Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Completely biting off the hand that feeds her

If you've seen "Crazy Rich Asians," you know who Constance Wu is - the Asian-American actress who played Rachel Chu, who was hit with lots and lots of surprises when she accompanied her boyfriend from New York to his best friend's wedding in Singapore.

If you watch "Fresh Off The Boat" on television, you know Constance Wu as Jessica Huang, who's anything but the usual sitcom mom. She's married to an Asian-American who takes his family from Chinatown in Washington D.C. to open a Western-themed steakhouse in Orlando.  And I'm sure that all sort of hi-jinx and merry mixups ensue, but I've never seen the show, which was recently renewed for another season on ABC.

So that made Constance happy, right? I mean, another season of guaranteed work and a steady paycheck, probably syndication deal in the offing, fame and fortune, who could ask for more?

Well, Constance could.

She went ape on Twitter a couple of Fridays ago when the renewal was announced. I mean, she was throwing f-bombs like the peanut guy at the ballpark tosses goober peas, bemoaning her fate of having to keep working on a low-prestige TV show when she was all set to play a drug addict who goes on a trip from Iowa to Alaska with her sister to find their mother, in a picture to be called "You And Me Both," if they ever make it.

The next day she apologized and said she was having a bad day, and really is looking forward to a making lots and lots of new episodes of this situation comedy, uh huh.  And her fellow actors must really be looking forward to being back on set with her, now that they know how highly she regards their work together.

Listen, Wu is both extremely attractive and thoroughly talented in acting. "Crazy Rich Asians" required her to show a whole lot of emotions and reactions, and she was convincing all the way.

And yes, we all know that there's a hierarchy in acting, with Broadway at the top, feature films right up there with it, and then it drops down to television.  The guy who used to be Wojo on Barney Miller is now playing an Alzheimer's patient on one of the soap operas (not the one I watch!) and I'll venture to say he is glad to have steady work.

Not to turn this blog into Extra or one of those shows, but just yesterday we talked about a comedian who blew chance after chance by blowing drugs up his nose, and here we have a woman whose career has hit a milestone - a sixth season on a hit show - that many other people would give their right loafer to have. Wu was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world last year, so she is making a name for herself, but she shouldn't alienate the people who are walking with her down this hall as she tries to get upstairs, so to speak.

Like she's ever going to read this and then say, "hey, great idea!" But when did that ever stop me?


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