Actress Constance Wu has posted an emotional statement on Twitter, explaining her long absence from social media and detailing an extreme mental health struggle.
In a return to Twitter after almost three years, the Hustlers and Crazy Rich Asians star announced her upcoming book, Making a Scene, and opened up about her mental state following a statement she'd previously made.
"I was afraid of coming back on social media because I almost lost my life from it: Three years ago, when I made careless tweets about the renewal of my TV show, it ignited outrage and internet shaming that got pretty severe," she wrote this week.
In 2019, Wu tweeted about being upset that her show, Fresh Off the Boat, was renewed for a sixth season.
The sitcom, which follows the lives of an immigrant Taiwanese family adjusting to the socio-cultural reality of living in the United States, was praised for its portrayal of Asian Americans, who are often underrepresented in television. It was the first Asian American comedy on broadcast TV in two decades.
"So upset right now that I’m literally crying. Ugh. F***", Wu wrote on Twitter.
When a fan congratulated her and called the renewal "great news", Wu replied: "No it’s not."
The actress later clarified that she was disappointed because she had to give up another project that she was "passionate about" to fulfil her renewed duties.
In her statement this week, Wu wrote how after posting the tweets she received "a few DMs from a fellow Asian actress [who] told me I’d become a blight on the Asian American community."
"I started feeling like I didn’t even deserve to live anymore. That I was a disgrace to AsAms, and they’d be better off without me.
She continued: "Looking back, it’s surreal that a few DMs convinced me to end my own life, but that’s what happened.
