PARTING SHOT
Illustration by BRITT SPENCER
TUCKED INTO THE A-LIST-LOADED CREDITS FOR THE ALL-FEMALE OCEAN’S 8 (Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna…) is a name that might throw some for a loop: Awkwafina. The New York–raised Asian-American rapper, born Nora Lum, is best known for her 2012 video “My Vag,” a tongue-incheek ode to exactly what it sounds like. (“My vag a chrome Range Rover/Yo vag hatchback ’81 Toyota.”) But her career, simmering since with small roles on TV and in film (Girl Code, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising), is about to boil. On June 1, she dropped her second EP, In Fina We Trust; the blockbuster-assured Ocean’s, about a jewel heist, opens June 8; and in August she’s playing Constance Wu’s best friend in the highly anticipated Crazy Rich Asians. Awkwafina tells Newsweek that while she’s grateful to hear “2018 is her year,” it’s giving her agita. “I’ve been having stress dreams every night, like someone posts ‘She’s terrible’ on Facebook, and it gets 905 likes,” she says. “Guess that means I have something I don’t want to lose.”