Wu Lei: Looking forward to turning 40

Wu Lei likes to joke about his age. He is less than 20 years old this year, and he said, “I have been mentally 50 years old since I was a child.” He laughed at himself. In another interview, he officially announced that his mental age is still 35. But his thoughtfulness is recognized by the industry. After 14 years in the industry, he has participated in more than 60 works, and three works were released to the audience in 2018 alone. Although he has always denied it, Wu Lei is like an “old actor”. Only in the intervals between magazine photo shoots, when he would unconsciously twist the tassels on his sweatshirt with his fingers, or wave at the camera with his innocent smile and clear eyes, you would realize that he is still a teenager who has just reached adulthood.

I don’t want to be a stupid actor.

“What is the standard of a good actor?”

“The most important thing is dedication,” Wu Lei answered without hesitation, “of course acting skills are also important.” No one has ever doubted Wu Lei’s dedication.

When filming “Shadow”, it was midsummer. He wore armor weighing more than 15 kilograms (30斤) and practiced swordplay every day. A set of martial arts shots could be shot 17 times with wires. When filming “Sand Sea”, Wu Lei stayed in the desert for two months, climbing mountains and crossing rivers, sleeping in the open air, and still felt sorry for the director who got tanned. He is used to the hardships of acting. When he was five years old, he played the role of Nezha, and he put on a bellyband and filmed a water scene in the middle of winter, and his whole body was red from the cold. Since then, Wu Lei has been mentally prepared for the hardships and fatigue of acting, “Once you start on the road of acting, you can’t give it up.”

This is also the path he chose. When the crew came to the art school to select actors for the role of Little Nezha, they didn’t think of looking for students from lower grades. Wu Lei, who was still in the lower grades at the time, was dissatisfied. The crew’s car started, and he chased after them and knocked on the car door, “Brother, I’m also shooting commercials, how about you take a couple of pictures for me?” He introduced himself temporarily and recorded a video. Unexpectedly, he was noticed by the director and got his first role in his life.

At such a young age, he has been injured many times while on set. “During filming, I was so nervous that I didn’t feel the pain, and I didn’t get stitches when I got cut, which caused the flesh on the wound to grow, and the scar has not fully healed to this day.” Another time, he got a burn on his left hand during filming, but he just wrapped it with a layer of gauze and continued filming.

He was often scolded by directors because he brought his usual mischief to the set. Wu Lei described himself as a child as “too noisy, didn’t know what acting was, and didn’t take acting seriously.” When he was a child, all he had to do to act was to be obedient, smile when he was happy, and cry when he was sad. Having mastered this trick, Wu Lei has never delayed the progress of the crew.

But gradually, he realized that “acting is a very serious and ritualistic thing.” Wu Lei called this process “a natural process.” “Growing up in such an environment, I was influenced by many excellent predecessors around me who worked hard for acting. I couldn’t help but be attracted by their enthusiasm, which made me want to become a good actor.”

“I can’t say I’m precocious. I knew what I liked at a relatively young age.” Wu Lei called this kind of like as his luck.

He has had a heroic complex since he was a child. He is a die-hard fan of Ultraman and Marvel movies, and is obsessed with saving the earth. Spider-Man and Iron Man are his favorite superheroes.

Before he got the role of Xiao Yan in “Battle Through the Heavens”, Wu Lei had already read the entire novel. When he heard the news, he first thought he would play the role of Xiao Yan when he was a child, but he never expected that he would play the role of Xiao Yan as an adult. Looking back, Wu Lei’s excitement and surprise were beyond words to play the leading role of his favorite novel.

However, as someone who truly understands the role and loves heroism, he feels that Xiao Yan in the novel is not down-to-earth enough, “too powerful, too passionate, and too forward-looking.” In his opinion, a real character, no matter how brave, will have his own fears and cowardice. So when performing, he is more concerned about making Xiao Yan’s behavior more reasonable and fuller.

For actors, growing up in the crew, it is easy to form a fixed performance routine, making acting a skillful technique rather than a sincere expression of emotion. Wu Lei realized this very early and deliberately made his performance full of freshness and gave each role a different feeling.

Although he grew up in the crew and his life experience is relatively simple, Wu Lei usually reads books and watches movies when he is free to enrich his experience and feel a richer life. On the way to the studio, he was reading Thoreau’s “Walden” in the car.

“I am a person who cannot stop. I like new things and can’t stand a particularly boring and stereotyped life.” Acting gave him the opportunity to experience different lives.

Wu Lei has never considered any options other than acting for his life, “I will never stop being an actor in my life.”

“Which character do you think is most like yourself?”

“The characters I play are not similar to myself,” Wu Lei teased himself with a laugh, “I’m just an ordinary person, I can’t do that. If you insist on saying who looks more like me, I think I look more like myself when I was shooting for magazines.”

“So I particularly enjoy the completely different experience that filming brings,” he quickly added.

The future is promising

In 2018, Wu Lei entered the Beijing Film Academy with the first place in the acting major in the country, and his acting career entered a new stage. In the 2018 Forbes China “30 Under 30 Elites” list, the 18-year-old Wu Lei was the youngest actor on the list.

Compared to when he first joined the crew at the age of five, actor Wu Lei now has a deeper understanding of acting.

“An actor’s sense of faith is multi-faceted. The first is the faith in the role. You have to believe in the role and believe that you are the role. The second is the faith in yourself. Believe that you are a good actor and believe that there are beautiful things around you. You have to be very upright and very firm, and stick to your original intention in this industry.”

Debuting at a young age and playing classic roles means it is difficult for him to get rid of the label of “child star”.

Four years ago, after Nirvana in Fire was broadcast, 16-year-old Wu Lei expressed his views on the label of “child star”: “Every actor doesn’t want to be stereotyped, so I really want to grow up, leave behind the identity of a child star, and show a more diverse and mature image of a man. I hope that in the future audiences can evaluate me as a good actor, that’s enough.”

Now, four years later, Wu Lei no longer cares about labels. “I don’t mind the labels on me. Because the labels are put by others, I just need to be myself.”

“I don’t think it’s necessary to be deliberate. If everyone thinks I’m manly, I’ll be satisfied. But if everyone thinks I’m just a kid, I won’t be angry. It’s enough for everyone to have the impression that I’m a good person. I’m more concerned about everyone’s impression of my character/role.”

His thoughts on acting have never changed – the evaluation he most hopes to receive is “actor”, and if he must add an adjective, it would be “good”

The process of becoming an adult seems to be a flash for him, but it also seemed like he had been waiting for ten years. Growing up among adults and working with them, he also experience the hardships and responsibilities of adults earlier.

“Age is just a number…” Wu Lei frowned, “I still want to make myself more sincere, protect the people around me that I want to protect, and do what I want to do.”

Wanting to protect the people around him, maybe this is why everyone praises Wu Lei for his “high emotional intelligence”. In the crew, he is polite and humbly learns from the director and other actors; when participating in the show, he always takes good care of the people around him; occasionally, when faced with the host’s teasing, he can cleverly resolve the awkwardness with a few witty remarks.

This sincerity and consideration is also reflected in his treatment to fans.

In order to give fans a surprise at his coming-of-age ceremony, Wu Lei practiced singing: “I originally refused. An actor should act. I even thought about rehearsing a big play, but the team rejected it. I can’t invite everyone to a tea party if I don’t sing or dance, right?” But at the birthday party, he who originally didn’t want to sing, sang and danced, played the guitar, danced with a sword, and used all his skills to fulfill the wishes of his fans.

A bold fan asked Wu Lei: “When are you going to marry me?” He replied calmly: “My parents are here today, so don’t we also count as people who have met their parents?”

Wu Lei himself did not think it was special to be evaluated as having “high emotional intelligence”. “As an adult, isn’t it my duty to be more considerate of other people’s feelings?” Just as he takes acting as a profession for granted, Wu Lei also takes protecting those around him as a habit that is taken for granted.

Wu Lei considers himself not to be a person with an idol burden, but he never denies the importance of appearance for an actor.

“After all, actors act with their faces, and appearance determines a person’s acting to some extent,” Wu Lei was very frank about this. “But what’s more important is the ability and acting skills. After all, there are so many excellent actors in the world who can rely on their ability and acting skills to play a role that is completely different from themselves.”

“Have you ever imagined what you’ll look like when you’re 40?”

“I’m definitely much more handsome when I’m 40! As a man, I must have more experience and inner qualities, to be more charming and mature.” After saying this, Wu Lei tried hard to give a mature smile.

Source: ELLE MEN