A different cut

TV actor Wu Xiubo looks for roles that can set him apart from his industry peers

Wu Xiubo, 46, looks sharp in his slim-fit suits and vintage coiffure, and speaks gently with a shy smile. Among Chinese TV stars of his generation, he is probably the only one to still present a middle-class image of himself. Among the country's most celebrated names in popular culture, Wu's rise to fame within a few years is an inspiring story.

After graduating from the China Central Academy of Drama in the 1980s, he spent years in jobs that led him nowhere close to a fulfilling acting career.

He made a living from running a restaurant among other activities, and was even misdiagnosed with intestinal cancer, leaving him traumatized for a long time.

His fate took a turn in 2010, when his role as an undercover Communist Party member in a hit TV show, Before Dawn, made him a household name. Other than his passion for acting, his supportive wife and two teenager sons helped him cope with earlier hardships.

In his latest TV work, Divorce Lawyer, which recently concluded a successful run nationwide, Wu played a divorced divorce lawyer who after his "wife's betrayal" is conflicted about his own desire to go astray and not finding the courage to do so.

"I have similar questions about marriage, love and personal stance as the character does. At a time when the public is looking at divorce differently, I feel truly grateful that I am able to participate in a play that also records my own attitude," says Wu, who has managed to keep his private life away from media scrutiny.

Choosing a script, Wu looks for roles that can set him apart from his industry peers. In his next TV serial, soon to be aired on China Central Television, he plays a village headman who manages to endear himself to hostile villagers and boost the local economy.

Earlier, he used to treat acting as a purely self-satisfying art, but now he has come to value entertainment as a service to viewers.

That is why he took up the role of a choir instructor in My Youth High Eight Degrees, a Chinese imitation of the American musical TV series Glee, after he found his sons viewing "inappropriate TV content".

Playing a wide variety of characters not only allows Wu to hone his skills further but also offers insights into the lives of people and situations that he may otherwise have never known.

"Both noble and despicable elements of human nature exist in everyone. But because of differences in faith and social convention, they appear in different proportions," Wu tells China Daily. "If an actor doesn't deconstruct himself through different roles and changes in the environment, he will lose his vitality."

That is why, unlike many other actors, Wu says he does not have any preference for types of characters. At times his producers come to the rescue, thinking he is too much of a risk-taker while selecting roles. But his reputation so far has not included making serious errors.

While China produces hundreds of TV shows each year, only a small number are broadcast, and productions labeled with Wu's name have a better chance of running on major channels and often mean guaranteed audience ratings, trade analysts say.

However, straddling vastly different reel-life characters has made Wu boring in real life, he says.

"To feel real in a play, you have to let go of fun in life. To treat a fake thing as real, you also have to believe that what you think is real is possibly fake," he says.

Calling his profession a dreamers's industry, Wu says, he does not understand why people are caught up in the notion that many of today's TV dramas vaguely relate to reality. Wu says none of the plays he grew up watching, including American serials The Man From Atlantis and Garrison's Gorillas, can be described as realistic.

"Created based on individual ideas, TV serials are for you to leave reality, to live in an imaginary time and world, and hopefully come back with some pure thoughts and dreams. That's it."

As his fame rises, he is often given the chance to participate in associated fields such as scriptwriting and co-directing serials. But rather than pitch "harmless ideas" to TV show producers, he says, he wants total control and full responsibility for projects.

His dream plot for a TV series could well be written up, based on his own experiences.

"It's not dramatic enough. Well, as for those parts of my life that can make a play, I'm not ready to share now. Maybe when I am ready, I will be too old to play myself."

hanbingbin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 10/24/2014 page29)