Constance Wu has claimed that a Fresh Off the Boat producer sexually harassed and intimidated her during the groundbreaking ABC show. Per the New York Times, Wu recounts the experience in her upcoming memoir, Making a Scene. She reportedly writes that the unnamed senior producer placed his hand on her thigh at a sporting event and ultimately grazed her crotch. According to the Times, the memoir also claims that the man demanded control over her business matters and what she wore.
“I kept my mouth shut for a really long time about a lot of sexual harassment and intimidation that I received the first two seasons of the show,†Wu said at the Atlantic Festival on Friday, per The Hollywood Reporter. “Because, after the first two seasons, once it was a success, once I was no longer scared of losing my job, that’s when I was able to start saying ‘no’ to the harassment, ‘no’ to the intimidation, from this particular producer. And, so I thought: ‘You know what? I handled it. Nobody has to know.’†Noting that Fresh Off the Boat was the first network TV show in more than 20 years to star Asian Americans, Wu explained that she didn’t want to stain the representation of an Asian American producer or “the one show we had representing us.â€
The actress further alleged that “a few people†knew about the producer’s behavior, and it “felt like a betrayal every time†she went to work and saw them “being ‘buddy-buddy’ with him.†When Fresh Off the Boat was renewed for its sixth (and final) season, Wu famously took to Twitter to share that she was upset by the news, sparking instant social-media backlash. “I loved everybody on that crew, and I loved working on that show,†she clarified at Friday’s event. “But it had that history of abuse that it started with, and even though I handled it after two years, I was looking forward to a clean slate.â€