Wu Lei, heading towards “Dwelling By The West Lake“

Reporter Yu Chixie
Editor Zhang Mian

Wu Lei
Born in 1999, graduated from the Performance Department of Beijing Film Academy in 2023. He is well-known to the audience for his roles in TV series such as “Nirvana in Fire”, “Love Like The Galaxy”, “Nothing But You”, and movies such as “Shadows” and “My Country, My Parents”. In February 2024, the TV series “Amidst a Snowstorm of Love” starring him was popular; in April 2024, the movie “Dwelling By The West Lake” starring him was released nationwide.

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If we count from the first time he acted in a TV series at the age of 5, Wu Lei has been in the industry for almost 20 years. If we count from the first time he filmed an advertisement, we have to add “2” to this number. In short, he is young but has a long artistic career.

As a result of gaining fame in childhood, Wu Lei seems to have implemented a “dual-track system” in the hearts of the audience. One track is his on-screen image. The audience witnessed him playing roles from little Nezha to little Yang Guo, from a teenage guardian to a handsome general. Last year, he portrayed Song Sanchuan who has “older woman – younger man relationship” in “Nothing But You”. This year, he become the rebellious senior brother Lin Yiyang in “Amidst a Snowstorm of Love”.

The other track is Wu Lei’s personal image in life. The “national younger brother” who has been the same for a decade has suddenly grown up: the baby fat faded away, his figure became taller and stronger, his eyes became deeper, and his conversation became more steady. In the words of his “fans”, the child has suddenly transformed to a “hormone player”.

For child stars, both tracks have bottlenecks. In terms of acting, many people cannot escape the fate of “Injuring Zhongyong”*. As they grow older, their aura gradually fades, eventually leaving behind the regret of “peaking at debut”. In personal life, there are also many people who have lost their way in The Truman World* and unable to break free from the beautiful fantasy woven in their childhood.

*”Injuring Zhongyong” is a story about Fang Zhongyong, a child prodigy that born very talented but eventually become ordinary person because he didn’t study. The story warns people that they must never rely solely on talent without learning new knowledge and must pay attention to acquired education and learning

*The Truman World is the world in the movie The Truman Show (1998)

Fortunately, Wu Lei is clear-headed and solid in both aspects. He told the reporter of “Global People”: “From being ignorant to having initial understanding of the profession, and now graduating from university, I have been moving forward step by step, and gradually realized the weight of the word ‘actor'”. On the day of the interview, Wu Lei was on the road show for movie “Dwelling By The West Lake”. He worked non-stop despite having a heavy cold and kept carrying hot water with him, but as soon as the camera was turned on, he immediately regained the spirit and energy he required for promotions and showing no sign of fatigue.

The signature smile is still there, the familiar youthful feeling is still there, but no one would doubt that child star Wu Lei has transformed into young actor Wu Lei.

Son of Nature, Fighting Against Pyramid Schemes

“Dwelling by the West Lake” is the second feature film directed by Gu Xiaogang. Slightly different from the first film, “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains”, which is pure artistic, “Dwelling by the West Lake” is more distinctive in plot and genre, especially its in-depth exploration of the theme of “anti-pyramid schemes”, which makes the film present a strong social attribute. In the film, He Mulian (played by Wu Lei) and her mother, Wu Taihua (played by Jiang Qinqin) depend on each other. When his mother falls victim to a pyramid scheme, Mulian embarks on a modern story of “Mulian Rescues His Mother”.

When he first received the script, Wu Lei was a little frightened. “I really liked Director Gu’s ‘Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.’ When I first received the script for ‘Dwelling by the West Lake’ I was a bit hesitant to take it because I like the story and the characters so much. But later, thanks to the director and my family’s encouragement, I was able to take this role.”

In the film, the keyword of Mulian’s life is ‘searching’: at the beginning, he searches for his father who had been away from home for many years without any news; then, he searches for his mother who has been consumed by a pyramid scheme and became obsessed; finally, he searches for his true self within when he was scarred.

Outside the film, Wu Lei used “some silly methods” to find Mulian. “He is a child from the countryside, simple and kind, quiet and taciturn, like a lotus flower that emerges from the mud unstained, and like a strong and upright tree. No matter what happens, he will always grows towards the direction of light.”

Wu Lei used four words to describe the character: the son of nature. Therefore, in addition to reading the script carefully, he began to raise plants, visited botanical gardens and forests in the mountains, “trying to establish some connections with nature.” The initial scenes of the film were shot with Mulian walking in the forest. The director asked Wu Lei to “have a dialogue” with the trees, “talk with the strong trees, as well as the broken ones, to live and breathe in the space of the entire forest, and resonate with the trees.”

This kind of interaction would be uninteresting if it’s too little, and unnatural if it’s too much. It wasn’t until Wu Lei was lying on the grass, with the sun hitting his face through the Tyndall effect, and the ants crawling up his collarbones and cheeks, that he closed his eyes and fully surrendered his heart to nature. Only then he felt that he had successfully transitioned into becoming Mulian.

Literary and artistic scenes rely on feelings, while realistic portrayal is the true test of one’s body and mind. In the film, Mulian experiences multiple emotional transitions: the determination to leave after accidentally getting involved with elderly fraud gang “sales meeting” while looking for a job, the confusion and anxiety when he discovered his mother sold the house to buy MLM products, the powerlessness and collapse when trying to awaken his mother in the rain, and the forbearance and ourburst when he finally made a desperate move to infiltrate the pyramid scheme group to collect evidence.

Before filming each pyramid scheme scenes, Wu Lei and Jiang Qinqin looked at each other in silence while waiting, “Because the director gave us a lot of room for performance, we didn’t know what kind of scenes we would face next. Each time was a brand new thrilling experience.”

In the film, a large number of pyramid scheme scenes were created by director Gu Xiaogang after he personally “went undercover” in a pyramid scheme organization: group induction on the bus, spiritual speech on stage, emotional manipulation in a small dark room. Each scene is an extreme “brainwashing scene”. This experience also made Wu Lei feel the horror of pyramid schemes, said “the filming was heartbreaking and made your head spins”.

One much-discussed scene take place under the bridge on a rainy night, Wu Taihua kicked and beat her son, blaming him for ruining her “dream of getting rich”, while shouting obsessively: “I am willing to be deceived, I’m happy, I’m happy!” Jiang Qinqin goes wild with her makeup, and Wu Lei cried and screams in tears. Even after the director called a stop, the “mother and son” couldn’t immediately get out of character, and Wu Lei cried for a long time in the car.

“After filming this story, I have gained a greater understanding of the persecution and impact pyramid schemes inflict on the person and the family.” Wu Lei told reporters, “We must raise awareness of anti-pyramid schemes. We should give more care and love to our elderly family members at home. If our family members encounter pyramid schemes, we should patiently dissuade them and seek police assistance.”

Always Have the Courage and Determination of a Child

“Crying scenes are intense emotional scenes, and I usually nervous and have anticipation for scenes with intence emotions, such as extreme pain, extreme crying, extreme happiness or anger.” Speaking of that heart-wrenching crying scene in the rain, Wu Lei said: “I think you shouldn’t have a comfort zone in acting. You should take every emotion as your own nervous zone. You shouldn’t underestimate any scene.”

In Wu Lei’s view, this nervousness is not only a respect for acting, but also a vigilance against empiricism. When he was a kid, acting meant “being taken to the scene to start acting”; after becoming famous, acting became a hobby and a daily routine; after being admitted to the Film Academy, he had to face the retraining of mentality and methods.

On his 18th birthday, Wu Lei received a letter from his mother at the birthday party. He cried while reading it: “In the past 13 years of filming, your mother has seen all the ups and downs in your life. You had a high fever but insisted on finishing the filming before going to the hospital. When you were getting an injection, you turned your head away and cried silently. You made your mother so proud and distressed.” When the clock struck 12, Wu Lei suddenly thought: It would be great if I could always be 18 years old. “I hope I can always have the courage and determination I had as a child.”

When he was 3 years old, Wu Lei was discovered by a scout and filmed his first advertisement. As a result, he became unstoppable and received more than 50 advertising invitations in just two years. When he was 5 years old, the TV series “The Legend and the Hero” came to the school for casting. He volunteered to act in a segment and made his debut successfully. Over the next decade, he was a popular little brother on the screen. The audience could see him in various works every year, including modern dramas, costume dramas, comedies, dramas, and fantasy dramas.

“Nirvana in Fire” in 2015 was Wu Lei’s first milestone. In this phenomenal drama, Wu Lei perfectly portrayed the coldness and warmth of a teenage guardian, and his performance was remarkable among the acting talents. In 2017, he joined the movie “Shadows” directed by Zhang Yimou and got a rare opportunity to hone his skills.

The seemingly smooth road to fame actually also involved inner struggles. In 2018, Wu Lei was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy as the first place in his major. His deepest feeling after entering the school was “inferiority” and “lacking”. Many of his classmates have been learning professional acting since high school, but he is more like a student who has been trained on the set, and there is still a gap between him and the academic method. “Maybe I have more serious film and television filming experience, but actually I still need a lot of practice.”

So, he slowed down the pace of his work and spent more time on self-improvement. When he was in school, he got up at 5:30 to practice morning exercises to make up for the missing knowledge; on the set, he was no longer just a “tool man” who does what he is told, but learned to explore and think on his own. To played a boy in a wheelchair in the e-sports drama “Cross Fire”, he studied a lot of e-sports player documentaries and the daily movements of people with disabilities. To played a blind student in the movie “Adoring”, he would stay in the dark for a while every day to get the feel for it and he didn’t even turn on the light when taking a shower.

This habit to do preparation has continued to this day, and has even developed to the point where he can master a skill every time he shoots a drama. When shooting “The Long Ballad”, Wu Lei did 4 months of high-intensity training, and put the original comics on the bathroom mirror every day to remind himself how to look like the original comics: In “Nothing But You”, he practiced tennis and badminton alternately, and even professional coaches praised him after 3 months of training; in “Amidst a Snowstorm of Love”, he practiced snooker to the point that Ding Junhui reposted his Weibo and made an appointment to play a game with him……

“Sometimes I see seniors receiving awards at some events, and listen to their speeches, I really admire their humility and passion, and I feel that I haven’t done enough.” Wu Lei said, “Although I have indeed worked for some years, I still feel that I’m just getting started.”

In his opinion, there is no shortcut to acting, only “sincerity can move mpuntains and open up new horizons.”

An Old Actor’s Soul

Host He Jiong once commented on Wu Lei: “He work like a man, live like a teenager.” This youthfulness can be seen from Wu Lei’s cycling documentary. In the past 2 years, his cycling vlog filmed by himself went viral on the Internet, allowing the public to see the down-to-earth side of the young actor. In those daily records, Wu Lei does not shy away from the “gray tone” in life: everyone has anxiety and times when they don’t want to talk. In the entertainment industry, high pressure and fast pace often make people lose the true nature of life.

One of the ways Wu Lei relieves his anxiety is by cycling. He rode 90 kilometers alone from Quanzhou to Xiamen, watching the sunset, taking pictures of the sunset, talking to strangers, and taking pictures with the geese that crossed the highway. On his 22nd birthday, he gave himself a gift of a trip to Ulan Butong, Inner Mongolia, where he galloped on the snowy plains at minus 30 degrees Celsius, setting up tents for camping, running to the top of the mountain with a flashlight in his hand, and taking pictures of the vast starry sky.

Last year, Wu Lei’s went to Xinjiang. He rode his bike through the mountains and grasslands of northern Xinjiang and experienced unknown scenery around Sailimu Lake. He has seen the clear skies with the lake and sky blending in the same color, and also encountered sudden heavy rain and hail. “I feel that Sailimu Lake is very good to me. I have encountered all kinds of weather. This trip is worthwhile! The tiny me has conquered a big lake, riding my small bicycle.”

He said: “Perhaps the meaning of the journey is found on the road. Sometimes you don’t need a reason to start and try.”

“If you give yourself a long vacation, how long do you want it to be? How would you arrange it?” the reporter asked. “One and a half months for travelling, one and a half months of doing nothing and idling time away, and the remaining three months at home reflecting about life and talking to myself.” This answer is unexpected, but also reasonable.

During the process of working with Wu Lei on “Dwelling by the West Lake”, actor Chen Jianbin was often confused: “He is only 23 years old, why does he have the soul of an old actor? Although he has been in the industry for a long time, he has not been tainted by Jianghu* spirit, and his heart is still pure.”

*Jianghu usually refers to the martial arts world of ancient China. But in modern sense, this word use to describe anarchic societies like gangster and organized crime where people were acting unlawful, wild, rude, etc.

For Wu Lei, who grew up under the spotlight, this sincerity is precious. He works hard and lives hard; he puts himself in front of the camera but keeps himself away from the hustle and bustle. As he often said: “Self is freedom and me.” Perhaps, it is this freedom and true self that allows Wu Lei to move from The Truman Show to the sunny world of “Dwelling by the West Lake”.

Scanned interview from Star Entertainment Idol Club. Original article on weibo.