Constance Wu: Crazy Sexy Cool

As her star continues to rise, the Fresh off the Boat and Crazy Rich Asians actress has become one of the leading voices calling out Hollywood’s skewed portrayal of Asians.

If Internet trolls had their way, Constance Wu would keep her mouth shut. But no, there is she is on Twitter, calling out the white-saviour narrative that put Matt Damon at the centre of the American-Chinese film The Great Wall (2016). And there she goes again, highlighting the systemic racism that led to Scarlett Johansson being chosen to play a Japanese character in Ghost in the Shell (2017). The subtext in some of the outspoken—not just for a woman, but for an Asian woman. But no brickbat is going to silence the fiery 36-year-old. 

Wu’s biting commentary on Hollywood’s diversity blindspot has made her one of the leading Asian-American voices holding the entertainment industry to account in recent years. And professionally, her star is only getting brighter, reaching a new apogee in August when she headlines the much-anticipated Crazy Rich Asians, the first major Hollywood movie with a mostly-Asian cast since The Joy Luck Club, which was released 25 years ago. Based on Kevin Kwan’s New York Times bestselling comedy of manners, Wu stars as Rachel Chu, an Asian-American woman discovering her boyfriend is one of Singapore’s richest bachelors.

Yet despite her growing celebrity, Wu seems to eschew the spotlight. When she meets Harper’s BAZAAR Singapore for a chat in a Los Angeles café, she is studiously low-key, her dainty features half-hidden by a denim cap and honey-dipped tresses. It is the actress who has asked to meet at this unpretentious vegan spot in her neighbourhood, Silverlake, an artsy hipster enclave far from the usual Hollywood power-meeting venues.