Wu Lei’s alone time

Cycling is a time when Wu Lei can be himself. At this time, he does not have to become another character in the ups and downs story, nor does he have to bear the public spotlight. In his words, he is like a falcon, flying close to the ground, and the wind in front of him is also free. Growth has never been an earth-shattering event like shouting slogans. Wu Lei, who no longer claims that his “mental age is 35 years old,” understands that at this moment, it is happening silently in his body. 

Wu Lei seemed to grow up overnight. Perhaps because he was standing in the spotlight at a very young age, whether ordinary viewers or fans, watching him grow up a little bit, it is always difficult to detect the silent moisturizing (润物无声)*. Until “The Long Ballad” aired, more and more people said that he “grew up”. “I think it’s a good thing, at least it proves that this role is a success in a certain sense, because Ah Sun is a mature man who gives people a sense of security. If one day he’s starred in another role, it will be another kind of success.” For a character, everyone said how Wu Lei is still a three-year-old child! I think that last year Wu Lei published a book “Flying on the Ground”, which was a commemoration of his 20-year-old. He talked about “self” in it, and disassembled the word into “freedom and me”. Balancing them is the process of self- shaping.

*Explanation: refers to those who have a big mind, who have made contributions without publicity, and silently contribute.

Riding a bike happened to let him find the existence of “freedom and me”. “I really like (this) one sentence. If you want to see the scenery, drive too fast and walk too far to complete all kinds of shooting. At night, you can finally have your own time and you can ride home.” In Beijing, sometimes working till late night, if the place of work happens to be in the west, he will choose to ride back alone.

Tiananmen Square is the only way to go. It is not the same as the sight of tourists in the daytime and bustling and rushing. At night, Tiananmen Square is quiet and solemn, but it is not inaccessible. It has a “breath” of the capital. When cycling by, Wu Lei is the most relaxing and happy time of the day, “To me, cycling at this moment is a kind of acceleration, acceleration makes me relax.” Probably fascinated by the feeling of “one person”. In the first half of this year, Fujian was filming. The crew moved from Quanzhou to Xiamen. He decided to ride alone to complete the journey. “If you follow the team, other vehicles will see a team. It will naturally avoid it. If a person encounters a flat tire or foot cramp, it is also a problem without other people’s help.” After listing all the above potential “dangers”, Wu Lei concluded, “But riding alone is a very fun thing.”

After obtaining the consent of many parties, Wu Lei made a detailed and comprehensive plan one week in advance, determined the route of the ride, prepared supplies, checked the tires, and checked into the hotel along the way…In case anything happened halfway, he will just call the driver and the other party can find him at any time.

When the ride really started, he didn’t think about anything, he only heard the sound of wind and the sound of cars passing by. When going downhill, I rode 55 to 60 km/h at the fastest speed. “Motorcycles are not the same as ours. The kinetic energy of riding a bike comes from your body. It is a bit mysterious to say that people and vehicles are integrated, but at that time I really felt like I was flying against the ground.” At that time, he listened to everything. It’s gone, only the wind is heard. Fear is also there, but it often appears after the fact, and nothing matters at the moment. Wu Lei described himself as a falcon at that time, magnificently dived from the sky to the ground to hunt animals, his wings would shrink into a ball, and Wu Lei’s buttocks on the bike would leave the cushion slightly. In technical terms, this is called “lie on the wind-instrument”. Only in this way will the wind resistance be minimized.

When it comes to this, he is very excited, “It feels very like that in the martial arts novels, one man, one horse and one sword, walks the world, like wandering. A romantic escape.” Find a place to rest when you are tired, everything is random. He also likes this kind of randomness, and his daily life is well planned by the notice. “Of course I also enjoy this kind of arrangement,” he added timely, “but sometimes it’s good to be free and random.”

When asked which hero in the novel he wanted to become, he thought for a long time, and three words popped out: small merchant. With a little bit of joking and a little seriousness, Wu Lei explained: “It’s too dangerous to fight, kill, and kill. When you read martial arts novels, the male protagonist can easily break his arms and legs. Heroes sell equipment and make a little money.” Maybe it’s because too many heroes have been played in the show. Back in life, he wants to be a “small merchant” who is not watched, but enjoys himself. This may not seem like the choice of a steaming 21-year-old boy with a little “silly” (中二)* .

*It comes from the original meaning of Japanese as the second grade of junior high school. Now it also refers to people who are mentally immature and have grown up, but their thoughts and behaviors are still like junior high school students (rebellious, like delusions, etc.)

Wu Lei once described himself as “mentally 35 years old”, but he doesn’t want to say that now. “At that time, I was young and ignorant, and would take the initiative to mention the mature people who were very young.”

Growing up is an increase in age, but “growth” sometimes has nothing to do with age. “I hope that my growth and work are in sync… how to put it,” Wu Lei wondered how to explain this sentence, “In the current state, it’s like buying something on a second-hand platform. You like this thing and you like the price, but there are too many wear and tear, or some things you don’t like. But other places are suitable. I hope that my growth will be one step at a time, bringing different roles to audiences at different ages, but often this is beyond my control.”

Actors are always passive, and the right to choose is not entirely in their own hands. After a movie is filmed, its quality is also judged by the audience. So in terms of the effect achieved by a play, is it more important to be satisfied with yourself, or to be satisfied with the audience?

He hesitated for a while, and seemed to be looking for a comprehensive answer, “To be honest, it is more important to be satisfied with yourself. This is the case for me, unless the director is very strong. When filming, if the performance is not so satisfactory, I will take the initiative to ask for the director’s consent and come up with another one. After you are satisfied with the photo, you can continue to the next one. It is possible that the director will not use this one in the end, but I at least gave a satisfactory performance. The satisfaction of the audience is of course also very important. They are our food and clothing parents. But acting first is to convince yourself that there is something to support you and satisfy the audience.”

In his free time, Wu Lei also watched FIRST Film Festival works. An ordinary (inexperienced) person starring in “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains” gave him a lot of shock. After watching the movie, his first reaction was, “I don’t want to be an actor anymore.”

“That movie plunged me into deep thinking, and for the first time I doubted my career.” Wu Lei mentioned the clip of one of the family eating and chatting in the backyard. “It’s too natural, and it has a sense of generation. This kind of performance is like a scene where you will actually meet when you are walking on the road.” He kept asking himself: If I were to perform it, could it be as natural as them?

The answer is unknown. But what is certain is that in the past few years, Wu Lei intends to do subtraction. “An actor must maintain a good state, he must do subtraction in life, so that he always stays awake and reduces excessive desire.” For example, Wu Lei used to ride a bicycle in his dreams at night. When he woke up, he searched for bicycles online, added to the shopping cart one by one, thinking about taking them one by one. After a long time, he found that he was a bit “lost” and “awake”. Think about it, I actually like to ride a bicycle instead of buying a bicycle. This is contrary to my original intention.” He was more determined that he should learn to reduce his desires.

He said, “Now I want to make it as simple as possible, immerse myself in the character when I am filming, and be happy and relaxed about who i really am when I am not filming.”

Between makeup and hair, the fashion editor suddenly applied black nail polish to Wu Lei, and went back…I don’t want this. After painting this, he was scared “he turned pale(花容失色)”, “I…I only have to show painful expressions.” As he said, his facial features were wrinkled into a ball and made a standard “Wu Lei-style” grimace, and there was a burst of laughter on the scene. After several attempts, he promised to put small black dots on the nails, “The diameter can only be one millimeter.” He said with a smile.

In the process of interviewing Wu Lei, I can often feel that there are two “me” in him, one is a young man without worldly affairs, and the other is a man who knows how to be considerate and compromised. It is not incompatible, because this is the process of growing up, with mixed preferences, in the constant self-sway (fickle), looking for the true self.

Until that day, he will find that no matter the surrounding life is noisy or quiet, with less flowers and clusters, growth is ultimately done by himself. And those moments of growth are unique moments for him.

Translation credi to @wuleiarchive. Another source from GRAZIA.