Constance Wu Is Taking a Stand About Hollywood Whitewashing

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 31 July 2016

Hollywood's race problem received a lot of attention during this year's Oscar (opens in new tab) season, and while bringing light to the issue is a great step in the right direction, we're not there yet. Fresh Off The Boat star Constance Wu perfectly reminded us of that fact Friday when she tweeted a lengthy letter on the subject inspired by Matt Damon's upcoming film, The Great Wall. In the movie, Damon plays a warrior defending The Great Wall of China against monsters, and Wu sees the film as emblematic of the biggest issue.

"Can we all at least agree that hero-bias & "but it's really hard to finance" are no longer excuses for racism? TRY," she captioned the letter, which detailed the problem with Hollywood's unwillingness to cast people of color in leading roles.

While some people misinterpreted the tweet as a personal criticism against Damon, Wu reiterated in a follow-up tweet that she intended to raise awareness for the issue, not to point blame.

"Not blaming Damon, the studio, the Chinese financiers," she wrote. "It's not about blame, it's about AWARENESS."

Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.