Wu Lei: If I Had a Time Machine

Wu Lei is an “old actor” with 14 years of acting experience. In the TV series “The Legend and The Hero” filmed in 2005, he played “Little Nezha”. Although he was not the leading actor, his cute image still left a deep impression on the audience: oval face, “Afu” hair (阿福头), small braids tied with red ropes on both sides of the head, black eyes… Later, those audiences who like Wu Lei kept looking back on his growth experience and found that “cute” and “smart” were Wu Lei’s most indelible marks.

“Smart, clever, cute, generous, gentle, and virtuous.” When we asked Wu Lei which words could describe his qualities, he very generously said six in a row.

It was early fall in New York. “New York was still as bustling and busy as ever”, Wu Lei said. On the day of the shoot, Wu Lei landed in the United States at 5 a.m., arrived at the hotel at 8 a.m., and started doing his makeup and hair for our shoot at 10 a.m. Like those hurried pedestrians in Manhattan, Wu Lei is on a tight schedule. “I didn’t have time to have fun last time, and I didn’t have time to have fun this time either.” Wu Lei had been to New York before for work, so this time he felt more familiar with the city. Being an artist requires frequent business trips, but Wu Lei is very good at adjusting himself. “One good thing about going abroad as an artist or working in a foreign country is that the crew will take you to the most fun and prosperous places, so I had fun every time I took a break from filming,” Wu Lei said.

Our shooting that day was on a 20-story rooftop, and Wu Lei was very excited about the tall buildings in front of him. At the end of the shoot, we interviewed him in a moving car, and Wu Lei once again showed the playfulness and curiosity of a teenager. When passing by several trendy buildings, Wu Lei suddenly jumped from one side of the car to the other. Looking at the buildings that were receding rapidly, he began to describe his impressions of each building. He has a sense of spatial design. “Seeing the house built from scratch gives me a sense of accomplishment.”

Wu Lei was born on 26 December 1999, and is not yet 20 years old. Being immersed in the crew early on made him more calm than his peers, but his strength lies in not letting this calmness cover up the youth and sharpness of the teenager. In this shoot, he tried bangs. Wu Lei is a frequent magazine cover star, but he said, “I feel more and more that I’m not very good at taking photos… I’m actually quite shy and embarrassed when I pose for photos.” He is still more accustomed to acting. During the fifteen minutes of our interview, “performance” and “actor” were the two words he mentioned most. These are the coordinates of his current life and the identity he wants to be remembered for in the future.

1. Apart from acting, I haven’t done anything very passionate

Wu Lei became famous at a young age and has become a familiar face in TV dramas. He played the cute and ignorant young boy Yang Liulang in the costume idol drama “The Young Warriors”, the naughty, lively, and sensible Tang Buku in the sci-fi sitcom “Home with Alien”, and the seemingly lazy but actually hidden* Hu Yifeng in the youth inspirational drama “Whirlwind Girl”… Since he entered the industry in 2005 as “Little Nezha”, Since he entered the industry as “Little Nezha” in 2005, Wu Lei has been wearing the character’s clothes and has been watched growing up. He once raised a dog named “Sanlang”, but later he had no time to take care of it, so he placed it in a friend’s house for foster care, but Wu Lei always treats it as a friend he miss.

**: 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

Wu Lei often spent his childhood and teenage years on the set. He said that when he first came into contact with this industry, he had no idea what acting was. After several experiences, he realized that it was a profession. “I feel that this industry is a process of gradual learning and exploration. Every play and every role is a preparation and a foundation. If I say that my acting skills have improved, I should thank all the works for touching me.” In an interview in 2018, he said this. When he was a kid on the set, Wu Lei would cry every time the filming was finished. He couldn’t bear to leave those people he spent every day with. He still hasn’t gotten used to this separation, but he has grown up.

In 2014, Wu Lei, who was less than 15 years old, filmed Nirvana in Fire. The TV series was broadcast the following year, and its reputation and ratings remained high. With this work, he won the Outstanding TV Series Award at the 30th China TV Drama Feitian Awards and the first place in the 19th China Top 100 TV Series at the Huading Awards. He played the unforgettable Fei Liu in the series, which had a significant role.

Fei Liu is handsome in appearance. Although he is mentally handicapped, he has preserved the innocence and beauty of human nature. As the personal bodyguard of the male protagonist Mei Changsu, he is highly skilled in martial arts and loyal. Even when fighting with his opponent, the lines he said were also hilarious: “You are not funny.” In short, Fei Liu is the youngest and most lively character in the exciting political drama. His lack of worldly wisdom and occasional coquettishness are rare and interesting. In the process of shaping this role, Wu Lei also gave full play to his advantages: his youthful spirit fits Fei Liu’s agility, and his natural and flexible expression management fits Fei Liu’s childish nature… In the end, Wu Lei completed the task brilliantly, and made more screen audiences realize that this “young actor” has a rare acting talent. With this role, Wu Lei won the Most Popular Newcomer Award at iQiyi Night and the Most Potential Actor Award at the National Drama Festival that year.

During our brief interview, Wu Lei expressed his pride in being an actor several times. “I don’t think there is anything I’m more proud of than the title of an actor,” Wu Lei said. “Apart from taking on roles, I haven’t done anything very passionate. I feel very excited when I decide to take on each role. I look forward to it and feel very excited.”

2. Representative of the new generation of filmmakers

After Nirvana in Fire, Wu Lei’s popularity grew, and he was handed more scripts. He said that he had been studying and working in the crew since he was a child, and there was no room for him to rebel, so he had to use all his “dissatisfaction” to choose the right to play. “I turned down some plays I didn’t like and took the ones I liked. Sometimes I think there is a rebellious attitude and uniqueness in it.”

In recent years, Wu Lei has been running forward. In the TV series “Tomb of the Sea”, adapted from Nanpai Sanshu’s novel “The Lost Tomb: The Young Chapter – Sand Sea”, he plays Li Cu, a high school student who was originally impetuous and impulsive, but eventually grew up after desert exploration and conspiracy tests. On video websites, the show received 100 million online views within 5 hours of its release, and by the time the finale was aired, this figure had finally exceeded 5 billion.

Afterwards, Wu Lei played the role of Xiao Yan, a talented fighting spirit practitioner in the costume martial arts drama “Fights Break Sphere”. Director Yu Rongguang said in an interview: “Eighteen-year-old Wu Lei and eighteen-year-old Xiao Yan both have firm and sunny eyes, so they are the best choices to play Xiao Yan.” In fact, Wu Lei read the original novel a few years ago, and he was moved by the character’s youthful ambition at the time. “Xiao Yan is what a hero should be like, passionate, tough and persistent.” Wu Lei had a lot of fighting scenes during the filming, and he had to fly around carrying heavy props every time. When the series started airing, Wu Lei was as nervous as when he took the role, but he knew that this attempt was worth it. Coincidentally, “Fights Break Sphere” premiered on Hunan Satellite TV on September 3, 2018, and that was the time when Wu Lei enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy. He saw an advertisement for “Fights Break Sphere” on the tables in the school cafeteria, and excitedly took a group photo and posted it on Weibo. “My name was on almost most of the tables, which was actually quite embarrassing. I felt a lot of pressure.”

As a child star who has been watched since childhood, Wu Lei does carry more expectations than actors of the same age. In the minds of the audience, he seems to always be the young man who is wandering at the age of 18, dressed in bright clothes and riding a horse. In 2018, Wu Lei was admitted to the Performance Department of Beijing Film Academy with the first place in the art examination. At the opening ceremony, Wu Lei spoke as a representative of the freshmen. He said that when he first started acting at the age of five, he relied more on the camera to capture his state. Later, he found that being completely immersed in the world of the character and forgetting the existence of the camera was a very novel and wonderful experience. He also talked about the charm of acting. “You can experience many different lives with one life, this is what attracts me most about acting,” Wu Lei said.

Still in September 2018, the movie “Shadow” starring Wu Lei was released. In this martial arts action film directed by Zhang Yimou, Wu Lei plays Yang Ping, the son of the imperial general Yang Cang. Yang Ping was successful at a young age and followed his father to fight on the battlefield very early. On the set, Wu Lei used a very long and heavy sword for the first time. Although it was very strenuous, he still wanted to have the feeling of being one with the sword. In one of the fight scenes, Wu Lei needed to hold the sword and cut through the puddles on the ground to chop at Qingping, played by Guan Xiaotong. This action seems simple, but it requires upper limb strength and a sense of balance. In the end, Wu Lei fell 17 times before completing this shot. Such selfless dedication was also appreciated by Zhang Yimou. At the film press conference, Zhang Yimou praised Wu Lei generously, saying: “This child is able to endure hardships, is humble and studious, and is very hardworking. He is a representative of the new generation of filmmakers.”

Wu Lei is really demanding about the details of acting. During the interview, we asked him, “If you have a time machine, how old would you most like to be?” Wu Lei answered very frankly, “Actually, I don’t have any idea. I think it’s good now. I feel that every moment of the present makes me feel very happy, so I won’t go back.” But soon he remembered something and added, “Every time I finish shooting a scene, I want to take a time machine back to before shooting this scene, because I feel that I’m not good enough and can be better.”

3. Be a good actor and a good person

In the past two years, Wu Lei has often been asked about his age. He has just become an adult and will soon be 20 years old. On 23 December 2017, he held the “L.E.O” coming-of-age ceremony in Shanghai. At the beginning, he wore a white shirt and black pants and performed a “monster-fighting” martial arts for the audience. Wu Lei refused this kind of appearance at first. He felt that his dancing skills were not good. But later he was convinced because this arrangement could include the important roles he had played. He laughed and said that this was a review of his more than ten years of career.

We asked Wu Lei, among all the young heroes he has played, which one is closest to him. He modestly said, “I’m just a young actor, how can I be similar to them?” However, Wu Lei also admitted that since he played all the roles, there would be some overlaps, and he would still be moved by the qualities of the characters. For example, he would be moved by Li Cu’s unyielding and bravery in the face of force majeure in “Tomb of the Sea”, and he would also be infected by Xiao Yan’s rebellious spirit in “Fights Break Sphere” who refused to bow to fate.

After many years of debut, Wu Lei has his own definition of a good actor: “First of all, you must be dedicated to your work, and secondly, you must be able to play the role well and have a variety of faces. For example, if you can play roles with different personalities and different positioning, and you can stand out and be recognized by the audience, I think you are a very good actor.”

When Wu Lei just turned 18, he was asked in an interview, “What kind of world do you think adults should have?” His answer seemed very mature: “I don’t think adulthood is a ‘right’, it doesn’t mean you can do a lot of things you couldn’t do before. I think adulthood is more like a symbol of ‘responsibility’. When you grow up, you will have more abilities and you will have to take on more responsibilities.”

He used to say that he would go skydiving and get a driver’s license when he turned 18, but now two years have passed and he joked that he was “still a man with nothing”. “So I think I have to let nature take its course.” At the age of 19, he has become more mature and has a more comprehensive view of things. If he wants to list the happy things, it is that he has taken on a few more favorite dramas. For example, recently, he has been hanging out with the crew of “Cross Fire”. This web drama directed by Xu Hongyu tells the story of a young e-sports player who keeps moving forward after countless repetitive training and countless setbacks. Wu Lei plays the male protagonist Lu Xiaobei in it. As the drama is still in post-production, Wu Lei did not reveal more details.

Wu Lei said that every time he immersed himself in a role, his personality would tend to be more like that of the role, and it would take some time for him to get out of that character. Wu Lei was also subtly changed by the young heroes he played – “Maybe without those roles, my personality would not be so confident and talkative now.” He believes that his mental age is also affected by “them”.

“Most people say that I’m a little more mature than my age. I am actually 35 years old now… but it’s a bit silly to say that my mental age is 35. It’s okay if I say it as a joke, but if I say it seriously, it seems like I’m pretending to be profound.” Wu Lei realized this and quickly became skilled in acting cute, “I’m actually three years old, no more.” When we were about to move on to the next topic, he seemed to be still immersed in thinking about his age. He suddenly said excitedly that he had found a better answer. “Because I have played many, many roles and experienced many, many different lives, my mental age should be the sum of their ages divided by the number of roles I have played.”

We asked Wu Lei: “You have played so many roles and have been famous for so many years. Which moment made you feel like your dream has come true?” Wu Lei said that every time he signed a contract, he would place unlimited enthusiasm and expectations on the new play, because he felt that every time he took on a role, he would yearn for it. Although older audiences often say to him, “I grew up watching your plays,” Wu Lei has a clear understanding of his own position. “Acting is a never-ending process. Everyone can act, and everyone has different ways of acting. In fact, you have to keep learning and always keep the heart of an apprentice.”

In just over a month, Wu Lei will be 20 years old. He has no particular ambitions for the remaining six months, he just hopes to live peacefully and smoothly. As for what he aspires to do in his life after turning 20, his answer is quite simple: “Be a good actor and a good person.”

Source: ELLE MEN NEW YOUTH