Wu Lei has always liked the term “Ground-based Flight”. He used this word to describe an ideal state of life in his mind, “moving forward at a constant speed on his own life path”, like walking against the wind. He seems to follow his heart, no matter where the goal is, the direction is firmly in his hands, and the traces left when flying gradually lay the foundation for the meaning of his life.
At the age of 20, Wu Lei published his first book, “Ground-Based Flight”. He wants to keep the past time and the once-in-a-lifetime 20-year-old as a souvenir. He defines this book as “a landing in flight” – leaving a temporary stop in the constantly superimposed life experiences, review the past transit points, pack your luggage and storage before setting sail again. In the concluding chapter of the book, he describes the process of landing and taking off countless times in his life as “ground-based flight”. “Flying is to keep moving forward on the chosen path; and constantly touching the ground is to accumulate stronger take-off boost.”
This sentence he wrote when he was twenty years old became the yardstick in his heart. So, the cycle started over and over again. Even though the flight was bumpy most of the time, he always crossed the sea of clouds and flying slowly on that flight path.
01. Learning is Learning
Recently, in order to promote the Beijing Winter Olympics, Wu Lei went to the original “Water Cube” venue to experience curling – during the conversation, he seriously corrected me, “Now it has been renamed the ‘Ice Cube’ – in In the arena where fierce competitions will soon be presented one after another, for the first time in his life, he tried this sport that he could only see on TV in the past. “I used to think that only national athletes could enter it (the Water Cube). This rare experience made me feel so sacred. After actually experiencing curling, I was much more tired than I imagined.”
At the end of last year, Wu Lei came to Ulan Butong, a six-hour drive from Beijing, and welcomed the first ray of dawn when he was 22 years old in the ice and snow. In the next three days, he walked through the grasslands, woods, rivers, and canyons there. Crossed glaciers, looked for the Milky Way, and battled wits and courage with thirty horses. It was a journey that “doesn’t exist in daily life.”
Wu Lei took it as a challenge at first. Especially on the first day of camping in the snowfield, “No one supports it.” It was his first time to go to Ulan Butong, and it was also his first time camping in his life. It was also during the winter fire prevention period, so no fires were allowed. The temperature at night was as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius. If you are not careful, you will suffer from hypothermia. The vehicle was always on standby, and everyone felt that he would return to the hotel soon. In the end, Wu Lei wrapped himself in a freezing sleeping bag, covered his body with warm patches, and slept in a tent in the wilderness.
Wu Lei: Growing like the wind, heading towards the future
As the first cover character of the first issue of “Esquire FineUP” e-magazine, we invited Wu Lei, a big boy who is passionate and thoughtful. Youth embodies endless creativity in him, “one section after another, one thousand branches and ten thousand leaves*.” In his most prosperous age, he went to snowy mountains and swam mountains and rivers, polished himself in his works, and explored the most consistent way of acting in life.
Note:*this saying come from a poem. The poem describes the integrity of the bamboo, which does not compete with the flowers for beauty and fragrance. It also refers to the author's own clean, self-contained, detached and close-to-nature way of life.
As we hope this magazine can convey to readers – the most interesting thing in life must be every moment now.
Actor Wu Lei
Become a “partner” with the character
When asked if he was worried about his acting career being restricted, Wu Lei replied without hesitation: “I’m worried”.
For many good-looking young actors, transition is always one of the biggest problems. But under the still youthful face, 22-year-old Wu Lei has a rationality and calmness that is rare among his peers.
Compared with pure anxiety, he feels that it is more important to find a solution, that is, to not presuppose the future and to perform every drama well in the present.
“Although I want to try all different types of roles, being an actor is a career that is choosen. I can’t act whatever I want. It often depends on fate.”
How much do you know about Wu Lei’s “little secret”?
Wu Lei is like a carrier wave with instantaneous frequency changes. When you first come into contact with it, it seems that you need to turn the knob carefully to accurately correspond to his frequency. However, once exposed, all the information unfolds in a straightforward way in front of the ears and eyes, making people pause for a moment, like waking up from a dream and realizing that there is no need to beat around the bush, the world can be so simple and magnanimous.
During this time, Wu Lei was filming “Nothing But You” in Shenzhen. In the evening, the afterglow of the setting sun has not completely sunk into the sea. In the dusk, the modern buildings as dense as a jungle have just been lit up. This is Wu Lei’s favorite time of the day.
“If you happen to be at a high place, it’s best for overlooking the entire city, such as watching the traffic jam downstairs.”
With just one sentence, the soft atmosphere just now cracked crisply, making people feel convinced: it was Wu Lei who was speaking.
This was of course a naughty joke from Wu Lei. He said it in his trademark scrolling voice and a pretending-to-be-serious tone. The staff on the side couldn’t help being amused. The atmosphere, which had not yet fully relaxed due to getting up early to start work, immediately began to flow.
In fact, Wu Lei, who started filming at the age of 5 and now has 18 years of “artistic experience” and more than 70 works and counting, is already a mature and comprehensive young actor. Facing the outside world, he responds and controls it with an astonishing ease. He always sincerely shares his feelings about roles, works and sports hobbies, without hiding his ambition to become a better actor. What’s more important is that while many people weigh the ideas in their minds and assemble them back and forth in their mouths, he never hesitates and speaks out directly what comes to mind.
Around him, the camera seems to have erased its presence. In Gutongjing in “Tomb of the Sea”, he “breathed out a ounce of sand, smelled of wine, and lay down on the ground”, killed everyone behind the screen on “Cross Fire” , and galloped on the grassland of “The Long Ballad” , behind the deck in “Upcoming Summer” , he hung up his headphones thoughtfully, then covered his ears with his hands, pretending to just support his head… Or in the summer of 2022, he looked back, laughed, and several times he climbed up the tree, and then held the water pipe up to the sky and Xiaobei (Guangxi native hound) by the swimming pool, which provoke the “female star” Xiaobei’s dislike. Every moment in the image is a part of himself.
He is also willing to further extend himself for the role. During the filming of “Love Like The Galaxy” , Ling Buyi’s sinister, machiavellian and self-willed behavior was beyond ordinary life experience. During the few months that Wu Lei was in the group, he insisted on exercising for 1.5 hours a day no matter how late he finished work. “That was when I had the strongest willpower.” He wanted to maintain a tight state and directly experience the life of “pushing yourself very hard every day and never allowing yourself to live a serious life” from the body.
He gets infinitely closer to the character by reshaping himself, and the character also leaves some unconscious traces on him. But in the end, he is still himself.
Half a year ago, Wu Lei was still a “newbie about plants”. The last time he raised plants can be traced back to his elementary school days.
This time, he moved the happy tree, panax notoginseng, mangosteen, cactus, and amaryllis home, and went to see how his plants were doing when he got up every day. He said that silent plants have a graceful and wonderful world.
“Plant Newbie”
When spring just emerged this year, Wu Lei posted three photos of small potted plants on Weibo, from seedlings to dense branches and blooming flowers. “Recent achievements,” he wrote. This young man born at the turn of the millennium also started raising plants.
He picked these plants in pots from the flower and bird market in Beijing. When he went there for a walk half a year ago, Wu Lei was still a “plant newbie”. The last time he remembered growing a plant dates back to his distant elementary school days. It was an onion-like Daffodil. After being immersed in water, white flowers bloomed soon after. It was easy to raised.
This time, he chose plants based on his “sight” – this one is good, this one is quite small, and this one looks easy to grow. As for habits, there is no clue. You still have to ask the shop owner how often to water and what does “watering thoroughly” mean? The uncle naturally cast a distrustful look at him – young man, these guys will definitely die if you raise them for two days. Especially this amaryllis, it takes three months to bloom. You may not be able to grow it for three months, right? “Ouch! Do you know the desire to win in my heart? He probably thought that a kid like me would only be passionate for three minutes. I just thought, it just so happens that there is nothing going on during this period, I can definitely grow flowers.”
The high-spirited and unrestrained young man is vividly reflected in Wu Lei. Even if it is an unconstrained idea, he will try it vigorously and vigorously. Experience life in his own unique way, live to the fullest, enjoy life, and then give back everything you gain to the career you love. For him, youth is a bargaining chip, it doesn’t matter who wins, as long as he has the courage to start, it grand enough.
01. Pass
If you search Wu Lei’s name in real time recently, you will find that netizens are sighing: Wu Lei has grown up. Whether it’s in “The Long Ballad” or “Love Like The Galaxy”, Wu Lei’s characters have experienced an image change compared to before, losing their childishness and becoming mature. Some people say that watching Wu Lei’s growth has made them “experience the power of transformation”, while others have not yet recovered from the visual impact of his dazzlingly good figure.
Actors who started acting when they were young may face a stage where the audience is so impressed with their childhood that they need a long adaptation period to accept the changes in the actor’s character image. However, Wu Lei is very open-minded about this issue, “Everyone has an ‘inherent impression’ of me, which is at least an impression. As long as there is an “impression”, it is a good thing for an actor. The biggest fear is that people have no impression of the characters you have played, right?” he asked. “I accept all the impressions everyone has of me. I’m an actor, I’m still young, I can do everything I can to perform every role well, and then do my best to make each role vivid, so that the image of each role is independent, and everyone can gradually feel the different me.”
In addition to carefully studying the script and discussing the plot with the director, Wu Lei described his way of thinking about acting skills in one sentence, that is: living with the character . “Actually, every time I play a character, I really live the same life as the character. I try to live his life every day to experience his inner fluctuations.”
The young general Ling Buyi in “Love Like The Galaxy” is actually not an easy role to play. Even Wu Lei himself said that this is one of the “most tiring” roles in recent years. It does not refer to physical suffering, but to inner “torture”. “There is nothing sloppy about him, and he does everything to the extreme. If you love someone, you must love it to the extreme, and revenge must be done to the extreme. It is black and white, and there is no in-between. He is suspicious, scheming, and scheming every day. He obviously has many ways to seek revenge, but he always chooses the one that feels the most satisfying in his heart, and forces himself to do everything to the extreme.”
In Wu Lei’s words, this is a somewhat “crazy” character. He was afraid that such an “emotional” character will be interpreted in a hollow and superficial manner by himself, so he hopes thope that through some performance details, the audience can intuitively feel Ling Buyi’s subtielty and gloom. “Ling Buyi did a lot of unexpected actions. As for me, I hope to rationalize it all. Everything has a cause and effect, and everything has a trace. So I studied a lot on the script and original work, and the director also gave me a lot of help.”
In order to experience Ling Buyi’s feeling of carrying a blood feud, and thus tempering his character and clarifying his own feelings every day, Wu Lei put a lot of effort into himself in order to resonate with the character’s heart. “I saw a lot of people on the Internet saying that I was too thin. In fact, I did it myself. You know, right? When I was filming this movie, I worked out almost every day. For example, when I finished work at 11 o’clock and went back, I would be 12 I will go to the gym at 12 o’clock, so I will start working out at 12:30. If it is too late, I will also do a set of simple aerobics. I also eat vegetarian diet, to keep myself in a capable and lean state, in order to find a little bit of Ling Buyi’s real sense of life in my own life.”
When talking about the topic of breakthroughs in acting, Wu Lei bluntly said that in fact, every role will encounter various difficulties, and he will use different methods to get close to the inner world of each character. In the eyes of the audience, the contrast between his characters in a certain drama may be particularly great, but for Wu Lei himself, these are all works that require hard work to achieve. “The most important thing is that I need to understand life more and enrich my experience and inner qualities, so that I can deal with different scenes more freely.”
At this moment, you seem to feel that the young man Wu Lei and the character Ling Buyi overlap to some extent, and they use their own way to overcome the obstacles.
02. Call
“As many roles as I have played, there are as many past lives as I have played.” Wu Lei himself said this. When we mentioned his “famous saying” again, Wu Lei was a little embarrassed and said that he actually wanted to take it back. “This is all said before, but now it always sounds a bit unconventional.” He said frankly with a smile: “But there is indeed nothing wrong with the truth. An actor is like a modern person walking around in the world with memories of past lives. Those “past events” will more or less produce “body memories” for the actor himself.” Wu Lei also feels that every time he plays a drama, his whole state will be affected by the character.
“A friend of mine once said that every time I play a different role in a movie, my whole state will change. For example, when I played Xiao Chuang in <Our Times>, I was laughing and carefree, but when we met again when I was filming “Love Like The Galaxy”, he felt like I was a bit fiercer. The characters will indeed have an impact on me. This impact will gradually weaken after the filming is completed, but they will still affect me to some extent.” Whenever he encounter difficulties, Wu Lei will ask himself: What would Xiao Chuang do? What would Ling Buyi do? Ling Buyi had to overcome so many difficulties to achieve his goal. What would he think of his minor injuries and pains? “For example, when I’m working out,” Wu Lei gave me an example, “the last one or two super sets are too demanding on the body. Sometimes I’m too tired and can’t push, so I’ll yell Ling Buyi name in my head, and then it seemed like he would really come out and help me push up.”
Wu Lei often uses a similar method to “summon” Xiao Yan in <Fights Break Sphere>, “Because he is a different type of male protagonist and he is very cool.” He gave me boyish answer. Maybe every boy has a heroic dream in his heart: “Whenever you encounter something that you can’t handle in life, you will wish that you are Xiao Yan.”
What’s interesting is that he often feels that although each of his characters is different, they all have similar qualities: persistance and perseverance . He hopes that both the energy inherent in the character and his own hard work and enthusiasm when playing the role can always be maintained and preserved. “Like elves,” he defined these spiritual companions who had been with him for several months. “When I need help in my heart, I will call them out, accompany me on a journey, and cheer me up.”
Filming also gave Wu Lei a lot of new skills to hone. His big data recommendations on the homepage will be changed every three months on average, and the content will always change according to the needs of the work being filmed. When he was filming <Upcoming Summer>, the screen was filled with electronic audio and video, and when he was filming <Dwelling By The West Lake>, everything was replaced by plants. When he accepted this interview, he was in the filming period of <Nothing But You>. There is no doubt that the recommendations on his homepage will become tennis-related.
“In <Nothing But You> I played a tennis player. Although the filming has not been completed yet, I have a hunch that I will play tennis often in the future.” These new skills acquired have also become interests and hobbies in Wu Lei’s private life. A pot of flowers, a starry sky, a horse… Everywhere posted on Weibo is a trace of Wu Lei’s filming, and every place is a trace of Wu Lei’s life.
Young people always have endless energy and are full of freshness and curiosity. “These skills are firstly really interesting, secondly they are necessary for shooting, and thirdly, after you learn them, you find that they are indeed worthy of liking and persevering.” Perhaps it is precisely because of his youth that he isn’t afraid of trial and error, have no worries, and want to try everything. He said, “when you like it in your heart, nothing is really difficult.”
The movie <All Ears> also unlocked another “achievement” for him, which was his third time collaboration with Hu Ge. “I was still young at that time and knew little about acting, but now that I have had time and experience to polish it, I can now try to talk about acting with Lao Hu!” Talking about this cooperation, he sounded a little happy: “I have changed a little bit, and I am no longer a child in terms of age. But the feeling of Teacher Hu Ge has really not changed at all, he is still the same as before, he has always been so gentle and elegant, and has never changed.”
In fact, it’s not just Hu Ge. In other reports, we often see comparison photos of Wu Lei and other senior actors “before and now” on the hot search. He used to play a son, but now he plays a younger brother; the boy who used to play a cute little boy now has his own love interest in the drama. For Wu Lei, this is just a gradual growth process, but from the perspective of the audience, it is accompanying him through growth and transformation.
Wu Lei, who has been long-awaited and is famous in the audience’s list of “young boyfriends”, finally has a mature woman-younger man relationship in <Nothing But You>, fulfilling the dreams of many netizens. When asked what he thought about love with an age gap, he seriously replied: “All love is equal.”
03. Grow
Halfway through the interview, we realized that we shouldn’t try to guess or pry into his heart. Young people’s minds are always free and unconstrained. When asked if there was anything special about choosing a script, he unexpectedly replied: “It depends on how you feel.” As if he was afraid that we would take it as a joke, he added: “You can just write it in the original words.”
Whether it is netizens, people around him or colleagues, they often give him various suggestions, be it dramas or comedies, movies or TV series. The incoming opinions sometimes even contradict each other, but he thinks clearly, “Because being an actor is a chosen profession, I don’t deliberately pursue any type of script or type of role. I don’t set any standards. If you encounter it, you’ll encounter it. Just let it happen.” Choosing a script is a bit like an exam for him. No one can choose the question type. Don’t think too much, just pick up the pen and answer them one by one.
“So you don’t care much about the outside world’s opinions?” I couldn’t help but ask. Wu Lei denied it, “as an actor, it’s impossible not to care about the outside world’s opinions, because to put it bluntly, being an actor is a profession that relies on the outside world for survival, so I definitely care.” Then he changed the topic: “Everyone gets good or bad comments. I read the good ones and the bad ones. I don’t necessarily agree with them all, but I won’t rest on my laurels and listen selectively. I think I still have to face myself objectively. We must also face others objectively.”
Using “become famous since he was a young teenager ” to describe Wu Lei is not appropriate enough. It should be said that he is “become famous since he was a kid.” As a young actor who has attracted public attention, he has been filming for more than ten years since he entered everyone’s field of vision at the age of five. It is particularly important to maintain his original intention and not to follow what others say. Not only when dealing with external voices, but also when dealing with people around him, Wu Lei will retain some of his own thoughts, “Because I think actors must have their own opinions and attitudes, otherwise they will lose themselves. If you don’t have your own thoughts, then the character you perform may be soulless and lifeless.”
“Where do you think you will be in ten years?” we asked him. “Myself in ten years… I think I should still be acting.” He added humorously: “But maybe my hair won’t be so lush anymore.” ”In this industry, we often need to style your hair and use various glues every day. When I take care of my hair, I feel that it is not as obedient as it used to be.” Wu Lei said with a smile: “Actually, I have not set any special goals for myself in ten years. As an actor, everyone hopes to create a particularly good and shocking work that can bring more touching and positive energy to people, or produce some value. But this is not something I can get just because I want it. I can only take one step at a time, work with a normal heart, enrich my life, and play every role to the fullest. Sooner or later, that moment will come. I still have some confidence in this.”
During the interview, I was amused by his quirky answers from time to time, and I was often impressed by his candor. Perhaps Wu Lei’s personality just confirms his name, which is upright, solid and magnanimous. The young and flamboyant talent and charm are like the spreading grass, growing wantonly on this sturdy stone.
04. Encounter
Wu Lei has recently been watching a TV Series called “Severance” in his spare time: “The setting is very exciting and unexpected.” He likes things that are unexpected, and his life often does not follow the routine. One moment he can sit upright, and the next moment he have a sudden thought. Once, while lying in bed in the middle of the night, he had a whim, and for some unknown reason, he came up with the idea of buying a trumpet. But when the express delivery arrived, he completely forgot about it. “”But I still really studied on my own. For the first three days, I didn’t even blow a sound. I thought: Look, everything is difficult at the beginning, and it is also difficult to play a trumpet. When I blow a sound for the first sound, I felt very accomplished. Xiaobei (my pet dog) was a little surprised when he heard the sound of the trumpet for the first time and ran away.”
When he mentioned his pet dog Xiaobei, he started talking endlessly. Xiaobei’s arrival was also an unplanned event. At Shenzhen North Railway Station in 2020, he accidentally encountered this stray puppy while passing by. The special fate made Wu Lei decide to adopt it. Because they met at Shenzhen North Railway Station, she was named “Xiaobei”. “But her surname was Ling recently,” he said. “Whatever my surname in the play I am playing, she will follow that surname.”
When filming, Xiaobei would follow in Wu Lei’s footsteps and travel with him. She has an easy-going personality and is not afraid of meeting people. She gets along well with everyone and is extremely happy. “I also let her appear in this series of films. It went very smoothly and turned out very well. I am very satisfied.” He praised three times in a row with excitement.
Out of interest, Wu Lei has traveled to many places over the years. He would ride a bicycle for dozens of kilometers from one city to another. He can also ride a horse galloping, and enjoy a happy life on the snowy fields of a foreign lands with fresh clothes and vigorous horses.
The romantic feelings of young people are reflected in the setting sun when they reach the other shore, in the misty mountains and rivers, and in the night when they look up at the Milky Way. “When I went to Ulan Butong, I saw the most unforgettable scene in my life. When I rode up to the highest mountain in the snowy field, I saw the sun pouring on the earth and connecting with the sky. It was so shocking. I will never forget it in my life. When I wait for other seasons in the future, I want to go there again.” When describing the past experiences of witnessing the wonders, his voice was filled with uncontrollable excitement.
He will also make these experiences into Vlogs or personal micro-variety shows as part of his experience of life, recording the beautiful scenery he encounters to share with everyone. Whether it’s “Men’s Riding Club” or “Riding for a Reason”, the vitality that coming upon you demonstrate his smart and true youth.
“Why haven’t you updated your Vlog recently?” we asked curiously. “I don’t have a clue right now.” He seemed a little hesitant. “I mainly hope that my Vlog can continue to be upgraded and bring different freshness and happiness to the audience. I don’t like to do boring things. In fact, everyone should feel it too. My Vlog needs to be upgraded every time. For example, from cycling to horseback riding, I have been trying to record it in more interesting ways and find inspiration along the way.” But sometimes, young people don’t need too much advance planning. “Waiting for fate, maybe one day my big data will push me a beautiful place, then let’s go, let’s go here!”
From these video clips during the journey, people can also get a hint of Wu Lei’s potential in photography and creativity. When we asked him if he had any ambition to develop into producing and directing, he still insisted that he should be an actor first: “I feel that it is not easy to do one thing well, and acting requires technical skills. But it is true that many people have told me that I can try multiple identities. I am still young and may have other ideas in the future, but I am not in a hurry. I will talk about the future later. I need to be an actor first. “
After chatting with Wu Lei, inadvertently you will be infected by his action. You can’t help but have an impulse in your heart, and things that you once wanted to do but didn’t dare to do come to mind. “Has anyone told you that you are a typical Capricorn?” we asked him. He was noncommittal, thought for a while and replied: “I like to use zodiac signs to define a character and grasp the character’s personality. Sometimes when I’m unsure of a character, I will decide on his zodiac sign first.”
“So what do you think is the zodiac sign of Ling Buyi, the character that you played this time?” we asked. “Scorpio!” Wu Lei blurted out without hesitation.
After the interview, Wu Lei had to rush to the next work schedule. Finally, he did not forget to give us a recommendation: “I’m going to the online interactive event of “Love Like The Galaxy” in a few days. Come and watch it when you have time! There will be an update tonight!”
I watched the entire interaction between Wu Lei and the heroine Zhao Lusi. As expected, the audience loved this pairing. There is also good news on the Douban platform. “Love Like The Galaxy” scored 7.4 points upon its launch (*note: the douban score is 7.6 now), which is a good result among domestic dramas. I don’t know if Wu Lei himself is satisfied, but I think he has happily gone to his next trip.
Every character is a challenge, and learning different skills to better portray them is Wu Lei’s professional requirements. He entered the industry at the age of 5, accumulating 18 years of acting experience. He walked on his journey steadily, honing his acting crafts and using his works to strengthen himself. In Nothing but You», Wu Lei’s portrayal of Song Sanchuan perfectly depicted the special qualities of a tennis player showcasing a man’s duty, responsibility and courage. « Dwelling by the West Lake » was nominated for the Main Competition unit of the Tokyo International Film Festival. In daily life, Wu Lei is passionate about riding, recording his journey from his perspective to convey positive energy to the audience.
MEN OF THE YEAR 2023
WU LEI: THE ABILITY OF « LYING FLAT»
Note: 躺平 tăng píng (literal meaning: lying flat) is a Chinese popular buzzword referring to the idea of rejecting social pressures of overwork and overachieving to live a simpler life with a more indifferent attitude.
Interview/Author: Da Xi
Editor: Li Chun
Profile:
Wu Lei, born in 1999 is a young actor from mainland China, his representative works in film and television include « Nirvana in Fire », « The Long Ballad », « Upcoming Summer », « Love Like the Galaxy », « Nothing but You » and more. In 2005, he entered the entertainment industry with his role of little Nezha in « The Legend and The Hero » and later won the Most Promising Actor Award at the China TV Drama Awards for his portrayal of little Fei Liu in the costume TV series « Nirvana in Fire ». He was admitted to Beijing Film Academy in 2018. In 2022, he won the Outstanding Young Actor Award at the 18th Chinese American Film Festival for his performance in « Love Like the Galaxy »
The night before departing for Milan, Wu Lei was packing his suitcase in his room. He folded the blanket into a lump and placed it in one corner of the bed. He lied down in a graphic shape and suddenly a thought popped up in his mind: ‘It doesn’t seem too bad to just lock me on this bed with a chain for the rest of my life.‘
The thought of « lying flat » always surfaces intermittently. As many young people in their twenties, Wu Lei often jumps back and forth between « lying » and « rolling ». He filmed two film and television works this year, « Amidst a Snowstorm of Love » and « Decent Things » and took advantage of his free time he had in between to go cycling in Xinjiang.
Note:卷juan (rolling) stems from 内卷 nèi juan (rolling inwards) which is commonly associated with 躺平 tăng ping (lying flat) for being two very popular Internet buzzwords. It reflects the stressful Chinese working culture of overwork and excessive unnecessary competition.
At Sailimu Lake with an altitude of 2000 meters, the humid wind blew past and Wu Lei’s mood also lifted up. The infinite lake came into sight, hidden in the distant clouds. When cycling around the lake for 35 kilometers, the rain suddenly started pouring down and soon enough, hail began to fall, hitting his helmet, face and back with a crackling sound. On his way to Qiaxi Grasslands, he had to overcome a mountain filled with slopes whose maximum inclination approached 8%. This signifies that for over a horizontal distance of 100 meters, Wu Lei also ascended by 8 meters in altitude. His speed slowed down but he bolstered his spirits with perseverance, ‘It’s not that hard, I can do it.‘
People kept driving by along the way, rolling down the car window and greeting Wu Lei with a ‘Keep going!’. Wu Lei said it was a very wonderful experience, especially during moments when ‘I was the most tired’. While cycling, his waist applied force to drive his posterior, his buttocks driving his thighs and his thighs driving his calves. Wu Lei continuously adjusted his breathing like a repetitive machine riding forward.
The good aspect is, every hard effort is worth it. Going up a ‘difficult upward slope’ leads to a ‘satisfying downward slope. As he descended down the slope, his eyes were immersed with green. ‘It’s so beautiful!’ he exclaimed, laughing and sighing with emotion, ‘If it weren’t for the dead tiring upward slope earlier, how could I have witnessed such a breathtaking landscape ?’
Cycling has always been Wu Lei’s way of resting and relaxing. Unlike his usual state when acting, he doesn’t need to think and his emotions don’t fluctuate when cycling. He no longer has to express himself, he can just enjoy the pleasure of speed and listen to the sound of the wind caressing his ears. On days when he doesn’t have to work, he would ride from home to Chang’An Street in the afternoon or evening, and he even rode all the away from Quanzhou to Xiamen once.
Later on, Wu Lei created a program that he named « Ride Now » with the vlogs he recorded from his cycling trip. Last year, he took this program to Ulan Butong to go horse riding, camping and watch the sunrise in the snowfields under minus 30 degrees Celsius. Northern Xinjiang was chosen for this year’s destination and he divided his journey into two stops as planned. Time was ticking, and to prevent any regret, he set off the second day after the wrap of « Amidst a Snowstorm of Love ».
I actually wanted to rest after the end of filming, but the whole journey in Northern Xinjiang seemed like another way of resting’, Wu Lei narrates. « Ride Now » feels like work and doesn’t at the same time. Every time he sets out, he always manages to meet interesting people and things. When taking a break on the side road, he met an older brother who was riding a motorcycle from Beijing. The two of them naturally shared their riding itineraries, and before going their own ways, the older brother asked for Wu Lei’s WeChat. Wu Lei stunned for a moment, realizing that the other party didn’t seem to know who he was and replied to him: ‘Brother Chen, just call me Xiao Lei. After that, the two of them completed their tour around the lake, met again and parted ways again.
These unexpected encounters left Wu Lei with the feeling that life is indeed quite wonderful’. So, he began spontaneously expecting that his upcoming journeys will also yield some harvest, despite telling himself that this kind of expectation is not always beneficial, ‘Sometimes, traveling is not about reaching a certain goal.’
The same goes for acting. He likes projects and characters that bring him a certain harvest on a ‘personal level’. Wu Lei attaches great importance to being able to resonate with his role and igniting sparks with his co-actors and director to learn more knowledge with them. ‘Perhaps it is a way of numbing myself’, Wu Lei says, as if he never stopped learning so he is still considered a student. ‘The pressure instantly decreased a lot.’
He accepted the freshly completed movie « Decent Things » with a genuine eagerness of learning from Director Xu Haofeng. It is adapted from Xu Haofeng’s novel of the same name in which Wu Lei plays a hidden expert. Before the start of shooting, he specifically arranged martial arts training but none of the movements he practiced were used for the actual filming. Wu Lei doesn’t consider it as a waste. He has always undergone the learning of new skills before each of his work in recent years from horse riding, mixing, tennis to snooker. He cannot say he has reached full proficiency in all of those but throughout these single, mechanic and repetitive training preparation processes, he can sense that he has become closer to his characters.
From starting at the age 5 to his 18 years of acting experience, Wu Lei is aware that being good- looking as an actor is also a constraint. For a while, he even wished he was shorter, worried that it would be difficult to hide in the crowd if he was too tall. Wu Lei has spent most of his time on set over the years. He enjoys it very much and never thought of initiating any change, ‘It’s the same as a few years ago, I want to act in anything.’
Wu Lei expresses, sometimes actors are busy because they receive many scripts they like in a short span of time, ‘We are very busy when we shoot all the time, but too idle when we don’t receive anything, it doesn’t mean we subjectively prefer to be busy or free. It is also related to fate, when we meet a good script, then we will become busy.’
These past two years, he has realized that his ability to snatch some break from his busy life became stronger. In the few minutes intervals between filming takes, he would go to the balcony to feel the wind and bask in the sun, contemplating various thoughts and taking a pause from the whirlwind of work for a little moment.
After « Decent Things » wrapped, Wu Lei granted himself more than ten days off, which is rare. He stayed at home every day, idling his time away, I was so happy, I even gained weight. Occasionally, he would go to the gym but he found it exhausting. When returning home, he had to rest on the sofa for a long while. He reminisced the time when he was filming, he had to work 12 hours and would still work out when arriving home. After his workout session, he would also go over the script and watch TV shows. If he was not tired yet, he would stay up a bit more, looking around and he would go to sleep late, ‘Now, why am I so tired when stepping out of the house ?’ He thinks, ‘A person’s energy is perhaps random.’
His days off passed quickly, watching anime and popular science, just like that three or four hours went by. He chatted with his family, ‘They asked me what I did today, I replied I didn’t do anything and a whole day just passed.’ He had nothing to do yet he wasn’t feeling bored at all, ‘I was a bit anxious but it’s normal.’
He used to reject this kind of time wasting behavior, ‘If your time is tight, you shouldn’t waste it on things that shouldn’t be wasted, watching random and weird stuff. Even during his leisure time, he would schedule to watch one or two movies every day, go to the gym or simply ‘find something to do.’
Recently, he suddenly came to the realization that wasting time can also bear meaning. Not finding something to do and inexplicably wasting time away is also a way to store energy. This kind of feeling is hard to describe’, Wu Lei paused, ‘But I think it brings me joy!
Wu Lei mentioned half jokingly, ‘I have the ability to lie flat now’, ‘Someday, I may really be idle for a long time, because I can manage the idleness now, I can very much manage.’
Wu Lei Galaxy 