Hustling to the Top
It was the great Marilyn Monroe that once said “Hollywood’s a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul”. The film industry is an ever changing landscape – exciting and scary, free and restricting – yet classic Hollywood cinema will always stand the test of time, along with their iconic lead actors. Katharine Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Greta Garbo, Louise Brooks – those were the star-studded women that stepped up to pave the way for female empowerment.
Nowadays, those iconic women are names like Emma Watson, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence, amongst many more, and they’re fighting for more barriers to be taken down in the industry. Another big name on that list is Constance Wu. She played Rachel Chu in Jon M. Chu’s 2018 blockbuster, Crazy Rich Asians. Wu wants to help guide the industry and promote compassion, empathy and mask away that unconscious bias that plagues Hollywood.
Crazy Rich Asians has fast become a ground-breaking work in Hollywood. The film follows economics professor, Rachel Chu, travelling to a friends wedding in Singapore with longtime boyfriend, Nick. Unbeknownst to her, his family are very wealthy and Nick is known as one of the most eligible of bachelors in Singapore, with interest from jealous socialites.
Known for its beautifully written romantic-comedy plot and its all-Asian leading cast, the film made $170,110,588 from the box-office, from a $30 million budget. It also brought to the forefront the importance of portraying different ethnic groups in cinema. That movie, undoubtedly, thrust Constance Wu into the spotlight.
Richmond, Virginia native, Constance Wu is a heart-driven actor. At the age of 16, she moved to New York to study at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and landed roles in the 2006 films, Stephanie Daley and Year of the Fish. She worked as hard as she could, waitressing to pay the bills, and auditioning every day to hit it big time. In 2010, she relocated to LA and was cast as Jessica Huang in ABC’s comedy series, Fresh Off the Boat, where she received great praise and acclaim.
In her latest film, Hustlers, directed by Lorene Scafaria, she plays stripper and single mother, Destiny, who gangs up with Ramona (Jennifer Lopez) and other dancers to lie, steal and hustle many wealthy men during the late 2000’s GFC. The film releases in New Zealand on October 10.
We got the opportunity to sit down with Constance and talk Hustlers, inspiration and empowerment.
What first attracted you to acting?
Well, there wasn’t one crystalizing moment. I was a kid who grew up doing local, community theatre in my small town. Those were the kind of people who gravitated towards, that I felt a complete kinship with. I felt at home.
Everybody has a ‘tribe’ of people, whether goths or athletes, or whatever. I felt understood with the theatre. The people valued the things that I valued.
I did acting as a kid because it was fun, and it felt good. Once I started at 10 or 11, I never really stopped doing theatre. It was my version of church. Then I went to drama school and I studied, went to New York and waitressed and auditioned every day. I really just made it my life.
At this point, it doesn’t feel like a choice, it feels like an identity.
Have the characters you’ve played help develop you as an actress?
Every single role makes me grow personally. I like roles that make me access parts of my empathy that don’t necessarily voice themselves as often as others.
Every different character gives me this opportunity to to explore. When I do that, it just makes me more compassionate to people all around. I think that really helps my acting, but also on a practical level.
[My characters]Destiny and Rachael [from Crazy Rich Asians], helped me understand that what I’m doing is a constant recognition and realisation. I’m getting closer and closer to a truth.
Every single one of my characters has shown me places where I can go deeper and show places where I am scared of. They’ve taught me to just be brave, especially Destiny, because she is so open in many ways. I loved playing her. She’s great.
In one word, what does your new movie Hustlers promise its audience?
Kinship!
What’s your character like in Hustlers?
Her name is Destiny. She starts out as a lonely woman who is doing the best she can with the opportunities (or the scarce few) she’s been given to get ahead in life.
We’re living in a culture where we award men for their bank accounts and women for their looks. It’s just the cultural system that affects the options we have as people.
At the end of the day, more than anything (even money), what Destiny realises is that she values friendship and family, which are two things that she didn’t have growing up. So when she finds that with Ramona [Lopez] and the other girls, it’s like all her dreams come true.
The story does get caught up in a lot of money scandal and bad behaviour, but it eventually breaks down. Hustlers might come across as quite a Robin Hood-esque narrative, but really at its heart, it’s a great tale of two women who weren’t given options, but rise past it with love and compassion, even in situations that people might judge them for. Really, it’s all about friendship.
What was it like working with others on set?
It’s been wonderful. Jennifer has been a dream of an actress to work with. You’re only as good as your team partner and she’s amazing. I just feel so lucky to be working with somebody who’s as talented and passionate as she is. It was just such a great privilege to work with her.
Cardi [B] was so fun – she’s the best. I didn’t get to know her as well as I got to know Jen, but she was so fun and so naturally good at acting. I was so pleased we had her as part of the movie.
Who inspires your work the most?
100 percent Philip Seymour Hoffman. His work is amazing. I think he was one of the most tremendous actors that ever existed. It devastated me when he passed away.
I really like Judy Dench’s work. A lot of writers too, like Marilynne Robinson. I think she’s pretty great. Mark Ruffalo, whose heart is always open. That is a beautiful thing to behold.
There are so many wonderful artists out there making work that just excites me. When I see a movie or a play where a performance just takes your breath away, there’s nothing that gives me more joy and gratitude. It’s a great opportunity to experience that. Also to contribute to that industry truly inspires me.
Would you change anything in the industry?
So many things. I think there’s a lot of unconscious bias that has gone into decision making and the choices Hollywood makes on the world. If I could wave a magic wand and make those biases, if not disappear, at least become conscious, then there would be a consciousness behind a lot of the decisions that are made.
Those decisions, at the moment, really effect the capacity of empathy and compassion from the people who absorb and watch the stories we’re making. Empathy and compassion on issues such as sexism, racism, transphobia, and homophobia.
It’s nobodies fault – that’s why I’m saying unconscious. When they become conscious of it, then they can start actively changing it.
What would you say female empowerment looks like?
To me, female empowerment means taking the time to discover what is authentic to you in terms of personal values. You have to be so firm in that, even if someone else’s views differ or sits in a different way. Make sure it doesn’t sit on you as a threat, but is actually a good thing.
People claim, identify, and then prescribe to the rest of the world. True empowerment lies when you can accept that another person is finding their own unique way.
Some do it by being badass, another person might do it by living their life with grace and patience. Neither one is better than the other.
What matters is the empowerment that sits authentically with you, but also trying not to make that awareness become judgement. That is truly empowering to me.
