Constance Wu says her confidence is hard-earned

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Constance Wu has built a career playing women who are fearless and deeply self-possessed. But offscreen, becoming that person, it took a few years. You might have first met Constance on the hugely successful sitcom Fresh Off the Boat. Or maybe you saw her as Rachel Chu in the box office hit movie Crazy Rich Asians.

That role earned her the Golden Globe nomination and made her one of Hollywood's biggest stars. Perhaps you remember her playing an exotic dancer turned criminal alongside Jennifer Lopez in the highly talked about film Hustlers. She's actually got a great story about how she submitted an audition tape for that role, though she wasn't asked to submit an audition tape for that role.

But before all that success, Constance spent more than a decade waiting tables in restaurants, getting rejected, and wondering if acting would ever work out. So today, you're going to hear a conversation I had with Constance Wu recently. She'll tell you what she learned from that long season of discomfort and uncertainty, how it actually crystallized her love of the craft and forced her to stop chasing validation and find worth from inside.

But first, she has a new movie out called The Outer Threat. It's a sci-fi thriller that uses an alien discovery to explore something more human, the love of family, and what actually gives life meaning. So naturally, I started our conversation by asking Constance to weigh in on what seems to be the hot topic these days, whether or not she believes in aliens. Well, I don't know much about outer space except for I think it's infinite. And if something is infinite, the chances are we are not the only living beings in something that is infinite.

There's a good chance. Yeah. There's a good chance. So how did you come to be part of this movie, this shot in Canada, made in Canada?

You know, I get a lot of scripts. And typically I actually don't think a lot of them are well written. But this one I thought was really well written. And I thought it was compelling to read.

I thought it was fun to read. And I thought what it was trying to say was interesting. So I was like, yeah, totally. Tell me more about that, about the what it was trying to say part.

Well, it's just asking questions, kind of like morality questions about us as a species. not necessarily as individuals, but like what horde mentality is like and whether we could handle something unknown. You know, I think people respond or react very differently to things that are different. Some people respond with fear and some people respond with curiosity and a spectrum of feelings between those two.

And I don't think any one is better than the other, but if you're using these viewpoints to make decisions, it's just an interesting thing to ponder. And I like that Will Woods, the writer-director, he wrote a strong family element in it. And I think when you are pondering these questions, the reason you ponder it is because you're thinking about those you love. Yeah. I'm wondering about Michelle, the character, because this is your character. She's an astrophysicist, so she's very heady. But she's also raising two kids. She's super capable as a partner to her not quite husband. They're there in the middle of the wilderness working on this highly classified research project. Everything changes.

I want to know about Michelle and what excited you most about the idea of playing her. Michelle is a little more cynical. Right. Maybe a little more fear-based.

She doesn't – her experience has not led her to believe that humans as a group make decisions that are the best for ourselves. Like I think we often make decisions that we think are the best for ourselves or that like satisfy some idea of like expediency or efficiency or pleasure seeking. And that's never what ultimately makes somebody have a meaningful, rich life. And I think she recognizes that.

And I think she has sort of stepped back from her career a little bit. Because the things that have given her a full, rich, meaningful life are not these academic or work pursuits. You find a lot of meaning and joy in just interactions with your kids. I mean, I know.

Do you connect with that? Is that the part of Michelle that you're connecting with? Yeah, 100%. Because I have two kids.

I have a five-year-old and a three-year-old. Yeah. And even during the hard parts of parenting, there's really nothing better because you're like, I'm really in it. Like I'm really with someone and I'm present and I get to witness them going through life and working through them and I get to help them and be there for them.

And it's so much more beautiful and gratifying than any career accolade I could think of. Sure. Yeah. And yet the irony is that it's also one of the most ordinary things. Exactly.

But it's like because it's the most ordinary, there's just a beauty to it that is, I don't know, it's incredible. Yeah. Yeah. I think probably one of my favorite parts of the film was that interaction with the family, like the fact that you point out that family dynamic. But, you know, there was some super cute parts in it, like you showing your daughter how to shoot a gun.

Did you learn how to shoot? Did you know how to shoot? Or were you just because you looked pretty capable? Thanks.

It's acting, I guess. Well, actually, last year I did a show, again, here in Toronto. It was season two of Terminalist. Okay.