Awkwafina — the Queens rapper who broke out with supporting roles in “Ocean’s 8” and “Crazy Rich Asians” — plays the lead in indie film “The Farewell.”
The movie by Lulu Wang is based on a true story she shared on “This American Life” of a family keeping a fatal illness secret from its dying matriarch.
“I was a little appalled by it when I first read it,” the star told us at a Metrograph screening.
“I have never really heard of that tradition . . . it really took me going to China to be around Lulu’s family to understand the Eastern reasoning . . . There is love behind [it].”
She added: “In America you have to tell someone they are sick . . . in China it is a little bit looser.”