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Fans Thrilled for Constance Wu and Riz Ahmed-Named to Time’s 100 Most Influential List

Fresh Off the Boat
Constance Wu & Randall Park on Fresh Off the Boat

By Louis Chan
AsAmNews National Correspondent

 

Constance Wu and Riz Ahmed have been named to Time Magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in the world.

The actress best known for her role as the mother in TV’s Fresh Off the Boat described herself as “stunned, honored and grateful.”


Wu has been outspoken on a wide variety of issues ranging from the whitewashing of Hollywood to sexism in the entertainment industry to the Presidential election.

She is both candid and blunt.

When some spoke out against the non-White casting of the traveling show of the Broadway hit Hamilton, Wu didn’t mince any words. “Cry me a fu**ing river,” she said on Twitter.

About the casting of Matt Damon as the lead in The Great Wall, a movie set in Ancient China, she said on Twitter “We have to stop perpetuating the racist myth that [only a] white man can save the world. Our heroes don’t look like Matt Damon. They look like Malala. Ghandi. Mandela. Your big sister when she stood up for you to those bullies that one time.”

Wu voiced is amplified like many in Hollywood because of her celebrity status. Because there are few Asian Americans willing to speak as loudly as she is, she has become a spokesperson for the Asian American community.

As far as Hollywood goes, she is an “it” girl on Asian American issues. Fans reacted with applause as word spread about Wu making the list.

Surprising Wu wasn’t named in the artists category, but in the pioneer category.

Her role is definitely pioneering, playing the matriarch of arguably Asian America’s first family on television.

Riz Ahmed
Riz Ahmed as Nasir Khan in ‘The Night Of.’

Ahmed also made the pioneering list. The British actor and rapper has a long resume. Most recently he’s had high profile roles in the mega hit Star Wars’ Rogue One and Jason Bourne and the HBO mini-series The Night Of.

He modestly professed to his followers that “he hopes to earn it,” as if he still has much more to do to be worthy of the award.


The article about Ahmed’s inclusion on the list was written by no other than Lin-Manual Miranda, the Pulitzer Prize and  Tony Award winning actor and playwright best known for Hamilton.

“Look, Riz Ahmed has been quietly pursuing every passion and opportunity for many years as an actor (The Road to Guantánamo, Four Lions, Nightcrawler), rapper (“Post 9/11 Blues,” “Englistan”) and activist (raising funds for Syrian refugee children, advocating representation at the House of Commons),” Miranda wrote in Time. “To know him is to be inspired, engaged and ready to create alongside him. The year 2016 was when all the seeds he planted bore glorious fruit, and here’s the best part: he’s just getting started.”
 
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