Making a Scene

By: Constance Wu

Narrated by: Constance Wu

“Illuminating.” —The Washington Post * “Candid and relatable.” —Time *“Riveting and personal.” —Mindy Kaling * “Captivatingly immediate.” —The Skimm *

A “poignant, frank, and intimate” (The New York Times) memoir by actress Constance Wu about family, love, sex, shame, trauma, and how she found her voice.

Growing up in the friendly suburbs of Richmond, Virginia, Constance Wu was often scolded for having big feelings or strong reactions. “Good girls don’t make scenes,” people warned her. And while she spent most of her childhood suppressing her bold, emotional nature, she found an early outlet in community theater—it was the one place where big feelings were okay—were good, even. Acting became her refuge, and eventually her vocation. At eighteen she moved to New York, where she’d spend the next ten years of her life auditioning, waiting tables, and struggling to make rent before her two big breaks: the TV sitcom Fresh Off the Boat and the hit film Crazy Rich Asians.

Here Constance shares private memories of childhood, young love and heartbreak, sexual assault and harassment, and how she “made it” in Hollywood. Raw, relatable, and enthralling, Making a Scene is an intimate portrait of the pressures and pleasures of existing in today’s world.

Critic reviews

"[Wu] candidly shares intimate details of her experiences of sexual assault and harassment and of her infamous tweet. She also sheds light on the pressures she’s faced and her mental health struggles. The result is poignant and relatable."

Wonderful Scenes

I found the author’s narrative both candid and relatable. Not afraid to talk about her vulnerabilities.

Appreciate bravery in discussing sexual assault

Appreciate bravery in discussing sexual assault and particularly self blame as a bi-product of erroneous societal attitudes towards women that their body is not their own to make decisions with and they ought to accept abuse without complaint.

Great performance but structure is a little weird

I really enjoyed this but at times it is hard to follow. It’s a little challenging to tell when various scenes are happening in the timeline of Constance’s life. This makes the overall book harder to digest because you try to relate her actions to certain things that have happened without a clear picture of a sequence of events outside of the current anecdotal timelines she’s giving. This may be fine for some readers but it ultimately doesn’t work that well for me. Sometimes in memoirs authors do this and use past events as sort of flashbacks to inform a current timeline of events but I don’t know if it’s maybe because I listened to this in multiple sittings but I got lost a couple times. If I gave any advice as far as reading it would maybe be to have a book to reference as well or just listen in one sitting.

As far as the actual contents of the book, I think Constance has an excellent narrative voice that makes listening to her stories quite easy, and her perspective is quite moving. I think she makes great points about what it’s like to spiral in various ways and how a struggle with anxiety can go overlooked for so long without proper support or even just someone who can see that something serious is going on and that you need help. It’s scary to think how many people are out there so vulnerable and maybe a couple bad decisions away from collapse.

The Background Information

Easy to think someone must have had some connection, but truthfully I'm amazed by how her story came to what it is now. Granted, there are some things she should still try, but my fascination with people who come from Taiwan and China helped me to enjoy this book! I'm always amazed by the stories of those who have roots in Taiwan and China! I l enjoy also the food and culture in both places.

A book I’ll be coming back to

It’s rare for me to find a book that I see so much of my Chinese American identity in. I grew up with a mother who…wasn’t just a tiger mom…but more. Hearing Constance end this beautiful book with such a complex and nuanced description of her mother - and the lifetime of learnings she needed in order to see and appreciate the whole-ness of her - was something that moved me to tears. This book took me on a ride, not like ‘Wild Thing,’ but like ‘Mouse Trap.’ (Valley Fair references) I’ll be coming back to this book again as I raise Chinese American children in rural America.