Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro tells the story of a smart solar-powered robot Klara accompanying the young master Josie in his new book “Klara and the Sun”. Josie was poor in health due to genetic modification and was eventually cured by the sun (Klara thinks so) and Klara completed her mission after Josie entered the university. It seems to have a science fiction shell, as if it is depicting people’s minds, with no distance from reality. Every child who is under the pressure of parents and class, the one who needs a companionship is Josie. And Wu Lei, right next to his fans, sometimes plays Klara and sometimes plays the Sun.
Is he Klara or the Sun?
In 2002, 3-year-old Wu Lei was invited to perform in the first commercial “Golden Partner”. In two years, he performed more than 50 commercials in succession, and his talent was discovered at the same time. From 2005 until now, he has produced film and television dramas every year. There are various counts of how many celebrities he has been the son of and which celebrities he has been embraced by. In 2018, he was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy with the first place in the professional course. From cute to good-looking to handsome, from talented to acting to acting professional, from childish to sensible and comprehensive, these are all with him. If “Wu Lei” is entered on the search engine, these descriptions can be seen everywhere. The little baby gradually grew into a graceful youth and a sunny youth in everyone’s sight. It’s not the kind of child star who was suddenly discovered to grow up. He grew up little by little on TV and on the screen.
Everyone’s requirements for “child stars” have always been harsh, and they often compare the appearance of child stars when they were young with the present time. Wu Lei has never been attacked. He has grown into a model that an idol should have. Everyone likes to use magnifiers to show off “bad deeds” and make a fuss on these self-named children. Wu Lei did not give them a chance, and was wrapped up by the compliments of the predecessors all the way. Qin Hao said, “I like Wu Lei’s performance very much. The performance is very sincere”; Hu Ge said, “I am far inferior to him at his age”; Zhang Yimou said that Wu Lei is modest, low-key, conscientious, and promising…
At the entrance ceremony of Beijing Film University, as a representative of the freshmen, his speech was simple and sincere. He wanted to “keep his feet on the ground (down-to-earth), work with the most modest attitude, and the most authentic enthusiasm for artistic creation, and become a true art professional”. He is determined to professionalize his passion and improve his profession in practice while studying.
Bite down on the green hills and do not relax, the roots of the original in the broken rock. A thousand strokes but still strong, regardless of the east and west winds.
Zheng Xie, “Bamboo and Stone
When you walk into Lianquanxianggu (濂泉响谷) in summer, the lush greenery comes to you in no time, and as you look around, the trees are shaded, birds are singing, clear water is flowing over the strange rocks, and the sunlight is reflecting through the staggered leaves of the trees. It took nearly an hour of climbing to get here. We found a secluded corner in the middle of the mountain, and here, Wu Lei shared his recent insights with us.
After the busy shooting, I like to ride my bike through the streets and alleys, the breeze fields, when I ride I usually do not think about anything, just listen to the sound of the wind blowing past my ears, that feeling is particularly calm.
At this time, I am just a wanderer, looking at the scenery along the road, looking at the people along the road. I will enjoy this feeling of being treated as a passerby, in this kind of dusty (travel-worn) situation, people will not have a defensive mentality towards you, the randomness of life will make us feel happy, I also always believe that we must have our own life, if you can not find your own life, there is no way to act in a particularly good state.
When I was about 13 or 14 years old, I established my life’s goal – becoming an actor, then I thought acting was very good and wanted to keep acting. I will try to squeeze in more time to read some scripts, and sometimes people will say, “You are so busy filming every day, how can you have time to read the script? What if you miss one (script)?” I said I missed it is not destiny, it all depends on fate. I will keep myself in good shape, when the opportunity comes to seize it, so it is enough.
I usually talk to my friends in my circle and ask them what is good and what is bad about my performance. I think actors must be objective, because if you live in your own world and don’t care about the opinions of others, then you are arrogant, and you can’t make progress. After all, an actor’s performance is for the audience, and the audience represents the aesthetics of different groups of people today. After we have achieved what we want to achieve and what we want to convey, we have to consider the view of the receiver in both directions, that is, the audience’s thoughts and feedback, so that the character we perform is like a real person.
We, as a special group of people who are often selected, everyone is looking at you, and inevitably will be compared. Going to the show/audition is also a comparison. But my mind is actually very calm, now the film industry is always moving forward. We, as young people, competition is a good thing and will promote the whole industry together to progress. My idea is to keep myself in a good state, not think about competing with others, and do a good job. I just want to be myself, it’s useless to think more.
The way I do well for myself is to enrich myself, live well, act well, and improve my acting skills.
I think actors have a special happiness, that is not to think about promotion and other issues, we just need to act well, which is very simple. But if people ask me if I have any pressure, my answer is yes. I always say that I have to put in more effort, to work harder, because we are protected by many people, so when we encounter difficulties, we have to bear these pressures and stand up, which is also a responsibility.
Knowing that the theme of our shooting is “Good Men of China”, it reminds me of my role as Ma Chengfeng in “My Country, My Parents”, as an anti-Japanese fighter, it is a great thing to fight to protect our family and country. Although our parents were sacrificed during the war of resistance, their lives are carried on in us, which is a kind of life heritage. This is true of the soldiers, all walks of life, we actors are also the same, the film and television industry is now left for us by our predecessors, we have to protect it well.
The so-called “Good Men of China” are not only the “strong youth makes a strong country”, but also the courage to face the difficulties encountered. The character I played in “Our Times”, Xiao Chuang, is a boy with a lot of courage, and his name has the word “Chuang (to venture out into the world)” in it, and the most important thing is the courage to get back up after a fall. He only did one thing in the whole drama, that is, fall, get up, fall again, get up again, and the adversity he encountered became more serious and desperate every time, and I felt heartbroken/distressed when I read the script, but he would get up again every time and tell everyone with his most energetic spirit: “I, Xiao Chuang, have not fallen!” This kind of bravery has been passed on to me, and I hope that this kind of strength can be passed on to everyone. In my opinion, we young people should do our best to contribute to our country and not forget our roots. Act well, be a good person, and strive to be stronger are the most important things in my opinion.
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.
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 