{"id":286447,"date":"2020-01-14T09:37:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-14T16:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b1111536"},"modified":"2020-01-14T09:37:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T16:37:00","slug":"will-awkwafina-ever-drop-her-stage-name-she-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/music-news\/will-awkwafina-ever-drop-her-stage-name-she-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Awkwafina Ever Drop Her Stage Name? She Says…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Awkwafina,<\/p>\n

Ethan James Green\/Vanity Fair<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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What’s in a name?<\/p>\n

Awkwafina<\/a><\/strong> has become a household name thanks to her roles in the star-studded Ocean’s 8<\/em><\/a>, Crazy Rich Asians<\/em> and The Farewell<\/em>, which earned her a Golden Globe<\/a>. So, would the rapper-turned-actress ever consider going by her original moniker Nora Lum<\/strong>? According to the breakout actress, she’s becoming more open to it.<\/p>\n

“When I first started as Awkwafina there was a more distinct duality, where this is the one that’s performing and this is the one that’s at home having a panic attack,” she shared with Vanity Fair<\/a> <\/em>for its 26th Annual Hollywood Issue. “But as I get older, I think they’re the same person. This is the one that this one hides behind, you know?”<\/p>\n

Speaking with The New York Times<\/a><\/em>, Awkwafina said that she’s not ready to let go of her alter ego quite yet. “I created Awkwafina when I was a kid,” she told the outlet. “What she represents to me is more than a persona \u2014 in the very beginning, I did see her as the confident one, the side that comes out that gives Nora the panic attacks.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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“But as I’ve grown older I’ve come to really be grateful for that name and what I’ve seen it written on,” she continued. “To see her name on a chair back or on a call sheet, that means a lot to me. I don’t think that I could shed her right now.”<\/p>\n

Awkwafina’s newfound comfort with embracing both names is evident in her upcoming series Awkwafina is Nora from Queens<\/em><\/a>, where the star goes by her real name in the scripted semi-autobiographical show.  <\/p>\n

As she stated in Vanity Fair,<\/em> the nickname definitely suited her<\/a> when she was first starting out.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Renee<\/p>\n

Ethan James Green\/Vanity Fair<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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“When I started to first do music<\/a> you know, it was kind of a music name and it was derived from awkward-fina,” she told the magazine. “So that’s why. I’ve always been extremely awkward and it was a name from high school. Then years later when asked to choose a name I felt it weird to just think of a random name and put it up on YouTube,” she continued. “So I figured, you know, why not use the one that I came up with years ago.”<\/p>\n

Despite her best efforts to hide behind the name, Awkwafina was breaking down walls with her music<\/a>\u2014starting with the video for her song 2012 “My Vag.” After discussing her decision-making process behind putting out the controversial video, Awkwafina admitted that she was terrified at the reaction it would get.<\/p>\n

“My fear was that it would be misread and looked at as very audacious and sexual and I would never get a job anywhere,” she recalled. “That was probably my main fear. Instead it was a very slow build of people watching it.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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The Jumanji: The Next Level <\/em>star added, “But it was out there and I think once you make that decision, whatever happens, you have to be happy with what happens because you did what you could do.” <\/p>\n

Switching gears, Awkwafina also discussed her Golden Globe-winning performance<\/a> in The Farewell<\/em>, where she plays a granddaughter preparing to say goodbye to her ill grandmother. The Lulu Wang<\/strong>-directed film hit so close to home that signing on felt like a no-brainer.<\/p>\n

“My manager was just like, ‘You have to read this script. I’m not even going to tell you what it’s about\u2014just read it,” Awkwafina said. “And I remember being so moved by it because of my relationship with my grandma, you know?” <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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While it was admittedly hard to slip into the “mutedness” of her character Billi, Awkwafina explained that playing the role taught her a valuable lesson.<\/p>\n

“At first there were certain things that Lulu Wang did teach me, and I think one of them bleeds into acting, but then also my personal life: just being present, being still, you know?” she said. “When you rely a lot on comedy to kind of save a moment from awkwardness or fill in the spaces, it can often take you out of the moment. With Billi, I think\u2026yeah. I think she’s expressing a lot through not expressing, you know?” <\/p>\n

Based on her Golden Globe, it’s safe to say that it worked!<\/p>\n

Catch Awkwafina is Nora from Queens <\/em>when it premieres on January 22 on Comedy Central. <\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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Watch E! News<\/i> weekday mornings at 7 a.m.!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

via:: E! Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethan James Green\/Vanity Fair What’s in a name? Awkwafina has become a household name thanks to her roles in the star-studded Ocean’s 8, Crazy Rich Asians and The Farewell, which earned her a Golden Globe. So, would the rapper-turned-actress ever consider going by her original moniker Nora Lum? According to the breakout actress, she’s becoming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-286447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-music-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-05 00:14:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIDN - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}