'Changing challenges to become your comfort zone': Rising China actor Ding Yuxi on playing 8 roles in Love You Seven Times

Chinese actor Ding Yuxi may have met one of his most interesting role — or roles — in his acting career till date: Portraying eight characters with their own interconnected storylines in the same drama.

Speaking to regional media in a virtual interview recently, the 28-year-old actor, who plays God of War Chukong in his new drama Love You Seven Times, shared his filming experience while promoting the series in Bangkok.

"Chukong is a rich character because he had to go through many different lifetimes and I see his growth as he goes through each lifetime, so this is very important to me," he said.

In the drama, Chukong had to go through tribulations together with fairy Xiangyun (Yang Chaoyue) when they accidentally bind themselves together with the red thread of fate.

As they experience seven lifetimes together — including as animals, star-crossed lovers, master and disciple, and demons — they realise that fate had brought them together 30,000 years ago. Together, they seek to find out the truth behind their missing memories.

'It's a good thing for me, it's also a good thing for him'

Yuxi said that this is the first time that he took on a xianxia (a genre with themes of Chinese mythology and emphasis on chivalrous celestial beings) drama.

He added: "This is the first time I acted in scenes where I attacked or deflected 'magic spells' with green screens. I believe that after this experience I will be able to do better next time."

Despite portraying multiple roles with different plots during filming, Yuxi doesn't find it challenging, because he appreciates Chukong's character growth.

He shared: "Every lifetime allows Chukong to grow and come closer to the truth. It is a good experience for me to develop with him in the pursuit of justice and truth. It's a good thing for me, it's also a good thing for him."

"It's more about changing these challenges to become your comfort zone. So for me it is to analyse each character rationally and present them with my emotions," he added.

To ensure that he got into each character naturally, Yuxi wrote down the qualities and keywords of each of them and pasted the notes on his makeup mirror, so that it would deepen his impression of them every time he looked at it.

He shared: "Another thing that I would do was after completing my makeup and costume, I would look at my appearance in the mirror from top to bottom and carved this appearance deep into my memory for that day. That is the way I used to help myself portray the characters better."

Yuxi also spoke about fun experiences on the set while filming.

He shared: "Sometimes, the director would leave a small amount of time for us after performing a scripted scene before he shouts 'cut'. He hoped that we would continue with impromptu performances in-character based on the circumstances that we were in at the time.

"Once we got used to it, we would continue to perform. Some of those performances that made it into the final cut helped to enhance the scenes naturally. This is something that I felt very fortunate to be able to try out."

Filming a crying scene for two days

One of the iconic scenes in the drama is in the second lifetime, where Yuxi and Chaoyue played Lu Changkong and Song Xiangyun, who are childhood sweethearts.

Spoilers ahead.

Towards the end of that lifetime, Xiangyun takes an arrow to her heart for Changkong when escaping from the palace and they profess their love for each other while she lies dying in his arms. When Xiangyun takes her last breath, Changkong's gut-wrenching wails fill the snow-filled palace walls.

Chaoyue said in an earlier interview that filming that scene took them two days.

Speaking about the experience, Yuxi recounted to regional media that the scene took up a lot of their energy, but he felt that it was all worth it because it was an important scene for both of their characters.

"To have a partner to complete the scene together with our time and effort, it is something very fortunate. Both of us rested on the spot in between takes because we were too tired and also to maintain our condition and stay in our emotions," he said.

And probably because of the amount of effort and energy that were committed to portraying the character and filming the scene, Changkong is the character that Yuxi likes the most.

He said: "Although I like him, I also pity him because he is Chukong without his memory and is the basis of his character. His ending is the one that I feel most sad about."

'It gave me a lot of space for performance creativity'

Yuxi also shared that he likes his costume in the sixth lifetime, where he played a demon king with feline characteristics.

He said: "It is quite different from others that I have seen before. There were a lot of details in the costume. For example, the necklace that he wears is in the shape of a small bell, which is just like how some cat owners choose to put a small bell on their cats. Occasionally he will wear a fur coat, which is just like animal fur."

He also likes Chaoyue's costume as Xiangyun, who is a tiger demon in that lifetime.

"Xiangyun had a lot of yarn in her costume styles to create this compatibility and sense of destiny between the two characters, just like how a cat likes to play with balls of yarn.

"To me, the style of the character feels like a doll version of me and his behaviour gave me a lot of space for creative performance."

'I hope to bring inspiration and relief to those who have lost their way'

As a young rising actor, Yuxi has played multiple memorable roles in Chinese dramas over the past six years since his debut in 2018. From Prince Han Shuo in The Romance of Tiger and Rose, genius doctor Zhou Shiwen in Intense Love to renowned author Zhou Chuan in Moonlight, his performances left a lasting impression on viewers.

When asked what sort of roles he would like to play next, Yuxi said that he would love to portray the role of a son in a family drama.

He said: "I would like to portray the uncertainties that he experiences during youth, the excitement when he goes to college and the difficulties and challenges that he faces when he enters the workforce.

"I hope to play roles that are closer to my own life and portray to everyone the growth and changes that we would all go through and how they overcome or manage these difficulties, whether they are forced or learnt to grow up in the process. I hope to bring inspiration and relief to those who have lost their way."

Love You Seven Times and Moonlight are now available on iQiyi. You can also watch As You Wish: Love You Seven Times, a collaborative variety show featuring the lead actors of the drama on the same platform.

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yeo.shuhui@asiaone.com

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