Constance Wu claims she was raped on a date early in her career – only to realize it years later because the attack “wasn’t violent.”
The actress described her hesitation at the end of her second date with an “aspiring writer” named Ty in Vanity Fair’s snippet of “Making a Scene,” her upcoming memoir.
Wu noted that she “ignored” a “sting of warning” [her] gut” about his invitation to hang out at his house after dinner.
“He didn’t look menacing or shady in any way, and if you had been there you would have agreed,” the 40-year-old “Fresh Off the Boat” added.
Wu went on to write that when she and Ty became intimate at his home, he didn’t stop when she asked him not to continue.
“Some people might say I should have fought back against Ty,” the Golden Globe nominee wrote of her response. “But if I could go back in time, I wouldn’t change my reaction that night.
“Because when I think about the girl I was then, I understand what she was going through,” Wu continued. “She wasn’t ready to endure the insults and ridicule that follow when women shoot scenes. And I wouldn’t let her do anything until she was ready.”
After filming “Crazy Rich Asians” in 2018, the “Hustlers” star awoke from a nap when the realization of the attack “struck [her] like a flood.”
Wu wrote that “maybe it wasn’t violent, but it was rape,” adding, “Ty raped me. He raped me and I didn’t do anything about it.”
The excerpt, published Monday, comes on the heels of the New York Times reporting that Wu also opens up in the book about her experience of allegedly being sexually harassed by a “Fresh Off the Boat” employee.
The “Terminal List” star fleshed out the reveal at an Atlantic Panel festival on Friday.
“I kept my mouth shut for a long time about a lot of sexual harassment and intimidation that I received the first two seasons of the show,” she said. “I thought, ‘You know what? I’ve handled it, nobody needs to know, I don’t have to stain the reputation of this Asian-American producer, I don’t have to stain the reputation of the show.’”
Wu wrote “Making a Scene”, which will be released on October 4, while she is on a break from her career.
The “I Was a Simple Man” star was also off social media platforms at the time, stepping back after trying to kill herself over hateful DMs. (Wu faced massive backlash on social media when she expressed her anger at the 2019 “Fresh Off the Boat” revamp.)
While Wu was “afraid of coming back on social media”, she has been “pinching her toe back” since July.