Constance Wu

With a hit movie and TV show, the Crazy Rich Asians star has been thrust into the spotlight. And she knows just what to do with it.

- Jason Lynch

CONSTANCE WU CERTAINLY HAS EVERY REASON TO CELEBRATE RIGHT NOW. Her August romantic comedy, Crazy Rich Asians—Hollywood’s first major studio film in 25 years with a majority Asian-American and Asian cast—has become a smash hit, grossing more than $165 million domestically, with a sequel already in the works. But while Wu, 36, is thrilled about the movie’s success, she wants to make sure that Hollywood continues to address its considerable lack of Asian-American representation on both sides of the camera, and not think that one hit movie makes up for decades of neglect.

“It’s like how sometimes I will be like, ‘All right, I’ve cleaned my kitchen. I’m done; the kitchen is clean.’ But it’s not! It takes maintenance,” Wu says. “Life goes on after that, and you’re going to have to keep cleaning. A lot of people have this idea of, ‘I finished this big thing; it’s done forever.’ And that’s not how anything works at all!”