program in speech language pathology at Columbia and was accepted but I never went.
Why not?
This is going to make me sound like a flake, but I was in New York and got dumped by my boyfriend. And what I do when I go through heartbreak is I move [laugh]. I was crying tears on my laptop as I’m typing to find a ticket because my boyfriend dumped me. It was really impulsive and dramatic.
How old were you?
Twenty-five.
You’re in Los Angeles now. You never came back to New York?
Nope.
Do you miss anything about it?
Mamoun's Falafel. My friends. Theater.
People might be surprised that who you are in real life is nowhere close to Jessica the character on Fresh Off the Boat. You grew up in Virginia and had a very different life than what is portrayed on the show.
I am different. But I think I have core strengths that are very similar to the character. I do think because we have a similar core it’s easier for me to play the part instead of playing the character as a schtick or party trick. I try to make it come from a deeper place. But yes, we are very different in many ways. She’s an immigrant, I am not. She’s had children, I haven’t. Things like that.
When you first read the script, what was your initial take on Jessica?
My initial feeling on the very first draft of the pilot was that it was very weird. But I liked it because it didn’t seem like a standard sitcom. There was a line that she had that said, “I’m sorry, I have to go. A wasp just flew into my mouth.” That line doesn’t have anything to do with being Asian, and I remember reading it like, That’s weird, but I completely got it. It was a little odd, and I kind of liked that.
When we started shooting, I was a definitely a little nervous. I had never done network television and to be one of the leads of the show, that was a big step for me.
And also your comedic acting experience was limited to a comedy pilot for Amazon.
Which failed! That’s how good it was. It wasn’t even picked up!
Maybe it wasn’t your fault. So was all of this new to you, in terms of the comedic approach? Because Jessica not only delivers those funny, awkward lines, but she also does physical comedy—like, she sings.
I never did comedy before because I also sucked at it. The problem was I was trying to be funny.
I learned I had to make it feel real and intense. I have to tell people on set that they aren’t allowed to laugh at me. Sometimes they’re watching in the next room on the monitor and they’ll laugh and it’ll make me break character and giggle and I’ll remember I’m in a comedy. But if I don’t hear them laugh, I can stay focused and won’t break character.
The comedy is a byproduct of you being Jessica.
Exactly. I don’t have enough charm to try and be funny and succeed. There are some actors who try to be funny and they’re so likable and charming that they get away with it. When I tell a bad joke and it doesn’t work, people won’t let me get away with it [laugh].
So what can we expect from Season 2?
I’ve read three scripts so far. Our next-door neighbor Honey is a series regular, so they’re going to write more stories for the two of us as best friends. That’s all I really know so far. Maybe Eddie will go through puberty. That’s comedy, right? Puberty is comedy.
I want to compare Constance in real life to Jessica on Fresh Off the Boat. On the show, Jessica does not like the number four at all, which is a common Chinese superstition. Are you a superstitious person in real life?
Nope. I actually had never even heard of that Chinese superstition until that episode.
Jessica is very comfortable singing in front of a large audience. Are you a fan of public singing or karaoke?
I like karaoke if it’s in a public bar, but not like in a private room because it’s weird. When it’s in a bar and you can meet new people and everyone is wasted, sure.
Jessica has a competitive streak. How about you?
I’m very competitive, especially when it comes to acting. So like, if I audition for a part and I think I killed the audition and I’m really upset when I didn’t get it, when the movie comes out in six months, I watch it and sometimes I’m like, She was really good, she deserved it, she killed it. Sometimes I’m like No way, that girl got it because she’s hot, and that wasn’t even good.
You’ve talked about doing the work for the sake of the actual work, not caring about accolades and results. When did you form that mentality about acting?
Probably when I was in $30,000 credit card debt and couldn’t make my rent or get anything to eat. I think when I was having a really tough time and I was doubting myself as an actor and I couldn’t make any money and I was feeling really lonely, that’s when I realized I had to create my own purpose.
What I haven’t learned is how to create meaning now that I’m in a new world of quote unquote financial success. Because now I have the ability to distract myself if I’m sad. If I want to eat an entire cheesecake or buy a bunch of shoes. And I’ve certainly done both of those things.
So it’s an adjustment.
It seems like once you know your meaning and you know what you want to do, you’ll always know it. But you fall off, and you fall off a lot. I fall off and then I don’t realize why I’m so anxious and angry and paranoid and I have to reconnect. Maybe I just have poor memory issues. I think that’s it!
Well, as long as you remember your lines.
I’m really good at that. I don’t know why!