Constance Wu clarifies Fresh Off the Boat comments; does she want out?
Less than a day removed from breaking certain corners of the TV internet with a single tweet, Fresh Off the Boat star Constance Wu is expressing things further.
As it turns out, she was not entirely thrilled that her show was renewed by ABC for a season 6 … but not for the reasons that you necessarily thought. She makes it clear that does in fact love the cast and crew of Fresh Off the Boat very much, but also wants to be “pushed artistically” and challenged as a performer with things that are “unfamiliar and scary.”
Wu notes that she hopes people will believe her new statement and from our vantage point, honestly there’s no reason to doubt her. She probably does enjoy working on Fresh Off the Boat — she’s been there for five years and probably has many great friends on the cast and crew. Yet, she probably does also want new opportunities, given that Crazy Rich Asians was a breakout role for her. (Ironically, that movie’s success is probably one of the reasons why ABC wants to bring Fresh Off the Boat back in the first place.)
Here’s the question that you do have to wonder now — where does ABC go from here, and the producers of the show? At this point, our philosophy is quite simple — if Wu wants to be elsewhere, why force her to stick around on the show? It’s possible that she already had conversations with producers about a possible exit and it didn’t happen, hence the reason for the public comments. We just think that if she continues to be on the show, the sentiment from the past day or so is going to stick around. She’s a talented performer and if she wants a chance to do other things, we don’t necessarily think that ABC or producers should stand in her way.
Of course, we say that knowing that there are a LOT of factors at play and someone leaving a show, especially an established sitcom with potential syndication money on the line, is a pretty big deal. We’ll hopefully get some more information from ABC about what they want to do at upfronts. In the end, this entire situation could’ve been done better, but we also don’t think that it’s fair to equate this with a Katherine Heigl sort of situation. Wu’s comments suggest more a desire to take on a different project, whereas Heigl specifically disparaged the writers and the creative team of Grey’s Anatomy. They’re somewhat apples and oranges.
What do you think about Wu’s comments about Fresh Off the Boat? Be sure to share right now in the comments.