Wu Lei: Simple Method

The most wonderful moments in filming are the small moments. Often when you are waiting for something together, the more you realize that waiting and working hard for something gives you a sense of peace and tranquillity.

Just like some shooting scenes, there will be planes flying by. The sound of the aircraft interferes with the recording when filming is necessary. As a result, everyone will wait for a plane to fly by.

The whole group stopped until you heard the plane zooming by.

When Wu Lei talked about this part of the story, he imitated the sound of an airplane flying by, and he learned it a lot, which was surprising how similar it is.

When the sound of the plane “shooting” passed, everything started again.

He deals with the world in his own way 

 Full of surprises and unknowns

Wu Lei has been filming for more than a year, and even only took two days off during the Spring Festival. One day he accompanies his family to make dumplings, and another one day he plays video games with his friends. When he waited until the first day of the new year, he went out to work.

Such a long work means that after the filming of this scene, Wu Lei will enter a period of rest. At the same time, this also means that even if he takes a short break, Wu Lei will have a lot of new dramas to meet with everyone next time. For Wu Lei’s fans, this year is a good year.

On the second day after our filming ended, Wu Lei was filming on the Hongjialou campus of Shandong University. During the filming, he used a character board to communicate with the onlookers. He stepped on a wooden box and held up the word boards one by one”Hello”. -“Please support”-“The Long Ballad”- “Our Times” “Midsummer/Upcoming””I am Xiao Fang””Thank you”-“Goodbye”. The word boards are all black on a red background, and they look neat and serious. Wu Lei smiled throughout the whole process, he recommended it sincerely and in such an unexpected way.

If you know Wu Lei better, this is just how Wu Lei is. He is willing to share and communicate with others, and get along with the world with the most friendly and open attitude. Take other things in his recent period as an example. There are similar examples readily available to share with you.

For example, Wu Lei often publishes vlog records daily on social platforms. The subject of Vlog is the flow of daily life for many people, getting up early to make up, filming and working, healthy eating, exercise and fitness, plus good things recommendation and experience sharing. But in Wu Lei’s vlog, every video is not so plain and has no new record.

In those vlogs, several records recorded his experience of riding a bicycle from Quanzhou to Xiamen alone. This is actually a transition of the crew, returning from the filming location in Quanzhou to the filming location in Xiamen. Because Wu Lei had no drama filming on the day of his transfer, he chose to use his rest time to complete the journey by himself.

This is no joke. This section of the road is about 90 kilometers in length. He set off in the afternoon the previous day, stayed one night on the road, and rode from morning to evening the next day. Because he promised that the makeup artist of the crew could not tan his face, he kept his promise and waited for a container on the road when the sun was strongest before continuing on the road until the sun diminished. This prolongs the time on the road. It can be seen in the video taken by himself with a sports recorder that he waited until the darkness was over before he arrived at the place where the crew was stationed.

The whole journey is full of unknowns. First of all, the road is unknown. Even if you follow the navigation throughout the entire journey, you will encounter a section of roads with staggered alleys and complex road conditions. Secondly, the person encountered is unknown, which is also something that Wu Lei is willing to accept. While cycling, Wu Lei will take the initiative to communicate with people. When you meet a fisherman, you can chat with them. When you leave, you will leave a sincere wish and wish others for the best. People who help them are particularly grateful for their small acts of kindness, quietly imagining their careers, and praise their virtues.

In addition, there are unexpected sights. In his vlog, there are beautiful views from Wu Lei’s perspective. Even though the journey is short, Wu Lei, who is happy to find out, stops his bike and takes a good look at the scene.

The reason why he wants to accomplish this is because Wu Lei has become obsessed with cycling recently. He often develops various hobbies because of filming. From fitness to DJing to cycling. He is willing to spend time and energy to learn, understand, practice, and immerse himself in the things he wants to understand. In many people with multiple skills and hobbies, similar immersion and practice will make you feel inspired, and at the same time make you feel that they have paid a lot and put pressure on you, but they have a sense of distance to these things. But here with Wu Lei, you will find everything so interesting, relaxing and happy.

Because everything comes from his heartfelt desires. Although likes and impulses will peak during the immersion time, he will not discard these interests after this peak period is over. They will basically stay with him for a long time.

 A story about “romance” 

Our second example also happened during the time when Wu Lei was filming in Xiamen. Wu Lei said that this was the first time he had talked about this matter publicly, and even the staff accompanying him did not know it.

As an actor, especially an actor like Wu Lei who has become very well-known since his teens. In fact, it is difficult for them to have the opportunity to reach people outside the circle. “Because you are an entertainer, they will have a lot of weird imaginations about your life and work. Some people will ask some very strange questions, and they will tell you: Are you really flying when you are filming? Are you really eating when you are eating?” It seems that acting is a special kind of profession, and it is difficult for conversation to extend naturally beyond these superficial problems.

What we are going to talk about next is a story about friends. During the filming of “Upcoming Summer” in Xiamen, Wu Lei made a friend when he was out alone. Two strangers met at the night market in Xiamen and became friends.

It was almost the New Year at that time. After finishing work at night, Wu Lei would go out for a bike ride alone. He would probably ride 15 kilometers every time he went out. After the journey, he will go to a roadside stall to have supper. It was a barbecue stall. In the evening, Wu Lei bumped into a delivery man in the shop. He often takes delivery at that shop to customers’ houses. Because we’ve met so many times, it feels like we know each other. One day Wu Lei asked him whether he wanted to join for a bite. He seemed to have nothing to do at that time.

The two men sat down and chatted over barbecue on a night in Xiamen. This friend trusted Wu Lei very much and told him a lot of his own affairs. His hometown of Jiangsu, his previous working experience in Shanghai, and his feelings and plans for his own life. They are about the same age, and they are both very cheerful people. The two of them talked about a lot of things that collided with interesting facts. They added WeChat to each other after that day. The two of them had several more meals together during their time in Xiamen. Later, the crew of “Midsummer/Upcoming” moved to Quanzhou. After returning to Xiamen, Wu Lei would go to him again. When he left Xiamen, Wu Lei would also say goodbye to him.

Wu Lei said, in fact, for an artist, it is very risky to ride out alone after work in the evening. Artists rarely have the opportunity to make such good friends from strangers. Because it is inevitable that there will be no sense of security in this regard. When he met this friend in Xiamen, Wu Lei knew the friend recognized him the first time he met him. He also watched Wu Lei’s drama, because they talked about this topic. “But he never asked me about my work. He also never asked my name.” Wu Lei said: “I think this feeling is very strange, it is a romance between two men.” These two stories about Wu Lei happened to be centered around the time at the end of last year, both during his filming.

Wu Lei has been shooting commercials since he was 3 years old and acting at the age of 6. After that, there have been endless filming appointments. Although he is only 22 years old now, he has lived and worked in the film industry for more than ten years.

He has experienced a period of blooming in Hengdian Film and Television City. At its peak, there may be more than 70 crews working on the entire studio at the same time. On the one hand, the film industry is developing rapidly, on the other hand, there will be a lot of wild growth. In his childhood, he did not have a very clear understanding of filming in the crew. He only knew that everyone around him came and went every day, and everyone was busy. He only needed to cry according to the requirements of the adults. Laugh and finish work.

Until he was about 12 years old, he starred in Li Huizhu’s version of “The Legend of Condor Heroes”. He played Yang Guo in his youth, cute and authentic, and left a deep impression on many drama fans. Up to now, there is also the owner of the B station who specially put the young Yang Guo cut version of “The Legend of Condor Heroes” on the website for everyone to review.

Wu Lei said that in this crew, he felt like a utopian crew member. Everyone had a great time during filming. He acted very happily. The director was also very happy every day. The director will take the actors to eat delicious food, and the whole crew gets along very well. In this crew, he really felt that he was respected as an actor for the first time and he felt honored. Now that he thinks about it, in fact, a large part of the reason is because this drama made him feel interested in acting, which gave him confidence. To this day, he is still very grateful to Director Li Huizhu, grateful to her for giving him such a reward.

We asked Wu Lei a question during the interview. We asked him what animal he looks like. Wu Lei said that he couldn’t think of what he looked like at the moment, but he could immediately think of what animal he wanted to be. He said that he wanted to be a horse, because horses can gallop freely and live a happy life.

But when it comes to real life, Wu Lei said that he feels like an ant in real life. “Because I work hard all day long. Ants are very special animals. They look small but can do a lot of work. Actors are also like this in many cases. They often do a lot of things beyond their own physical energy, and use their small bodies to convey many things to others. The horse and the ant seem to have a big gap.” But in Wu Lei’s understanding, ants are actually very cool animals, just like the profession of an actor is also very cool.

After actors have gained a high reputation, their freedom will be greatly reduced. But for Wu Lei, it seems that there is no need to worry about him like this. His life is more like a combination of a “horse” and an “ant”, and the lives represented by these two animals do not conflict with him at all. Although his work was very hard, he is brave and free to explore wider spaces and possibilities whether in or outside the play. Because of this, he would hear the broad wind when the plane flew by.

Translation credit to @wuleiarchive.