Wu Lei and Zhao Jinmai, a two-way journey in the snowstorm

Original author: Teresa

ELLE Mainland China February 2024

Issue Posted in Shanghai 2024.01.22

English translation: Eowuli

Under their feet is ice and snow, behind is the aurora. When such a nordic winter ambience appears in the same frame as Wu Lei and Zhao Jinmai, the story of Amidst a Snowstorm Of Love seems to come to life instantly. At this moment, they once again transformed into Lin Yiyang and Yinguo from the drama series, it’s about a sweet couple who met and fell in love in a distant country, it’s about two billiards players standing side by side on top of the arena. It’s also about healing each other, it’s about the unique and mutual understanding of ‘it’s you and no one else’.

No.1 Wu Lei’s courage to move forward

« Sometimes, you don’t need a specific solution, you just need some faith and encouragement »

A while ago, it was snowing heavily in Beijing. When he played with the snow, Wu Lei didn’t make a snowman, but buried his face directly in it instead. “That day, I felt like I was the snowman!” In the past year, Wu Lei and snow have had some fate. The drama Amidst a Snowstorm of Love which was filmed earlier this year slowly unfolded in a snowy foreign city. Through this story, Wu Lei also challenges himself in various dimensions, guarding his fiery passionate heart under a vast expanse of ice and snow.

Exactly one year ago, Amidst a Snowstorm of Love started shooting in Helsinki, a distant city by the Baltic Sea, 6508 kilometers away from Wu Lei’s hometown in Sichuan. After a long flight of more than ten hours, Wu Lei’s first task for himself was to work hard to familiarize himself with the local surroundings and make sure he assimilated the local customs. After all, Lin Yiyang, whom Wu Lei is about to interpret, has been living here for many years in the story. Wu Lei needs to find ways to get close to him and become familiar with the sunrise and sunset Lin Yiyang sees daily in order to become him in front of the camera.

“At that time, I was just hoping to restore the story of the novel in a foreign land“. Before setting off, Wu Lei did some research and knew that the pace of Helsinki was very slow. However, when he truly arrived, he was still slightly ‘shocked’ by the actual situation. “After I arrived, I found out that the city was even less in a rush than I had imagined“.

So he also slowed down his pace. It’s not about grabbing a random person to explore his inner feelings, nor is it about finding a few standard samples to imitate, but about naturally walking and stopping on the street like every local person here, doing things that should naturally happen. “Helsinki is not big, and by the time I finished shooting, I got an understanding of the whole city. In fact, it’s about finding a sense of comfort in an unfamiliar environment, such as immersing oneself in the atmosphere like fish in water and adapting to the local language. These are all important for grasping the texture of this character“.

He even jumped into the contrasting ‘ice and fire’ sea water pool like a real local. “I jumped into the sea during the coldest time of winter, immediately ran to the sauna to get some steam and then jumped back into the cold seawater!” Describing this moment, Wu Lei seemed to have returned to the small ‘amusement park’ that he didn’t understand at first, but later enjoyed it tirelessly. “When I came out of the sea, my muscles were trembling, and then I went into the sauna to bake until I started sweating, chatting with strangers about everything and nothing and listening to everyone talk, which was very amusing“. Speaking of excitement, he specifically added another detail: “But I had my pants on!” However, in his speech, the focus was not on his clothes, but on that environment. He could take off his guard like everyone else around him, focus solely on jumping or not jumping. “Local people can jump five or six times, but I can only jump up to two times“.

Unlike the relationships between strangers walking on the streets, when everyone gathers in this small world, everyone can break free from various objective constraints. Wu Lei also captured the true inner temperament of the locals here. “At first, I thought Finns were very social phobic, but it seemed like they were quite talkative in the sauna. They would talk about many interesting things and even make plans to jump into the iced pool once more“.

In addition of that, Wu Lei also found many openings to become the specific Lin Yiyang.

“I not only have to play snooker, but also nine-ball, and I have made a lot of preparations in terms of professional skills. As for the novel, I also studied the characters and the plot“. In the TV drama, Lin Yiyang is a genius player who once reached the peak but later fell into a slump. As a super sweet romance drama in an environment of competitive sports, the main plot of the story is the two-way journey and mutual healing between the male and female protagonists, filled with a lot of sweetness and excitement. Therefore, as Wu Lei gradually enters the character, he also needs to get intimate with this Lin Yiyang. Although it may seem difficult to get close to,, in fact, once Wu Lei started to be moved, he just fully immersed himself in.

“He is very talented and hardworking. At an early age, due to a mistake he made in his youth, due to the knot in his heart and his pride, he withdrew from the competition field. However, in the years he has been away from the arena, he has never given up on billiards. At the same time, he was also studying other majors and had established his own life abroad“.

This is not the first time Wu Lei plays an athlete who has experienced a downturn. In the process of understanding the role, he always remembers a sentence he has read, which says that even if you have talent, if you don’t work hard, your talent will be gradually taken back. “Effort is a fundamental way to maintain talent, or rather, effort itself is also a form of talent“.

This sentence is not only about Lin Yiyang, who is an athlete, but also a warning to himself who has been an actor since childhood. “When filming, sometimes the more you shoot, the more nervous you become. Actually, it’s not that you want to put pressure on yourself, but rather, unconsciously, you want to create a good character. When you have urgent expectations, pressure naturally forms”.

The entire process, not only limited to the few months of filming but also from receiving a character to being seen by the audience through the screen was heavy for Wu Lei. “Especially when it comes to dubbing, I would be very nervous. It’s not the nervousness of dubbing itself, but the nervousness of seeing the achieved project. This is the result of several months of work, and you just want to know, ‘Hey, how is it? Will it be bad?'”

Since his first acting role in 2005 until now, Wu Lei has long learned to accept regrets, but it does not mean he can escape himself from occasionally encountering difficult moments. “Sometimes, for different reasons, I persistently don’t dare to take on a certain drama, it’s always my family and staff around me who encourage me. A lot of times, what you need is not a specific solution, but some faith and encouragement“.

A sweet love story is about to be shown on the screen. Outside the screen, Wu Lei, who brings healing and energy to the audience through his characters, is also searching in his each of his performance the courage to move forward.

No.2 Zhao Jinmai’s new role and new beginning

« Every new character brings me a brand new experience, which makes me nervous but it also stimulates me »

As a typical I-person (introverted), Zhao Jinmai has to slowly find her own pace to feel at ease whenever she joins a filming crew. Although she started filming at the age of 7, she has long had enough experience in acting. For every new beginning, she is able to feel a strong sense of freshness. She has her own steady rhythm from the moment she blends with the environment.

“I landed in the early morning local time, so what I saw is a city that had not woken up yet. It had a blue tone and I really liked that kind of atmosphere.“

This new drama called « Amidst a Snowstorm of Love » has a large number of scenes filmed in the distant country of Finland in the first half of it. Before arriving, Zhao Jinmai had a vague idea of Northern Europe, she didn’t know how life was like over there. But when she truly stepped foot there, she quickly found a sense of familiarity from the unknown. “The temperature there was quite similar to Northeast China, it was not as cold as I had imagined, some buildings resembled those of my hometown’s style too, so they looked quite familiar.” It was also in this process of adapting herself unconsciously that she found her own way of acting.

Later, she started to focus her energy on exploring her character. Although others cannot perceive what happened during this process, she knows she was experiencing a sort of tug of war between two people. Standing on either side, one side being herself, the other being her character, she could feel an invisible sense of exploration. “Every new character brings me a brand new experience, which makes me nervous but it also stimulates me.“

This time, the person she wanted to find as soon as possible was a nine-ball player named Yinguo, gentle and soft in real life, scarily competitive in the arena. She compared her to a red cherry, sweet and beautiful on the outside, tenacious on the inside. To embody this sweet yet unconsciously sweet Yinguo, Zhao Jinmai seemed to have awaken the “little girl” from within. This side of her is a potential possibility, but she has never seen it before.

“My first scene, which concerns a plot line that happens quite early in the drama was when I texted Lin Yiyang in my bedroom. I had to act out the shyness after seeing his message, and also some excitement. As someone who doesn’t usually act cute in my daily life, I did feel a bit embarrassed at first.“

Just like a real relationship between young guys and girls, the characters Lin Yiyang and Yinguo don’t voice a lot of things face-to-face but express their emotions through emojis or texts even if they are under the same roof. In this situation, Zhao Jinmai inevitably has to show some expressions when staring at her phone screen how to deliver the love she has no control over in this limited interaction was the first challenge she had to overcome.

“At the beginning, the director kept telling me I could do more, a lot more. We have many WeChat messaging scenes, only reading the texts may not reflect our emotions. So in such cases, we should adjust our acting degree. Actually, I think it’s similar to people dating, you can’t help but have some small expressions when texting someone you like. Even when you’re happy, you will even let out a small scream, it’s just quite realistic.“

After shooting the scenes where she screamed at her phone out of excitement, and after looking back at these images where they were both getting to know each other through WeChat, Zhao Jinmai realized she had progressively found the state Yinguo should be in. “And that is the straightforwardness of bravely showing all the love she has between the corner of her eyes and eyebrows. When I got to know my character better, I found out she could actually open herself even more.“

In addition to emotions, Zhao Jinmai also uses various small device to make it easier for her to find Yin Guo’s feelings. “I have never played billiards before, but Yin Guo is a very professional player and has been practicing since she was a child. So for a while, I specifically found a coach to learn billiards. I wanted to find some characteristics of the character, like a player who plays billiards all year round.”

In order to fully understand Yin Guo, Zhao Jinmai studied many documentaries and competition videos of athletes. Through these materials, she began to imagine what kind of world Yin Guo lived in. “Listening to their stories, I can imagine what Yin Guo was like when he was practicing football as a child.” Going to the smaller details, Zhao Jinmai also thought about what kind of gestures Yin Guo used when applying powder. “Everyone applies the powder in a different way. Some people apply it twice, and some people apply it three times. The process of applying the powder is also a thinking process, so I was thinking about how to use the rhythm changes of this action to reflect the different emotions of each scene.”

To prevent the tip of the cue stick from slipping after hitting the ball, billiards players need to frequently chalk their cue on the competition field. If sending a text via WeChat is a way to express her devoted love, then chalking the cue stick is also a small stage for her to showcase Yinguo’s another side. Everything happens within a few seconds, but a lot of times acting is about creating something big from the small. Even some small actions can make the audience instantly grasp what kind of character she is.

She doesn’t know what kind of particularities the original author had in mind when naming the female lead, but at least while portraying Yinguo, Zhao Jinmai compared this girl who had shaped her temperament in the billiards field from childhood to a cherry. “She is gentle without an ounce of aggressiveness on the outside, but she is tenacious and precocious on the inside. Whether on the competition field or in life, she can maintain her own rhythm and turn things around despite being against the direction of the wind.” When Lin Yiyang is faced with difficulties, she can become his strong backing, and tell him, it’s fine, you can go forward, I’m right behind you.” Sweetness and resilience both are inside Yinguo at the same time, which are not contradictory.

“Scent often affects people’s emotions. During this shooting, I wanted to make myself “sweeter” so I brought a box of incense stick on purpose with me. Their sweet scent was therapeutic and made me happy, it seemed like it made me approach Yinguo more easily.” To this day, Zhao Jinmai still remembers that scent that accompanied her during those months. This is a special memory that she has hidden in her heart, exclusive to Yinguo, brave and sweet.

In the future, as she greets and bids farewell to one character after another, Zhao Jinmai’s fragments in her memory will progressively accumulate. Maybe it will be a certain scent, a certain song or some places and images that will linger in her head. They will mark her life little by little, converging into vivid and fulfilling growth and experience.

No.3 Q&A

ELLE: When you are the viewer, do you prefer HE (happy ending) or BE (bad ending) ?

Wu Lei: Both are fine when I’m watching movies or other stories, I don’t particularly choose a specific ending, but if it’s watching an anime that has already been completed, I will deliberately search if the ending is HE or BE. Because I consider watching anime to be the most relaxing thing in my life, I hope to see something that makes me happy, and I don’t want my favorite characters to end up dying or BE.

Zhao Jinmai: I like when it’s sweet and ‘tormenting/emotional’ but if it’s BE, I will be sad so it has to return to being sweet. I once read a novel, the tormenting part made me so heartbroken in the middle of the night. If it becomes tormenting after being sweet, I will really not feel great.

ELLE: What do you think is the sweetest scene in this drama?

Wu Lei: For me, it was the scene where Xiaoguo rushed across the arena and shouted to Lin Yiyang, “You are my Queen”.

Zhao Jinmai: The sweetest scene has to be the declaration of love in the laundry room. Of course, the rest of their scenes are also very sweet. Actually every scene is sweet, really! Everything is said in silence, it’s a two-way journey.

ELLE: What scenes were you most anxious about before starting filming? What is the difference between reality and imagination when actually shooting the scenes ?

Wu Lei: I was quite nervous about many scenes, such as the “You are my Queen” scene mentioned earlier, and some important emotional scenes. Lin Yiyang has a very “B King” side, as well as an arrogant side. There are also some flirting scenes in the drama… These all make me feel like, oh my, what should I do?! when I was reading the script. However, the entire drama was smoothly shot, even more so than expected.

Zhao Jinmai: I thought every scene was sweet when reading the script. But it was also those scenes that gave me the hardest time and stressed me out during filming. Especially the scenes where I had to act cute in the early stage. I kept asking the director “how to act cute”, our director is very gentle, very adorable but also a little bit shy, he was also embarrassed. When he was faced with a scene filled with Intimate hugs, he would say “Well, you know, it is how it is.” He gave me a lot of practical help, taught me how to act cute so later I just completely freely performed.

ELLE: When you were filming abroad, what was the most memorable filming location for you?

Wu Lei: Two places that appear a lot in the beginning of the drama, the billiards hall and a bar called Red Fish, they were both real locations. There are many stories in the drama that happen in these places.

Zhao Jinmai: It was the snow mountain. In the drama, Lin Yiyang took Yinguo from the beach to the snowy mountains to watch the sunrise, then he drove back to the beach. That snowy mountain was so beautiful!

ELLE: What is the biggest difference between yourself and your character in your mind?

Wu Lei: Lin Yiyang has more business acumen than me, which may be the biggest difference between us.

Zhao Jinmai: Yinguo is too sweet, and more gentle than me. When I just finished portraying her, I became sweeter too but now I’ve gradually gone back to my old self.

ELLE: What is your most commonly used stickers and emojis, yours and your character’s?

Wu Lei: I like to use some elderly stickers, and I like using the emoji that smiles while covering their eyes. Lin Yiyang used the coffee emoji the most in the early stage, and in the later stage, many WeChat messages were sent via voice notes. And after being together, it’s inevitable to have some ‘cheesy’ emojis, to give the audience a space for their imagination I guess.

Zhao Jinmai: I like using the tears of joy emoji but the common emojis in the drama were the coffee and laughing face. Back then we even thought, there are two laughing face emojis, one is a simple little smile, the second is with a little reddish face, so which one is Yinguo using? If she’s using the little smile, then it’s too mean. Lin Yiyang will think she is being sarcastic! But we thought, using this one doesn’t seem too bad? In the end, we still used the cute one anyway.

ELLE: Seeing your partner again for this photoshoot, what changes have you noticed in the other person?

Wu Lei: You’ve grown taller, haven’t you?

Zhao Jinmai: I feel like he is smiling more!

Source: WeChat article. Translation credit to @Eowuli (1, 2, 3).