Constance Wu is explaining her past social media behavior.
After coming forward about the sexual harassment she faced from a senior producer on ABC's Fresh Off the Boat Sept. 23, the actress is now giving context to those 2019 tweets where she expressed disappointment at the show's renewal.
"All of the sexual harassment, the inappropriate touching, the telling me to wear short skirts and intimidation—that all only happened in the first two years of the show, when I was still very scared," she explained Oct. 3 on Late Night With Seth Meyers. "Once I felt a little bit of job security, then I started saying no to this producer, which infuriated him, but it was OK. So I thought, 'You know what? I handled it. I don't need to stain the reputation of this show or of this producer. I can just keep it inside.'"
But Wu couldn't keep the abuse she suffered a secret forever.
"The thing I learned is that bad feelings and abuse don't just go away because you will it to," she continued. "It's gonna come out somewhere. People didn't understand the context of those tweets."
In May 2019, after news broke that Fresh Off the Boat had been renewed for a sixth season, Wu posted a series of tweets expressing her frustration. "So upset right now that I'm literally crying. Ugh. F--k," Wu wrote at the time, followed by "F--king hell." Then, responding to a fan who congratulated her on the "great news," she replied, "No it's not."
An emotional Wu went on to thank Meyers for not "making fun" of the tweets, because the incident led her to "a really dark time." In July, Wu returned to Twitter after three years off, sharing that she attempted suicide after the backlash from her statements went viral.
Though she was initially hesitant to include the allegations in her new memoir, Making a Scene, she ultimately decided to because she believes it's "important that we engage with curiosity and empathy before we go straight to judgement."
"Because if somebody does something out of character for them," she continued, "usually, something's going on in their life."
Wu's memoir, Making a Scene, is out Oct. 4.