Wu Lei: Spring Portrait of a Young Actor

To live, to win, to use life to create life again.

Thirteen years ago, Wu Lei filmed the TV series “The Sword and The Chess of Death”, in which he played the role of “Guan Yunbao”, the son of the hero “Yan Cangfeng”. In the stills, 8 years old Wu Lei is not much taller than the desk, wearing a garcinia-yellow cloth scarf, with the collar of his warm white underwear is exposed. His head is slightly tilted forward, and the child’s round, almond-shaped eyes look at the audience in front of the camera, like the lovely peach tree in full bloom in spring in Van Gogh’s oil painting “Peach Blossoms in Bloom” (1888). 

Thirteen years later, Wu Lei starred in the comic-adapted TV series “The Long Ballad” as the East Turkestan Tegin Ashile Sun. In the trailer, Ashile Sun’s long black hair is tied into a helmet, and the silvery desert wind blew it away. In the young man’s cold eyes, the lively child named “Guan Yunbao” seemed to have disappeared long ago. Wu Lei still reminds people of Van Gogh’s oil painting “Peach Blossoms in Bloom”, with the scorching peach tree in the center of the painting. However, the growth of young people is more like the spring itself evolving in the wind, rain and cold rather than the bright petals burning in the transparent sunlight – the latter is longer, vivid and meaningful than the former.

“You are a person who is not surprised when things happen. A battle-hardened warrior” 

The air leaked out from the half-open door. Wu Lei walked briskly out of the lounge and walked towards the well-lit shooting location. He put the hood of the sweatshirt on his head, like an ancient knight putting on a cape. This “cloak” now protects the owner’s face, which is slightly aggressive due to entering the shooting mood. 

Since entering the entertainment industry in 2005, Wu Lei has appeared in dozens of film and television works. In the audience’s memory, he is the innocent and wonderful Fei Liu in “Nirvana in Fire”, Li Cu in “Tomb of the Sea” who is burdened with a huge secret; he is the blind middle school student Chen Leyun in “Adoring”, and the wheelchair-bound Lu Xiaobei who never give up in “CrossFire”. He is also the Wu Lei who performed ten poses in ten seconds under the flaming red light at this moment, and was praised by the editor as having “an extremely high production rate.” Wu Lei during the filming is like the embodiment of the sound coming from an empty stage, his eyebrows raised high, and his still posture with a serious expression flashed quickly on the monitor screen. The next second after the filming ended, Wu Lei squatted down to take a rest. Unexpectedly, a new smile suddenly appeared. He was completely different from the wild one in the red shadow just now, who was more like the brave and capable Ashile Sun.

Ashile Sun is a character in the original comic “The Long Ballad”. This work is set in the prosperous Tang Dynasty and tells the historical story of the active growth of Princess Li Changge of Yongning and the East Turkestan Ashile Sun. Since its publication in 2012, it has received extremely high reading volume and national popularity. Wu Lei has appeared in works based on original works such as “Fights Break Sphere” and “Tomb of the Sea”. Wu Lei said that he “has some experience” when acting in such works. The original comic book of “The Long Ballad” not only gave him pressure to shape the character, but also gave him a “direction to work hard.” After receiving the script, Wu Lei would often hold the script in his left hand and the comics in his right hand. He would tear out the comics page by page and paste them all over the wall, as if he were filming a play on the wall. “How does A Sun talk? How does A Sun live every day? I think about these questions every day.” When talking about Ashile Sun, Wu Lei, like most readers, affectionately calls him “A Sun”. The spirit of youth, exploration as an adult, sharp anger, soft touch, disappointment, hope, understanding… The Ashile Sun in Wu Lei’s heart is a contradictory character: he is a Tegin from East Turkestan, decisive in killing, and has a cold and stern personality; but as a human being, a son, he also has a sensitive and soft heart, and a family that he must protect with all his heart.

“Actually, each character will change me to a greater or lesser extent, and I may also change this character.” In order to fit the strong appearance of Ashile Sun, who is brave and good at fighting, the first thing Wu Lei did after reading the script was to call the staff to introduce him to a fitness coach. In fact, when he was 17 years old and filming “Fights Break Sphere”, he did a lot of strength training, and now he has resumed exercise for Ashile Sun. “At that time, the wallpaper on my mobile phone was all pictures of Ashile Sun taking a bath. I would even put comics with A Sun’s figure on the bathroom mirror, just to remind myself of the appearance.” When talking about high-intensity fitness training, Wu Lei Showing full optimism: “I think such a high-intensity training state can give me psychological and physical help to better fit the image. It gives me a sense of belief in my mind, or full of confidence in my strength.” 

Because he is proficient in riding and shooting, the scene of the Ashile Sun galloping on the grassland did not faze Wu Lei. But it was midsummer when the filming was taking place, and the high temperature of 40 degrees became a serious challenge. Due to his role, Ashile Sun is often wrapped in airtight armor. Wu Lei was almost soaked in sweat during the entire filming cycle. When talking about the shooting environment, Wu Lei didn’t seem to care so much about the harsh conditions: “Because you are a Tegin who is immovable in everything. You are a warrior who is calm and has experienced hundreds of battles.” In his suddenly serious tone, the taciturn, forbearing and powerful Ashile Sun seemed to have passed through that midsummer and returned to everyone on this spring day.

“Youth movie is an adjective, describes a true and natural hope” 

If playing Ashile Sun is to use the body of the character to experience a virtual adventure and become a “distant person”; then playing Zheng Yuxing in “Upcoming Summer” is to return to the perspective of “ordinary people” and return to reality. Intersected in the story of the present. The movie “Future Summer”, which is scheduled to be released on Chinese Valentine’s Day this year, tells the story of a girl who failed the college entrance examination and a boy who grew up freely and met and faced youth together. In the movie’s promotional poster, young Zheng Yuxing is wearing a baggy coat, his hair is short but messy, and he is sitting on the ground with stern eyes. Like the boy Demian written by German writer Hermann Hesse, he hesitated and was reborn in his youthful growth, facing the inner road to himself. 

When talking about “Upcoming Summer”, Wu Lei’s childish side was revealed unconsciously. “That day, director Chen Zhengdao of “Upcoming Summer” was joking with me, why did I feel different from what he imagined when we shot the poster on the first day. Then I asked the director, “Is it because you saw me last time?” I play a blind man (Chen Leyun), and there is no light in my eyes.” Wu Lei opened his eyes as he said, “This time I can finally watch it openly.” “Upcoming Summer” is Wu Lei’s youth film again after “Adoring”. This film is also director Chen Zhengdao’s first youth-themed film in fifteen years. Wu Lei told everyone that he thinks youth is a specific period, a time and world that cannot be returned. The four words “youth movie” are slightly different. Like an adjective, they can describe a real and natural hope. In his opinion, everything that happens in “Upcoming Summer” is really achievable. It happened in the present. It can also be said to be in the past tense and full of certain details that cannot be returned. “At least that’s what I believe,” Wu Lei added: “Youth may be a true expression in my eyes.” Wu Lei, who was born in December 1999, is twenty-two years old and is stepping into the quadrant of youth.

In 2018, the young Zheng Yuxing did not exist yet, and the young Wu Lei was preparing for the Beijing Film Academy. The photos updated on social media show hands with “doodles” – the word “don’t get sleepy” for self-motivation was written on them with a black pen. Before entering the Beijing Film Academy, Wu Lei’s imagination of school life was “meeting many new friends, playing together on the basketball court, eating with student cards in the cafeteria, and doing homework with classmates in the rehearsal hall.” Some concrete, relaxed and pleasant daily life. When the time comes to 2021, Wu Lei, a junior, joked that his fantasy was shattered after going to college. Going to college is no easier than going to work. He gets up at 5:30 every day to do morning exercises; he also has to attend classes and rehearse on weekends. “Very tired, but very happy, right?” Wu Lei spoke faster and faster we seemed to be able to see straight trees growing between the teaching buildings through his description; The students running for the physical test on the playground were panting like a train heading to the platform; the strict cultural teacher checks everyone’s homework one by one… In that vast space, every breath you take will bring the spring breath of youth into your body. For an actor, the mystery is that the irreversible youth you experience in life will also be spent with the character in the movie, experiencing and returning again.

“I can do acting for a lifetime” 

Hermann Broch wrote in his novel “The Unknown”: “The world burns inside us, not outside us.” “As the narrator of his own internal world, actors present to the audience the past history, the current world and an imaginary future they face. In recent works, in addition to the forbearing and combative Ashile Sun in “The Long Ballad” and the free-spirited Zheng Yuxing in “Upcoming Summer”, Wu Lei also starred in the online drama “Our Times” as Xiao Chuang, a computer genius in the early 1990s and a poor entrepreneurial student. Although the performance styles span a very wide range, Wu Lei did not deliberately choose characters with huge conflicts to highlight the “specialness” when selecting roles. The character has a rich and complete heart, which is the basic condition for him to create a character, that is, a three-dimensional character. 

For Wu Lei, acting is a growth-oriented thing. Every role and his life as an actor are mutually beneficial. Rather than saying “the character accompanies the actor” or “the actor accompanies the character”, it is better to say that the actor and the character accompany each other. Compared with when he was on the set when he was a child, Wu Lei believes that he will be more attentive to acting, although sometimes he feels that he puts too much pressure on himself. Since the Spring Festival, Wu Lei’s work has not stopped. During the trip to Xiamen on the show “Marvelous City”, Wu Lei also revealed his occasional fatigue. But “people must be able to communicate with themselves.” If you want to perform well, you must get more into the character’s heart. In order to meet the needs of the role, he has been studying guitar recently. Just like a game character who is constantly practicing skills and upgrading himself, Wu Lei said that this is also one of the interesting aspects of the profession of actor, allowing himself to learn various skills and experience the lives of different people.

“It’s a bit heavy-handed to said that acting is a lifelong interest. No one dares to guarantee it. But what I mean is that I feel that I can do acting for a lifetime.” – When he said this, Wu Lei lowered his head and held his hands together, as if he was telling everyone to listen, and also as if he was telling himself to listen. Wearing a white T-shirt that he changed into between takes, he leaned on the back of the chair. The green plants on the long white table spread their soft leaves and grew silently in the spring. Watching how a young actor will live, fall, win, and use life to create life again. 

“L’Officiel Hommes” Dialogue with Wu Lei

When will the vlog that everyone is looking forward to be launched online? 

Actually, everyone is waiting for an unknown quantity, because sometimes I don’t know either, I may forget it, and I may not post it at all after I finish shooting it. I don’t know what will happen, so I say I need to “pending it”. It should be posted soon. 

What’s your favorite hometown snack? 

Sausage. 

Do you like to go to bed early and get up early or go to bed late and get up late? 

This is not necessarily the case. 

Do you have a favorite fashion style lately? 

The dressing style and life style are minimalist together. 

Can you say something to your fans and friends? 

Happy New Year and live well. 

Last year, your hope for the future was “I must work hard this year.” Do you have any new goals and visions for this year? 

I hope I can fulfill last year’s wish. 

Source: L’Officiel Hommes.