Constance Wu, who plays Jessica Huang on the show Fresh Off the Boat, has picked a somewhat ridiculous platform on which to fight for equality. For the backstory, NBC originally greenlighted a script from the trio behind the hit show Superstore called Mail Order Family. Just in case you were wondering, that is not a play on words, the premise was to be about a widowed father who sends away for a mail order bride to help raise his two daughters. It was based on writer Jackie Clarke’s experience with her own father having done this. She once described her whole sordid tale on an episode of This American Life. Spoiler – Clarke’s experience was miserable and she dislikes everyone involved. Understandably, the show received much backlash and NBC canceled it very soon after purchasing it.
What is not understandable is Constance posting this tweet last Friday:
If the woman is FIRST billed & paid 2X what the male actor makes then I'll be OK w/ Mail-Order Bride comedy, in fact I'll root for her
— Constance Wu (@ConstanceWu) September 30, 2016
But then she rethought her tweet and decided she should clarify herself so she tweeted this:
@ConstanceWu I mean I'll root for her anyway. But anyone who thinks this is a ridiculous request oughta look into themselves <3 bc it ain't
— Constance Wu (@ConstanceWu) September 30, 2016
Oh good, so Constance will still back the lead actress in a show about a practice which has established and dangerous ties to human trafficking, even if the lead actress isn’t paid twice the salary and credited first. Glad she explained that. Constance’s tweets came prior to the show’s cancellation, yes, but after several petitions were put out to call for the show’s cancellation and the Twitter campaign #CancelMailOrderFamily was launched.
This is a real head-scratcher, isn’t it? Because I just don’t know how I should respond. Luckily, Twitter knew how to react:
@ConstanceWu So something like this?
— Kaku (@redsunblue) October 1, 2016
@ConstanceWu I hope you got paid to say that. You know, twice as much as a male would for selling us out because that's what's important.
— Manila Ryce (@ManilaRyce) October 1, 2016
@ConstanceWu the show is making light of human trafficking and is created by a racist who hates Asians. How is this show ever okay?
— aimee (@avidlyaimee) September 30, 2016
@karendnavarro it won't be perfect but it would be a helluva thing. Pay her double. First billed.
— Constance Wu (@ConstanceWu) September 30, 2016
OMG this ^^ – is she punking us? “it won’t be perfect”??? It would be a g-d travesty! You can read more on her Twitter or here, in case it gets taken down, which I doubt if it hasn’t already.
I get that Constance wanted to speak in favor of Asian representation and pay equality but how she thought this was the torch to light is beyond me.
Photo credit: Fame/Flynet Photos and Getty images
