The “Hustlers” and “Crazy Rich Asians” actress, whose memoir will be released this fall, wrote that while she was “afraid of coming back on social media because [she] almost lost [her] life from it,” she wanted to share her story to start a wider conversation with Asian Americans about mental health.
After her ABC sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat” was renewed for a sixth season in May 2019, Wu appeared distraught by the news, tweeting, “So upset right now that I’m literally crying. Ugh,” followed by expletives. She later said that she sent the tweets “on the heels of rough day & were ill timed (with) the news of the show.”
But the backlash was swift and severe, Wu said in her new statement on Twitter. Countless users, including some fellow actors, criticized her for seeming ungrateful about the success of her series, which was one of very few sitcoms with an all-Asian cast in central roles. When a fellow Asian actress messaged her and said she had “become a blight on the Asian American community,” Wu said she felt like she “didn’t deserve to live anymore.”
She survived her suicide attempt and paused her acting career to focus on her mental health over the last few years, she said. But she’s returning to social media now, she explained, “to share (her) story so that it might help someone with theirs.
“If we want to be seen, really seen … we need to let all of ourselves be seen, including the parts we’re scared of or ashamed of — parts that, however imperfect, require care and attention,” she wrote.
Wu has resumed acting, recently appearing in the Amazon Prime series “The Terminal List” alongside Chris Pratt, and she stars in the upcoming children’s film “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” with Javier Bardem.
