Constance Wu Made $600 Her First and Only Night as a Stripper

Stripping is a taxing job for a number of reasons—it’s incredibly athletic, and the amount you take home at the end of the night can vary wildly from day to day, among other hazards. Constance Wu has learned this firsthand when she went method preparing for her role in Hustlers, spending a night working a strip club to hone her craft. She made $600!

“I went undercover. I gave lap dances to strangers,” Wu told Kelly Clarkson on her NBC show.

Clarkson seemed to doubt Wu’s commitment to her character, but Wu insisted she was telling the truth:

“I’m not lying! I made $600 my first night. I am not being funny, and it was not funny. I put fake tattoos on my neck, I changed my hair…You can’t duplicate the first time you walk into a club and say, ‘Hey, I’d like to have a job here,’ and then you go work that night.”

She also installed a stripper pole in her living room, and took private pole dancing lessons to perfect her moves.

Fake tattoos aside, I’m a little surprised no one recognized Wu on the job, but then again…no I’m not. As Wu herself pointed out: “When you’re naked, they don’t care if you’re that good.”