‘GQ’ Rising Actor of the Year: Wu Lei

Every character is a challenge, and learning different skills to better portray them is Wu Lei’s professional requirements. He entered the industry at the age of 5, accumulating 18 years of acting experience. He walked on his journey steadily, honing his acting crafts and using his works to strengthen himself. In Nothing but You», Wu Lei’s portrayal of Song Sanchuan perfectly depicted the special qualities of a tennis player showcasing a man’s duty, responsibility and courage. « Dwelling by the West Lake » was nominated for the Main Competition unit of the Tokyo International Film Festival. In daily life, Wu Lei is passionate about riding, recording his journey from his perspective to convey positive energy to the audience.

MEN OF THE YEAR 2023

WU LEI: THE ABILITY OF « LYING FLAT»

Note: 躺平 tăng píng (literal meaning: lying flat) is a Chinese popular buzzword referring to the idea of rejecting social pressures of overwork and overachieving to live a simpler life with a more indifferent attitude. 

Interview/Author: Da Xi

Editor: Li Chun

Profile:

Wu Lei, born in 1999 is a young actor from mainland China, his representative works in film and television include « Nirvana in Fire », « The Long Ballad », « Upcoming Summer », « Love Like the Galaxy », « Nothing but You » and more. In 2005, he entered the entertainment industry with his role of little Nezha in « The Legend and The Hero » and later won the Most Promising Actor Award at the China TV Drama Awards for his portrayal of little Fei Liu in the costume TV series « Nirvana in Fire ». He was admitted to Beijing Film Academy in 2018. In 2022, he won the Outstanding Young Actor Award at the 18th Chinese American Film Festival for his performance in « Love Like the Galaxy »

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The night before departing for Milan, Wu Lei was packing his suitcase in his room. He folded the blanket into a lump and placed it in one corner of the bed. He lied down in a graphic shape and suddenly a thought popped up in his mind: ‘It doesn’t seem too bad to just lock me on this bed with a chain for the rest of my life.‘

The thought of « lying flat » always surfaces intermittently. As many young people in their twenties, Wu Lei often jumps back and forth between « lying » and « rolling ». He filmed two film and television works this year, « Amidst a Snowstorm of Love » and « Decent Things » and took advantage of his free time he had in between to go cycling in Xinjiang.

Note:卷juan (rolling) stems from 内卷 nèi juan (rolling inwards) which is commonly associated with 躺平 tăng ping (lying flat) for being two very popular Internet buzzwords. It reflects the stressful Chinese working culture of overwork and excessive unnecessary competition. 

At Sailimu Lake with an altitude of 2000 meters, the humid wind blew past and Wu Lei’s mood also lifted up. The infinite lake came into sight, hidden in the distant clouds. When cycling around the lake for 35 kilometers, the rain suddenly started pouring down and soon enough, hail began to fall, hitting his helmet, face and back with a crackling sound. On his way to Qiaxi Grasslands, he had to overcome a mountain filled with slopes whose maximum inclination approached 8%. This signifies that for over a horizontal distance of 100 meters, Wu Lei also ascended by 8 meters in altitude. His speed slowed down but he bolstered his spirits with perseverance, ‘It’s not that hard, I can do it.‘

People kept driving by along the way, rolling down the car window and greeting Wu Lei with a ‘Keep going!’. Wu Lei said it was a very wonderful experience, especially during moments when ‘I was the most tired’. While cycling, his waist applied force to drive his posterior, his buttocks driving his thighs and his thighs driving his calves. Wu Lei continuously adjusted his breathing like a repetitive machine riding forward.

The good aspect is, every hard effort is worth it. Going up a ‘difficult upward slope’ leads to a ‘satisfying downward slope. As he descended down the slope, his eyes were immersed with green. ‘It’s so beautiful!’ he exclaimed, laughing and sighing with emotion, ‘If it weren’t for the dead tiring upward slope earlier, how could I have witnessed such a breathtaking landscape ?’

Cycling has always been Wu Lei’s way of resting and relaxing. Unlike his usual state when acting, he doesn’t need to think and his emotions don’t fluctuate when cycling. He no longer has to express himself, he can just enjoy the pleasure of speed and listen to the sound of the wind caressing his ears. On days when he doesn’t have to work, he would ride from home to Chang’An Street in the afternoon or evening, and he even rode all the away from Quanzhou to Xiamen once.

Later on, Wu Lei created a program that he named « Ride Now » with the vlogs he recorded from his cycling trip. Last year, he took this program to Ulan Butong to go horse riding, camping and watch the sunrise in the snowfields under minus 30 degrees Celsius. Northern Xinjiang was chosen for this year’s destination and he divided his journey into two stops as planned. Time was ticking, and to prevent any regret, he set off the second day after the wrap of « Amidst a Snowstorm of Love ».

I actually wanted to rest after the end of filming, but the whole journey in Northern Xinjiang seemed like another way of resting’, Wu Lei narrates. « Ride Now » feels like work and doesn’t at the same time. Every time he sets out, he always manages to meet interesting people and things. When taking a break on the side road, he met an older brother who was riding a motorcycle from Beijing. The two of them naturally shared their riding itineraries, and before going their own ways, the older brother asked for Wu Lei’s WeChat. Wu Lei stunned for a moment, realizing that the other party didn’t seem to know who he was and replied to him: ‘Brother Chen, just call me Xiao Lei. After that, the two of them completed their tour around the lake, met again and parted ways again.

These unexpected encounters left Wu Lei with the feeling that life is indeed quite wonderful’. So, he began spontaneously expecting that his upcoming journeys will also yield some harvest, despite telling himself that this kind of expectation is not always beneficial, ‘Sometimes, traveling is not about reaching a certain goal.’

The same goes for acting. He likes projects and characters that bring him a certain harvest on a ‘personal level’. Wu Lei attaches great importance to being able to resonate with his role and igniting sparks with his co-actors and director to learn more knowledge with them. ‘Perhaps it is a way of numbing myself’, Wu Lei says, as if he never stopped learning so he is still considered a student. ‘The pressure instantly decreased a lot.’

He accepted the freshly completed movie « Decent Things » with a genuine eagerness of learning from Director Xu Haofeng. It is adapted from Xu Haofeng’s novel of the same name in which Wu Lei plays a hidden expert. Before the start of shooting, he specifically arranged martial arts training but none of the movements he practiced were used for the actual filming. Wu Lei doesn’t consider it as a waste. He has always undergone the learning of new skills before each of his work in recent years from horse riding, mixing, tennis to snooker. He cannot say he has reached full proficiency in all of those but throughout these single, mechanic and repetitive training preparation processes, he can sense that he has become closer to his characters.

From starting at the age 5 to his 18 years of acting experience, Wu Lei is aware that being good- looking as an actor is also a constraint. For a while, he even wished he was shorter, worried that it would be difficult to hide in the crowd if he was too tall. Wu Lei has spent most of his time on set over the years. He enjoys it very much and never thought of initiating any change, ‘It’s the same as a few years ago, I want to act in anything.’

Wu Lei expresses, sometimes actors are busy because they receive many scripts they like in a short span of time, ‘We are very busy when we shoot all the time, but too idle when we don’t receive anything, it doesn’t mean we subjectively prefer to be busy or free. It is also related to fate, when we meet a good script, then we will become busy.’

These past two years, he has realized that his ability to snatch some break from his busy life became stronger. In the few minutes intervals between filming takes, he would go to the balcony to feel the wind and bask in the sun, contemplating various thoughts and taking a pause from the whirlwind of work for a little moment.

After « Decent Things » wrapped, Wu Lei granted himself more than ten days off, which is rare. He stayed at home every day, idling his time away, I was so happy, I even gained weight. Occasionally, he would go to the gym but he found it exhausting. When returning home, he had to rest on the sofa for a long while. He reminisced the time when he was filming, he had to work 12 hours and would still work out when arriving home. After his workout session, he would also go over the script and watch TV shows. If he was not tired yet, he would stay up a bit more, looking around and he would go to sleep late, ‘Now, why am I so tired when stepping out of the house ?’ He thinks, ‘A person’s energy is perhaps random.’

His days off passed quickly, watching anime and popular science, just like that three or four hours went by. He chatted with his family, ‘They asked me what I did today, I replied I didn’t do anything and a whole day just passed.’ He had nothing to do yet he wasn’t feeling bored at all, ‘I was a bit anxious but it’s normal.’

He used to reject this kind of time wasting behavior, ‘If your time is tight, you shouldn’t waste it on things that shouldn’t be wasted, watching random and weird stuff. Even during his leisure time, he would schedule to watch one or two movies every day, go to the gym or simply ‘find something to do.’

Recently, he suddenly came to the realization that wasting time can also bear meaning. Not finding something to do and inexplicably wasting time away is also a way to store energy. This kind of feeling is hard to describe’, Wu Lei paused, ‘But I think it brings me joy!

Wu Lei mentioned half jokingly, ‘I have the ability to lie flat now’, ‘Someday, I may really be idle for a long time, because I can manage the idleness now, I can very much manage.’

Translation credit to @eowuli. Original article on GQ WeChat.