Month: December 2023

[Interview] Wu Lei Interview for L’OFFICIEL HOMMES (April 2021)

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Wu Lei: Spring Portrait of a Young Actor

To live, to win, to use life to create life again.

Thirteen years ago, Wu Lei filmed the TV series “The Sword and The Chess of Death”, in which he played the role of “Guan Yunbao”, the son of the hero “Yan Cangfeng”. In the stills, 8 years old Wu Lei is not much taller than the desk, wearing a garcinia-yellow cloth scarf, with the collar of his warm white underwear is exposed. His head is slightly tilted forward, and the child’s round, almond-shaped eyes look at the audience in front of the camera, like the lovely peach tree in full bloom in spring in Van Gogh’s oil painting “Peach Blossoms in Bloom” (1888). 

Thirteen years later, Wu Lei starred in the comic-adapted TV series “The Long Ballad” as the East Turkestan Tegin Ashile Sun. In the trailer, Ashile Sun’s long black hair is tied into a helmet, and the silvery desert wind blew it away. In the young man’s cold eyes, the lively child named “Guan Yunbao” seemed to have disappeared long ago. Wu Lei still reminds people of Van Gogh’s oil painting “Peach Blossoms in Bloom”, with the scorching peach tree in the center of the painting. However, the growth of young people is more like the spring itself evolving in the wind, rain and cold rather than the bright petals burning in the transparent sunlight – the latter is longer, vivid and meaningful than the former.

“You are a person who is not surprised when things happen. A battle-hardened warrior” 

The air leaked out from the half-open door. Wu Lei walked briskly out of the lounge and walked towards the well-lit shooting location. He put the hood of the sweatshirt on his head, like an ancient knight putting on a cape. This “cloak” now protects the owner’s face, which is slightly aggressive due to entering the shooting mood. 

Since entering the entertainment industry in 2005, Wu Lei has appeared in dozens of film and television works. In the audience’s memory, he is the innocent and wonderful Fei Liu in “Nirvana in Fire”, Li Cu in “Tomb of the Sea” who is burdened with a huge secret; he is the blind middle school student Chen Leyun in “Adoring”, and the wheelchair-bound Lu Xiaobei who never give up in “CrossFire”. He is also the Wu Lei who performed ten poses in ten seconds under the flaming red light at this moment, and was praised by the editor as having “an extremely high production rate.” Wu Lei during the filming is like the embodiment of the sound coming from an empty stage, his eyebrows raised high, and his still posture with a serious expression flashed quickly on the monitor screen. The next second after the filming ended, Wu Lei squatted down to take a rest. Unexpectedly, a new smile suddenly appeared. He was completely different from the wild one in the red shadow just now, who was more like the brave and capable Ashile Sun.

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[Interview] Wu Lei Interview for ELLE MEN (April 2021)

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Wu Lei: 21 years old, a young man breaking the wind

Child stars who become famous too early often leave the audience feels that there is a lack of surprises because they are exposed to the camera all the time, but Wu Lei does not – spending most of the day with 21-year-old Wu Lei, we also saw the liveliness and enthusiasm of a young man in him. The ambition of young actors and the calmness of mature artists

“I got hungry on the way. There was a restaurant on the national highway so I stopped to eat. There were workers at the next table who had just come from the construction site. I listened to them chatting about their girlfriends in dialect. I felt very happy.” – Wu Lei shared with us in the RV the last time he felt happy. One day when he was not on set, he rode more than 90 kilometers along the national highway in a different place.

On many occasions, Wu Lei has been asked what his mental age is. The last time he was interviewed by us, he said he was 35. This time, he told us that age is not that important. He just celebrated his 21st birthday at the end of last year. When asked about his age, he jokingly said, “I want to be 18 forever”. But he immediately added seriously that at the age of 21, he wanted to make himself better, “work, family, friends, emotions, you will indeed face more things.”

This boy, who entered the entertainment industry at the age of 5 and has been working for 15 years now, is clearly a mature artist. This is reflected in his speaking speed, which is almost 1.5 times that of ordinary people (supporting this constant speaking speed is his fast-running brain), standard Mandarin with even naturalized pronunciation (and he is from the south), clear control of each work content (during the interview, he spoke very quickly and mentioned to the staff his idea for the video script, which “should arouse the audience’s interest within 15 seconds”, and then seamlessly answer my previous question), and clear understanding and control of self-state ——He mentioned several times that when entering this stage of life, he wanted to slow down, reduce stress, and “lower desires.”

This must be different from peers who are accustomed to being glued to large and small screens in their work, academic and life. One day, Wu Lei was watching a talk show, and it was said that modern people live with more screens in front of them. “With mobile phones, iPads, computers, and Kindles, I wish I could have screens all over my face, taking in all the information in the world today into my brain.” In his own mind.” He realized that he was also talking about himself: after work, he always wanted to watch movies, read scripts, check Zhihu and Moments, and use various electronic products. At the same time, his mind was racing with various tasks, it seems to be spinning around like gyroscope.

“It’s already very complicated, too complicated.” He lamented.

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[Interview] Wu Lei Interview for BAZAAR MEN (May 2021)

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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.

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[Interview] Wu Lei Interview for Men’s Uno (May 2021)

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Free growth of youth

In the early summer, the grass and trees are still green, and the force of joy is bred in vitality. Throughout the past few years with us, Wu Lei has grown up a lot now. Every year, his wish is to “be a good person, make a good movie, world peace, and family health”. Like every young boy, he loves to play games and rides his beloved road bike around with the wind; when he talks about acting, he becomes insightful and confident. In Wu Lei, we can always see the blood of the young man, who grew up in freedom, welcoming every surprise.

One day in 2020, Wu Lei suddenly wanted to ride a bicycle. Before walking into that bike shop, he had never been in contact with road bikes. He didn’t know if he would like this sport or what kind of scene he would face in the future. He just bought a bike and started riding it. “It was the first time I rode a road bike that day. I have been riding a regular bicycle since I was a kid. After riding a road bike, I felt amazing. The speed, the weight of the body, and the feeling of breaking the wind were amazing.” Later, we could often see his bike and different scenery in his Vlog.

Cycling brought Wu Lei a lot of relaxation and relieve stress. “Flying on the ground is great,” he said. The only drawback is that it is easy to be “struck” by experts in Beijing. “You know what I’m saying.” Wu Lei could clearly feel our doubts in the words, and explained, “I was overtaken by the big guys, and couldn’t catch up. This is called a “pull-up explosion” in the road lap. I just went back to Beijing and rode my bike. The big guys are just like you. They surpass me, rushing past like lightning, I can’t even look at their back.”

Riding a bike and performing is about making up with yourself. In 2021, actor Wu Lei handed in a beautiful report card. “Our Time” just finished, “The Long Ballad” which is currently on air, and the upcoming “Faith Makes Great” and the “Upcoming Summer” which will be released in the summer, different eras, different personalities, different stories, each of the roles are devoted to Wu Lei’s efforts.

The heat is Wu Lei’s deep memory of the filming of “The Long Ballad”. Under the temperature of more than 30 degrees, he wears thick costumes to shoot the drama. When he received the script of “The Long Ballad”, he was moved by the vast worldview of the original book. “Ah Sun is very handsome, and many of the scenes look cool, exciting and challenging.” In order to restore Ah Sun in everyone’s mind, Wu Lei read scripts and supplemented comics.

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