Wu Lei is in His Prime, Young Man that has Become Adult*

*及冠 means Crown. In ancient China, a man will have a ceremony wearing a crown when he turn 20 years old, which means he has become an adult.

“Youth” is not only an age stage. It is also a unique mark of this age: cheerful and vigorous. Young people are often curious about the world and are full of longing for the unknown. Although Wu Lei has just turned 20, he is already an experienced actor with nearly 15 years of experience. Due to the tight schedule, the filming started before 7 am, which meant Wu Lei had to prepare for the filming at 5 am. At the shooting site, he looked a little tired. In the cold winter morning, the light shines on the handsome eyes of the young man, and everything around him is warm. When the interview started, Wu Lei immediately restrained his somewhat lazy state. His eyes were clear and sincere, and he shared his story with us in his clear voice.

On his 20th birthday, Wu Lei released a set of film photos. In the photo, the young man in white stands on the snowy peaks. His eyebrows are like paintings, his eyes are like ink dots, and there is a smile on the corners of his lips. He has lost some of his youthful immaturity and gained a touch of trustworthy maturity.

From the time when he was a little boy playing the cute and clever little Nezha in “The Legend and the Hero”, to his teenage years where he played the 19-year-old Li Xiaoyao in “Pal Inn”, the hidden** senior Hu Yifeng in “The Whirlwind Girl”, and the intellectually disabled guard Fei Liu in “Nirvana in Fire”, to his adult life where he played the ill-fated genius Xiao Yan in “Fights Break Sphere” and the impulsive adventurous high school student Li Cu in “Tomb of the Sea”. For more than a decade, Wu Lei has continued to bring new works and new roles to meet the audience. The style of the work and the character’s personality are very different. Wu Lei’s acting skills are always on point, and the audience in front of the screen have also witnessed his growth along the way.

**: 深藏不露 is a person who has knowledge and talent but is reserved and does not like to show off his or her talents in front of others.

Although he already has a rich acting experience, Wu Lei is still full of expectations and awe for acting. Being young is not an invincible asset for him. On the one hand, he is pleased that he still has a lot of opportunities to learn and try, but on the other hand, he is also worried that his lack of experience will limit his ability to perform roles, and he hopes to accumulate and learn more comprehensively. When asked about his future plans, his answer was surprisingly simple: “To act well and be a good person. I will hone my acting skills and improve my basic skills. I have to work hard.”

Contrary to his handsome and gorgeous appearance and his unique experience as a child star, Wu Lei is steady and down-to-earth in real life, and he always defines himself as an “ordinary person.” He believes that all the characters he has played had extraordinary experiences. Those extraordinary lives are impossible for him to have in real life. Using the character to participate in other people’s stories and enriching your own experience while talking to the characters is also a wonderful journey of life. The boy is active and loves the new and interesting world. He enjoyed his performances in “Fights Break Sphere” and “Tomb of the Sea” very much.

At the time of the interview, Wu Lei was promoting the movie “Adoring”. In this movie, Wu Lei plays Chen Leyun, a talented fencer who suddenly becomes blind. How to play a blind person, how to show the psychological gap and despair of the character after he becomes blind, how to show the difference between a blind person and a sighted person through action, these are all difficult problems.

In order to overcome the difficulties, Wu Lei visited and observed blind people in advance, experienced the lives of blind people, and fully immersed himself in his role. Even the actors who were acting opposite him were blurred in his eyes. Wu Lei joked: “My eyes were always out of focus when I was acting, and I was always immersed in my own blindness. Others were just blurry figures, and I couldn’t see clearly how they were acting. Everyone was a mosaic in my eyes.” In “Adoring”, Wu Lei and Zhang Zifeng acted together, playing a pair of childhood sweethearts. Wu Lei said that the atmosphere between the two of them was relaxed, and Zifeng was a very nice person.

Perhaps it was because the staff member’s mobile phone suddenly rang with a ringtone similar to the sound of a game that gave Wu Lei inspiration, the topic suddenly jumped to games. If acting is the most frequent topic for Wu Lei, who is not talkative, then games are his second most active topic. Like every boy of his age, Wu Lei likes games and e-sports, so when he mentions the TV series “Cross Fire”, Wu Lei seems to have pressed a mysterious switch, and the frequency of his talk can even be doubled. “I really want to introduce Lu Xiaobei. He is a person who is in a wheelchair but is very good at playing games. This role is very complicated, and it is really fun for me to play it.” When he said this, you could feel the light in Wu Lei’s eyes, which was the excitement that was hard to conceal when he talked about how his favorite things and his career could be cleverly integrated.

Wu Lei cherishes the relationship between his colleagues in the crew. In his opinion, the most important thing for an actor is to maintain enthusiasm in shaping the character, and the second is to have confidence, not only in oneself and one’s role, but also in colleagues in the crew, believing that everyone can create excellent works together. In addition to being busy in the crew, Wu Lei also participated in many variety shows. Talking about the recently aired “The Inn”, Wu Lei said that the most useful skill he gained during the recording was riding an electric tricycle. Seeing that the writer (journalist) was amused, he emphasized seriously: “Really, this skill is very practical. We often use electric tricycles to pull large equipment or props in the crew, and I ride better than some professional staff!”

Even with his rich acting experience, Wu Lei is still touched by every wrap-up. For him, every time he plays a play or a role, he enters a different body and experiences a different life. When the play is finished, he is separated from the role and loses the body in the play. He will feel a sense of loss and emptiness. Wu Lei describes it as “the feeling of graduating from junior high school”: “Finishing a role is like graduating from high school. Although everyone says goodbye to each other, you actually know that this may be the last time you see each other in your life; the same is true when you leave the play. You know that you can never return to his world and you can never work with the crew again. Sometimes you feel lost and the feeling is very complicated. Of course, you may meet familiar people in the next play, but the state is different from this play.”

For Wu Lei, the biggest challenge in life is always acting. After reading the script and seeing the particularly difficult scenes, Wu Lei will be mentally prepared to challenge the difficulties. On the day of shooting, he will be very excited when he walks from the lounge to the set, like a soldier rushing to the battlefield, fighting to play a good role.

After each work is released, Wu Lei will take the initiative to understand the audience’s evaluation and cares about the overall performance of the work. He is grateful for the good reviews. As for the bad reviews, he will also carefully record and analyze them as a reference for future performances. He defines the relationship between himself and his fans as a relationship of mutual companionship and growth together. The presence of fans always makes him feel relaxed and powerful. When he feels that the work is hard, he will think: “Fans are also working hard to support me, I can’t let them down”.

Outside of acting, Wu Lei is just a simple boy. His wardrobe is filled with loose and comfortable clothes. Outside of work, he wears whatever he wants. The only thing that can be associated with fashion is a variety of hats. When he need to vent his stress, he listen to music, play games, read books, or go for a run. He switch to the random play mode to enjoy the random surprise. He will be very happy if he randomly listen a song that he like.

Wu Lei has no particular preference for movies. He will watch any movie that has good reviews. The more special ones are “The Intouchables” and “Scent of a Woman”, one of which gave him the strength to keep going in adversity, and the other made him appreciate the charm of acting. “I really like Al Pacino. When you watch the works of a great actor, you will be yearning for it,” Wu Lei said. “Of course, I will also watch the works of my favorite (Robert Downey Jr.)” Wu Lei playfully added his own recommendation.

20 years old is really the best time of life. The purest curiosity and natural sensitivity about the world still exist, and there is also the tolerance and responsibility cultivated in the process of growth. If the young Wu Lei is an unpolished jade, the current Wu Lei has begun to emit a soft glow under the polishing and nurturing of time. His early fame did not make him lose his clear self-awareness. Sincerity, steadfastness and simplicity are still his most precious qualities. Just as the audience who grew up with him expected: Wu Lei has grown into a gentle and steady gentleman, but in his bones he is still a fearless and cheerful boy.

Q&A

What was the last movie you watched in the cinema? What are the most memorable scenes?

After the filming of “Adoring” was completed, I watched “The Wild Goose Lake”. The part about the gangsters’ sports meeting made me laugh, and the part about them at the station and the restaurant left a deep impression on me.

Among Marvel heroes, besides Iron Man, who is your favorite superhero?

Doctor Strange.

Will you update the VLOG that has been inactive for a long time?

There is still a plan to update, but I just haven’t found the right time.

Do you stay at home or go out to relax during your break?

Both are fine. I stay at home more than the average person, but if I want to go out, I can go to a faraway place by myself.

Share your secret to controlling your body shape with your fans?

I can control myself freely. I won’t gain weight even if I eat more and exercise less, right? (Writer: Fans will be angry if you say that, right?) Haha, it’s no use to make fans angry.

Source: L’OFFICIEL HOMMES