Constance Wu Opens Up About Sexual Assault in New Book: 'Realization Hit Me Like a Flood'

Constance Wu is sharing her story.

In a Vanity Fair-exclusive excerpt of her new book of essays titled Making a Scene, the Crazy Rich Asians star, 40, talks for the first time about being raped in the beginning of her career.

In the extract, Wu recalls being assaulted by an "aspiring novelist" named Ty on their second date.

"I felt a twinge of warning in my gut, but I ignored it — he didn't look threatening or shady in any way, and if you had been there, you would have agreed," Wu wrote about his invitation to go to his place.

After the two began to get intimate, Wu asked for them to stop but Ty continued. The Fresh Off the Boat alum did not resist.

"Some people might say that I should have fought back against Ty," she wrote at the end of the excerpt. "But if I could go back in time, I wouldn't change how I reacted that night. Because when I think about the girl I was back then, I understand what she was going through."

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The actress added, "She wasn't yet ready to bear the insults and derision that follow when women make scenes. And I wouldn't make her do something before she was ready."

Since that day, Wu buried the incident, seemingly forgetting it ever happened and moving on with her life: "I started to find success in my acting career — giving me a front-row seat to Hollywood's latent sexism and misogyny."

That all changed when she was returning from filming 2018's Crazy Rich Asians.

"I'd just woken up from a nap when the realization hit me like a flood," Wu wrote. "Ty raped me. He raped me, and I hadn't done anything about it."

Earlier this month, Wu revealed that she faced "sexual harassment and intimidation" on the set of ABC's Fresh Off the Boat by one of the show's producers.

Though she was uncomfortable with the situation, the actress said she did not come forward with the story at the time in order to protect the show and its impact on the Asian American community.

Reps for ABC have not responded to PEOPLE's request for comment.

"My publisher really encouraged me to write [about] it ... I was like, 'No I'm done with that chapter in my life,' " Wu recalled on stage to The Atlantic's reporter. "And then I eventually realized it was important to talk about because I did have a pretty traumatic experience my first couple years on that show, and nobody knew about it because that show was historic for Asian Americans."

"It was the only show on network television in over 20 years to star Asian Americans, and I did not want to sully the reputation of the one show we had representing us," she continued. "I kept my mouth shut for a really long time about a lot of sexual harassment and intimidation that I received the first two seasons of the show."

Once the show became "a success" for the network, she said she felt a sense of confidence to say "no" to the unidentified producer.

"I was no longer scared of losing my job," she explained. "That's when I was able to start saying 'no' to the harassment, 'no' to the intimidation, from this particular producer. And, so I thought, 'You know what? I handled it, nobody has to know, I don't have to stain this Asian American producer's reputation, I don't have to stain the reputation of the show.' "

But that didn't necessarily solve things, as Wu noted, "The thing is bad feelings don't go away just because you will them to. They are inevitably going to come out somewhere."

Making a Scene is out Oct. 4, and available for preorder now on amazon.com. Wu's full excerpt from the book is available at vanityfair.com.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.