As we discussed over the weekend, Constance Wu really destroyed a lot of goodwill over the course of one afternoon. On Friday, Fresh Off the Boat was renewed for another season on ABC. Instead of celebrating, Constance posted a series of tweets and comments which made her look incredibly selfish and petty, like she was super-bummed that she has a steady paycheck and other directors interested in her at the same time. It was a total Katherine Heigl move, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the result was the same: producers on FOTB will probably keep Constance on the show out of pettiness and they’ll make her do increasingly stupid sh-t. All because Constance was too stupid – ?? – to realize how bratty she sounded online.
As I also said in that post, it felt like we should have heard something about Constance Wu before now. From where I was sitting, Constance’s ass-showing came as a surprise because I thought she was a good celebrity, or at least mature enough to not throw a bratty tantrum on Twitter. Now that we have the benefit of hindsight, perhaps it is notable that Constance didn’t seem particularly close with anyone on the Crazy Rich Asians team, right? According to a since-deleted tweet by Yashar Ali, Constance does have a reputation as a not-nice person. When Ali first tweeted that… Gemma Chan “liked” it.
I’m choking pic.twitter.com/UxZBsWZDcR
— shania twink (@phillipethao) May 11, 2019
I’m usually not here for stories about people “liking” shady tweets. But it is interesting, right? Gemma is 36, Constance is 37 – both of them are old enough to understand how social media works and to know that their tweets, comments and likes are public. So after everyone was like “damn, Gemma hates Constance,” Gemma tweeted this:
Just to clarify – it was an accidental 'like'. Anyone looking for drama or beef, sorry to disappoint.
Future me dodging the like button whilst scrolling..👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/HY92pqQ6ND
— Gemma Chan (@gemma_chan) May 11, 2019
No one in her mentions bought the idea that she “accidentally” liked the tweet, but I guess the point was that she tried to soften it and that she’s better at interneting than Constance Wu. If there is a catfight between them, I’m Team Gemma. I love her. I hope she stays unproblematic.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I really like Gemma, and although I don’t think she intentionally liked it, her reaction to it is super telling
She knows what’s up and Wu’s reaction was really gross
And I saw so many responses defending her purely because she’s a poc
But I’m a poc and no one should get a pass for that behavior or lack of regard for everyone else associated with the show. I couldn’t imagine what tweets her costars were tempted to like
I really like Gemma too, but no way was this an accident – and it makes her look petty and juvenile.
@Oh No, It’s not simply that she’s a POC. It’s that any marginalized person is going to earn a bad rap for being outspoken, having standards, setting boundaries, advocating for themselves, etc. in ways that white men are not. Given this, I am not jumping to any conclusions about Constance being difficult. Is she difficult, or is she just a WOC who doesn’t take BS and speaks her mind, so people don’t like her? I remember director Steve McQueen saying he heard that Michelle Rodriguez was difficult to work with but he really wanted her for “Widows” and found her to be just fine. She was just open about what she wanted. WOC are expected to shut up and be grateful they have a job, as if they’re not actually talented people who deserve every opportunity they’ve gotten. This goes in and out of Hollywood, so I’m not rushing to pile on Constance Wu any time soon.
@WTW – exactly. And I’m also not here for this feud narrative that’s suddenly being pushed about Constance and Gemma.
@WTW Agree with everything you said. I’m sure she’s gained a lot of industry bad will from publicly criticizing Matt Damon’s problematic passion project and Casey Affleck’s nomination, even if the rumors of her being difficult to work with are true.
On another note, it sucks that this happening when Hollywood is just starting to crack its doors open for Asian Americans. As a result, any Asian American who gains a bit of visibility will be seen as a representative for the Asian American community by the larger American community. It’s not fair, but it is what it is.
CW may be awful to work with professionally and nasty in her private life but right now she’s the only one with visibility that thoughtfully talks about the discrimination that Asian Americans face. Many AA actors try, but not many can articulate to the wider community why it’s such a problem and the reach of the issue. She has a whole community riding on her shoulders whether we/she likes it or not, and she seemed to understand that.
As disappointed as I am in CW, I can’t be here for her tear-down. When the amount of representation a community receives is an issue, what’s represented easily becomes a political issue. That’s why I’m not here for Gemma Chan throwing in her petty two cents either, even if they may be personally warranted. There’s too much at stake.
@ WTW I think there is a big difference between speaking your mind and being incredibly selfish and having a tantrum. This isn’t about CW being a PoC or a marginalized person. Someone can be a PoC, act idiotic and be called out for this behavior. She acted like a brat because her show got renewed but forgot that if it hadn’t she may have had another project lined up but a lot of people on set would’ve been out of a job. That’s incredibly selfish and tonedeaf and white males saying these kinds of things wouldn’t have been magically exempt of this. Speaking her mind would’ve been putting the phone down, walking into the office of whoever is in charge and telling them “You know what, I’ve loved working here but I need to move on”.
Why not? I’ve accidentally liked things before. I’ve accidentally liked posts by people I was stealth looking up / stalking (horror of all horrors, accidentally liking the post of an ex’s new gf!!!), I’ve accidentally liked things I disagree with. Normally I realise straight away and fix it; but it’s possible she clicked on it to read it and liked it when doing so without realising it. I work in media and this stuff happens all the time – even when you’re an “expert”. It’s definitely a possibility. She probably did like it, forgetting it was public; but it could be an accident too.
Sure, Gem.
I could see it happening. I have big thumbs and when I scroll, I’ve occasionally liked a tweet. That said, I usually unlike it pretty quickly. It doesn’t stay liked for long. Hers was up long enough for people to see it and note it.
She may not have even realized she’d liked it until people started replying to her about it.
To be fair, I’ve clicked on the like button accidentaly many times, and there was one specific stalking time that made me panic 🙂 it does happen.
Ha ha. Me too. Mortifying.
Me too, but I unlike it immediately. The tweet only disappeared from Gemma’s likes because the person who tweeted it deleted the tweet. Gemma never unliked it. I think if you accidentally like something when you scroll, you notice it and you unlike it right away. Twitter’s animated heart is too colorful not to notice.
Gemma just didn’t know we can see her likes.
I’ve accidentally liked tweets on numerous occasions. It has nothing to do with not knowing how social media works and everything to do with your thumb hitting the wrong thing. Let’s not pit these two women against each other. ESPECIALLY two Asian women in an industry where Asian representation is so small. I’m disappointed in Constance after her twitter tirade but that doesn’t have anything to do with Gemma or “picking a team”.
^Thanks for this. Being an Asian woman myself and as much as I am disappointed by Constance, I don’t want to put two Asian women against each other for the sake of gossip or celeb teams or what not. They have to work together on CRA2 and such.
Yeah, judging by the amount of talk I’ve heard in the last few days about what Constance is like to be around/work with (apparently this came as a surprise to VERY few people) and given that you almost never, ever see Gemma and Constance together when they’re at the same events (but you DO see Gemma happily hanging with her other CRA co-stars) I’m thinking this was less of an “accidental” like, and more of a “like in the moment, then realise it might be better to just NOT and immediately unlike” like- except unfortunately for Gemma, people noticed and there were screenshots.
I don’t think it’s “accidental” too. She’s not following Yashar on Twitter (yes, I checked lol) and she wasn’t tagged in the tweet, so I wonder how she saw his tweet. Don’t get me wrong, I like Gemma. Couldn’t care less about Constance.
If any of her friends liked or retweeted it, she would have also seen it. Doubt she spends her time looking for tweets that disparage Constance Wu.
@WTW I doubt she does either, that’s not what I was meaning- but twitter took no time at all to absolutely explode with the Constance story. People who had never had any interest in Constance Wu were following it with interest, so I can easily see people who have actually had dealings with her (quite possibly not overly pleasant ones, by the sound of things) following what was going on.
That was my guess, an intentional like and then a later regret, but either way, I don’t think it’s a big deal.
I haven’t watched Crazy Rich Asians, and I don’t watch FOTB, save for some clips on Youtube that stays on my recommendation list (I should really stop clicking on them). Constance Wu seems to be a good sitcom actress from the clips I’ve seen. But during the promotions of CRA, I did watch some interviews with Constance and her costars, and when she was with her costars, she would sometimes look stand-offish, like she didn’t want to share the interview time. I don’t know. I believe Yashar Ali. And I believe Gemma liked the tweet and probably didn’t think it would have much impact until…well….it did.
Likes are public. I highly doubt she would have liked it on purpose and then have been surprised people noticed. She’s famous and knows how social media works
Her reaction “”accidental like, there’s no beef” vs. something like; “I’ve always found Constance to be extremely professional and pleasant” is very very telling. She’s doing the bare minimum to avoid a public battle whilst making her feelings clear.
I’ve accidentally hit LIKE many, many times.
I’m grateful I’m not a celebrity whose every move is not only noticed but also scrutinized.
😒
Is it just me, or does anyone else think it’s odd that Gemma’s walk back of her “like” didnt also include any statement defending CW? Like, if it was really accidental, wouldn’t you also refute the sentiment that CW is kind of a bitch?
Nothing odd about it. She may not have agreed with her Constance’s tirade – most people didn’t. That doesn’t mean she wanted to publicly bash her either.
Nope. That is because she does not like Constance and the walk back was pr management.
I wish the Katherine Heigl comparisons would stop. Katherine never wished for the cancellation of Grey’s, and the unemployment of hundreds.
Exactly! Thank you! There is no comparison
I’m still so dumbfounded and disappointed with Constance’s behavior. What was she thinking? How is that ever ok? some people really are their own worst enemies.
Gemma is lovely and she’s a good actress. Constance has zero charisma and no acting range, but she’s acting like she’s a Meryl Streep caliber actress.
I adore Gemma (which was a huge relief because her character is my favourite from the CRA books) but yeah, she probably liked it on purpose. No shade from me because Constance seems like a difficult person. That being said, I’m glad she unliked it, I really want the filming of the next two movies to go smoothly.
There actually have been whispers about Constance Wu for a while. And it was apparently well known on set that the two women did not get along. I think Constance just wasn’t big enough of a star for the stuff about her to go mainstream. It’s like The Good Wife, in which a lot of the hard-core fans knew about JM’s behavior for a while, but it didn’t really go public until towards the end.
I still like Gemma; I think she’s a classy person all around and she comes across very well in interviews. She probably didn’t expect her like, which I agree was deliberate, to get any attention, hence the backtracking. Notice she never defended Constance in her clarification. That tells you it was likely deliberate. They work in an industry where their careers could be derailed by little things like this, so I give her a pass for fibbing a bit.
Eh, the “like” itself isn’t particularly classy.
37? I thought Connie is in her 40s. I’m not insulting her looks, she looks her age but I understand why she wants out of FOTB. She does not want domesticated mommy roles anymore, she wants to be the hot leading lady playing opposite Chris Pine and not Randall Park. Not a diss to Randall who is 46. He can be hot if he wants to (see Bill Hader). Someone on twitter said Constance wants the roles given to Gemma who is only a year younger? Don’t chase that Connie, embrace the normie, wife roles (see Melissa Mccarthy).