Being consciously aware and making proactive decisions about one’s career is a good thing but always be mindful that if it doesn’t work then make adjustments. C-ent is reporting that young actor Wu Lei has decided to focus solely in film and movies for the time being and is not even open to reading drama scripts or meeting with drama directors. He’s either reviewing movie scripts or off on another long bike trip which is one of his favorite hobbies. Since wrapping filming earlier this year for Amidst a Snowstorm of Love with Zhao Jin Mai, his name as on occasion being rumored for xianxia, period, or romance dramas but nothing happened so now it’s clear that was an intentional decision he made. Reportedly drama insiders are annoyed at being brushed off and think he will come crawling back when his movie career doesn’t pan out.
Good idea, he must really dislike all the social media tit for tats that goes on with him and his co-stars…and the antis or fans that starts far wars.He rather just do what he enjoys without all the idol traps.
Darn, I lowkey wished he would join 大唐赋 or 大汉赋 in any role, even a special guest starring would also be nice.
Noooo but he suits historical shows so well. One of my fav 95 gen male actors cries
More like Jackson Yee and Wang Yibo? But they both came back to do one or two dramas still. I really liked Love Like the Galaxy which was the only C costume drama I got to finish (although fast forwarded very few scenes) after The Untamed. I was not able to finish any of other dramas from him though. WL was one of very few Chinese actors looking good in armor on horse. LOL. But wish him a very successful movie path!
He does not have that much screen gravitas to be in films only. I love his acting style, but he can’t command a film’s story like old school stars, and Chinese films have been lacking for a long time. Dramas seem to be on the uptick in stories, however. If this is true, that’s fine. His drama comeback will be epic because of how dry his movie stint will be. Lol. Lots of really solid young actors are rising up anyways, so besides how swoony he can get with his female costars, I don’t think he’ll really be missed.
Will really miss wu lei in c-drama. But there will be more opportunities for rising male actors.
Good for him! He is career focused and probably thinks dramas are too childish now (it kind of is too with all the fanatic fans attacking each other) films is the way to go if you don’t want crazier fans. It’s also about time someone does something about the Chinese film industry, it’s going extinct if not! Lol I have high hopes Wu Lei!
I do applaud him for trying to take control and focus his career. He is also rich so can afford to be choosy. Too many idol actors/actresses agencies shove them on to a conveyor belt of idol drama after idol drama without consideration for quality. The agency focus is just trying to pump out as many dramas as possible from their actors in the hope one will be a hit.
On the other hand,is the Chinese film industry really popping like that? It seems their film industry is kind of weak in terms of quality and they are not on the level of Korean or Japanese films for example. It would be better for him to be more selective about dramas and look for interesting, high quality scripts but not cut dramas out completely
Wu Lei is running his own agency if I am not mistaken, so he has the flexibility and control over his career path …
I remember seeing him in Zhang Yimou’s film ‘Shadow’ years ago. Loved his roles in both ‘Love Like The Galaxy’ and ‘The Long Ballad’. Now that he’s established himself as a popular drama lead after starting his career as a child actor, he’s in the right place to focus on a career in film. I’m looking forward to seeing him in his on screen reunion with Hu Ge ‘All Ears’. I hope he chooses his film projects well.
Top billing isn’t everything. Better to establish himself as a fine actor in critically acclaimed films, even if he to take a supporting role. Those are the films that make their rounds in the film festival circuit where he can build his career as a respected actor. I think people forget he’s only 23. He has more than enough time to grow as an actor and become a well respected lead. Just because he won’t do romance and period dramas, doesn’t mean he won’t do dramas. Probably just means no more idol dramas or dramas that attract negativity from rabid fanbases. I can see him choosing more projects like the drama ‘Like a Flowing River’. He’s not missing much walking away right now. A lot of these dramas wind up being disappointing duds with all the filler and side character storylines no one cares about. Not to mention doing all that work only for your drama to be shelved because one person involved had a scandal.
aww… I just started Nothing But You to see why this guy with his upper lip missing is so famous lol but jokes on me cuz I luuurve him now, he’s really captivating in motion and so cute.
But I did have the feeling that he doesn’t enjoy romancing and is a bit awkward with those scenes. As an actor he has lots to improve in emotional scenes, so I hope he perfects his craft and comes back to us with a mature romance after he’s like 25+. imagine that we’d go crazy lol
So let me get this straight…your first drama of – this missing top lip actor – Wu Lei was “Nothing But You’? A cash grab small-time sports drama? LMAO. Wu Lei has been acting almost since he was in freaking diapers 😭 He’s had numerous historical dramas and movies alongside veterans in C-ent, and even in his recent drama LLTG he literally slit someone’s throat and was crying, enraged, happy, and confused all in one tearful scene. People even were shocked when reminded of how young he was.
Your opinion on his “acting” for “emotional scenes” is uncanny at best and embarrassing at worst.
@omonaijaJ I also loved him in LLTG and his acting is on point there, but tbh there is not much “romancing” there compared to romcom or other modern dramas which is I think what she’s trying to point out
I don’t know if this news is true or not , since his fans hasn’t said anything but my guess is he will be doing more movies than dramas going forward not necessary means he will stop acting dramas all together. It understandable if he want to focus on movie now because other actors such has wang yi bo ,jackson yee etc who r into more movies n getting accorlades for their performance in that part of the industry, and him being in the industry since he was a child hasn’t getting to that position like them, having the education n all, it normal for him to take this path ,is actually logical meaning he knows what he is doing. He has established himself has one of the best male lead in his generation, I don’t think he lose much if he is absent for a while. If anything he will be more prestige and great actor if he make it in that part of the industry too. Lol the drama insider r funny, of cause he is going to get project line up in front of him when he want to get back to dramaland, the issues will be on him being selective.
Maybe he doesn’t like the drama scripts that he is getting and the movie offers are better. I can never be angry at a person trying to control his career, I mean there’s always risks in every project of failure but its good that he isn’t letting that fear to stop him from trying.
Aww,am going to miss him , if this information is true, he is one of the Chinese actors I really like
The only “report” in C-ent I saw of this was one random post by a random YXH that no one noticed or took seriously. These sort of rumors masquerading as “news” are a dime a dozen on Weibo and they are usually hit-pieces by other media teams, anti’s, or just YXHs fishing for traffic. It’s interesting that you dug it out of a sea of other gossip to post it on your blog, not forgetting to emphasis that “INSIDERS” are “ANNOYED” at being “BRUSHED OFF” and that he will be “CRAWLING” back when his movie career “DOESN’T PAN OUT”.
Very interesting use of words and not hard to see as another hit piece trying to paint Wulei as arrogant and too good for drama and setting him up so that he can be mocked later on when his movie career isn’t smooth sailing, which is very likely since the movie industry in China is notoriously cut-throat and having connections and luck are more important than anything else.
Wulei as an actor is hard-working and judicious in choosing his work, whether it be movies or dramas. He’s been through alot over the years, good and bad. I trust that he values every opportunity and do not believe for a second that he will just blindly brush off dramas. If he’s not accepting dramas right now, it’s probably because there are no good roles for him at the moment.
Interesting, that is a very healthy and supportive way to look at it. He is a hardworking and humble guy. I too trust he values very opportunity and will no put any good scripts off. I am just hoping to see him with good scripts.
I noticed Zhu Yulong filming more movies but he is also filming dramas.. just pacing himself between the two.
Yeah,he is probably taking the path of zhu yulong, wang yi bo and Jackson yee.
@Mercy, you are right on that. Those 3 are turning to filming movies more.
I agree with Anon on this, totally makes sense.
My goodness @Anon ! You, like many Chinese fans, are always inclined to exercise excessive mental gymnastics to judge ppl. LMAO.
I didn’t see anywhere in Koala’s blog insinuating Wu Lei as arrogant…setting up so that he can be mocked later on. Dude! Can you give up spurious anti-conspiracy theory? I bet Koala may be LOLing as I am now since your accusation is all nonsensical and laughable.
I’ve been reading this blog for a long time now due to the lack of Asian media coverage decades ago so I read Koala’s articles even when I don’t know any of the ppl mentioned just cause it’s nice to see some coverage of Asian celebs/ ent news. And I think the sooner this blog’s readers realize that Koala writes about what they find interesting or what they find super juicy about a piece of gossip, the less work up the readers would be. Because this is not an actual news site and koala doesn’t seem to do their due diligence on citing sources or anything like that, everyone should just read with a grain of salt. If it’s something a reader find interesting, there are a lot more sources online now to read more in depth or collaborate with what’s written here. So I really don’t think Koala is writing “hit” pieces on any celebs as some sort of conspiracy much less Wu Lei whom they have talk about fondly in the past not to mention Koala loves LLTG. I don’t see why they would do so outside of driving traffic to the site.
Ouch. Good luck to him! Still, I think China is still not up to par with their films yet as it’s hard for them to condense the plot down to 2 hrs and the quality.
Silly decision. He doesn’t have what it takes to be a big movie star right now and he doesn’t have the backing either. ZYL is the most connected actor in cent, Yibo had Bona flood his movies with water, though that’s over after the flops, four characters had huge backing before he lost it. Wu Lei is a good actor, he should hone his craft more first before switching.
His life, his choices though, so good luck!
The news isn’t even real, they were written by black marketing accounts/yxh
I see nothing wrong with being choosy in future projects, he is probably trying to slow down, having 1-2 dramas per year should be good at this stage in his career versus another actor literally having 4-8 dramas in fear of being oversaturated and cannot even immerse themselves in their roles properly. All the best to him!
OH GODDDD NOT AGAIN. I;m still struggling with Liu Haoran doing this. Why OH WHY WU LEIIII
Haoran’s career path is very different though. He started in a movie, then made it big in the next movie (Detective Chinatown). Wu Lei started on tv. I think it’s harder to go from tv to movies.
I’m quite aware of Haoran’s career path lol. Besides Tony Leung he’s the only – and first – East Asian actor I’ve been following for almost a decade now.
The frustration is not career path in general as much as it is his aversion to drama involvement…
Which c-ent is reporting this news again? The only time I saw this being mentioned in Chinese media is from a yxh/black marketing account who even goes as far to saying that he is “arrogant” or only goes cycling if he doesn’t receive a movie scripts so to those coming across this article: this ‘news’ has no credibility whatsoever because even the yxh who posted it gets scolded by cnetz.
Yes, he has been taking on movie projects more these days but Wu Lei nor their teams never explicitly mentioned that he is only going to stick the ‘serious movie career’ and there is one thing that Wu Lei even himself said repeatedly to people: “What will my future look like? I should be the one telling you about that.” He is his own boss as he has his own studio so if anything there may have been no drama scripts that interests him yet that’s why he gravitates more towards movie projects as of lately.
Exactly..This is not verified news and initially posted by a YXH.interestingly wu lei has two movies this year and this looks a lot’ like a paid smear campaign to undermine him which this blogger also seems to be doing using words like “ go crawling back to dramas”
Wu lei runs his own studio and if he wants to do more movies than dramas, then good luck to him..he certainly has the skills to back him up!!
But in
I wish to sned WuLei the best the future holds for him. We will be watching
out for you. You have been blessed and may you continue to be blessed. Please
drop us a line to let us know how you are doing. Imagine at 25 that you can
change your careers. Have a restful vacation from it all. And may you start
in what YOU really feel like doing. Don’t eat too much and keep those muscles
growing. You are a brilliant young man. And may the stars shine upon you.
Whomever you pick to “walk by your side” may you be happy and give your
family many enjoyable grandchildren.
He speaks fluent English, so my guess is he has a shot at it if he moves to Southern California.
It could also be that movies are less demanding of time. It is likely he want more time for his personal life and at the same time still have projects to generate income. There could be many reason and we can only wish him well and continue our support.
I love watching Wu Lei and Zhao Lusi in Love like the Galaxy. Love their chemistry. Both of them are great actor and actress. Choosing ML and FL is very important. Age gap shouldn’t be too wide in my opinion. I sincerely hope to watch more of them together in future.