Constance Wu Quotes

Constance Wu

Profession : Actress

Birth : March 22, 1982

I wish reporters were more in tune to the difference between the Asian experience and the Asian-American experience. I think often they lump the two together and think that when I talk about Asian-American narratives that they can cite 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' or 'Mulan' as proof of concept when it's a different experience.

Constance Wu

Public service is about serving all the people, including the ones who are not like you.

Constance Wu

I don't fear being outspoken. The only thing I fear is losing my sense of integrity or losing sight of the values on which I guide my life. So I don't think it's particularly brave or unusual for me to speak out.

Constance Wu

You're never going to please everyone, and if you do, there's something wrong.

Constance Wu

People's passion and desire for authenticity is strong.

Constance Wu

Make sure your work is never results-oriented. The result is a byproduct of the work, in a way.

Constance Wu

A lot of times, people think of Asian culture as some mythical world instead of modern people with modern occupations with modern problems, modern tools. Like, we're not all just talking Taoism and kung fu - some people are just trying to get over their breakup with their boyfriend, and they're Facebook-stalking.

Constance Wu

The one dream I have is to do a musical. I love singing, but most people don't know because I don't sell myself as a musical person. My dream is to play Audrey in 'Little Shop of Horrors' - it would be so interesting to have an Asian Audrey because it's all about achieving the American dream in a sinister, success-driven way.

Constance Wu

When I was a teenager, I worked at the Gap for a summer folding shirts. That was pretty mindless and soul-sucking.

Constance Wu

Authentic programming that shows the outside world garners authentic interest.

Constance Wu

If the writing is good, then the writing is already funny. All you have to do is make this funny writing true to the very deepest of your heart, and the fact that you are capable of making this true will be hysterical.

Constance Wu

There were so few Asians on-screen when I grew up, and the ones who were on-screen weren't given complex characters to play.

Constance Wu

I do think there are some actors that can get away with trying to be funny, and they're still funny because they're just likeable, and you want to see them. Me, though, when you see me trying to be funny, it's like the worst thing in the world. It's needy, it's cloying, it's manipulative - it's bad.

Constance Wu

Being an actor, in and of itself, is just hard. You have to just do it for its own sake.

Constance Wu

At one point, I quit acting for a little bit to study psycholinguistics - somewhat a more practical career. It just didn't feel right.

Constance Wu

I'd rather lose all my stuff than lose myself, because I've done that before, and that feels way worse.

Constance Wu

I don't aspire to just play things that are like me. Whether the accent is Taiwanese or British or Canadian - that is the very craft in which I was trained. It is my absolute privilege and honor to do that.

Constance Wu

Specificity is what makes good storytelling, and good storytelling is what makes money, and making money is then what encourages new producers to invest in different stories about Asians.

Constance Wu

I feel like I could carry a movie or a show, and I'll mess up here and there, and I'll learn from those things.

Constance Wu

My family is Chinese-Taiwanese. I'm from Richmond, Virginia. The community in which I grew up was pretty white. The storybooks you got at school featured white children and an animal, or animals, and as you got older, the novels you were assigned were about, like, the problems of white boys and their dogs.

Constance Wu