Constance Wu accuses Fresh Off The Boat senior producer of sexual harassment and intimidation

Constance Wu has accused a senior producer of her hit sitcom Fresh Off The Boat of sexual harassment and intimidation.

Wu makes the disclosure in her upcoming new memoir, Making A Scene, and again when she spoke with the New York Times prior to the publication of the book.

While the actress reveals details of how the man exhibited controlling behavior during the show’s first two seasons, she would only refer to the man by using an initial.

Loosely inspired by the life of chef and food personality Eddie Huang and his 2013 autobiography, Fresh Off The Boat was the first TV sitcom in the US to star a family of Asian Americans in over 20 years.

Portraying a Taiwanese-American family living in Florida in the 1990s, the show entered production in 2014 and finally premiered on ABC in February to critical acclaim.

Wu claims the producer started exhibiting this controlling behavior in the first season, including “demanding that she ignore all her business affairs and tell her what to wear.”

“Fresh Off the Boat was my very first TV show,” the actress told the Times, before explaining her way of thinking at the time. ‘I was thrown into this world. I have no parents in the industry. And because I was 30, people thought I knew what I was doing. It made me paranoid and embarrassed.’

Impactful: Loosely inspired by the life of chef and food personality Eddie Huang and his 2013 autobiography, Fresh Off The Boat was the first TV sitcom in the US to star a family of Asian Americans in over 20 years; she is pictured right with co-stars Hudson Yang, Randall Park, Lucille Soong, Ian Chen and Forrest Wheeler

Wu, whose real parents emigrated from Taiwan, then revealed to the Times that the producer’s inappropriate behavior escalated when they were attending a sporting event and he allegedly “put his hand on her thigh, eventually grazing her crotch.”

The actress confronted the man and asked him to stop, and in the end they both tried to move on from the incident.

During her conversation with the New York Times, Wu revealed that she decided not to talk about his controlling behavior at the time for fear of the consequences, but as time went on and the show became a success, she began to feel more empowered and on her own. to feel comfortable. about her status within the show.

By the time Wu and the man were arguing about attending a film festival together, they stopped speaking.

Accusations: The actress claims the senior producer exhibited controlling behavior during the show’s first two seasons, which eventually escalated to an incident where “he put his hand on her thigh” and his hand “finally grazed her crotch.”

“I’ve been silent for a very long time about a lot of sexual harassment and intimidation that I received in the first two seasons of the show,” the Virginia native said during a panel at the Atlantic Festival last Friday.

She explained: ‘Because after the first two seasons, once it was a success, when I was no longer afraid of losing my job, when I could say ‘no’ to the bullying, ‘no’ to the harassment. , from this particular producer.’

In the end, she decided not to go out and identify the man to avoid.”damage the reputation of the show.”

Fresh Off The Boat would remain on air for six seasons, ending in February 2020 after earning the accolade as the first series to feature an all-Asian-American main cast to air over 100 episodes.

Along with Wu, the series starred Randall Park, Hudson Yang, Forrest Wheeler, Ian Chen, Lucille Soong, Chelsey Crisp and Ray Wise.

So far, representatives from Fresh Off the Boat and 20th Television have not publicly commented on the allegations.

Wu initially kept quiet about the sexual harassment and intimidation allegations for fear of repercussions, such as losing her job on the show; in the end she decided not to identify the man so as not to “damage the reputation of the show”; she is pictured with co-star Randall Park