News Article

Real Skills, Real Kungfu, Mainland Actors, An Arm and a Leg

Minsheng Daily, 1 Feb 2002

In the recent years, the TV stations have been actively bringing in Mainland productions and some producers are also pre-disposed to casting Mainland stars. The audience may think that since the price of goods in China are very low, it also doesn't cost much to hire Mainland stars. In reality, the real popular artistes such as Zhao Wen Zhuo, Wu Jing, Zhou Jie, Huang Lei, Lu Yi, Li Ya-Peng and Chen Kun all command pretty hefty price tags. That they are highly regarded, is mainly due to their unique skills. Moreover, they are willing  to spend much effort on their acting skills, making the producers feel the worth.

Producer and Writer Qiong Yao says that since 1989, when she first came into contact with Mainland actors and actresses, she noticed that their fees differ greatly from person to person. "The most popular stars such as Chen Dao-Min and Ge You, were already asking for a fee of fifty to sixty thousand Renminbis. And these actors would rather turn down the project offers than lower their status, unlike the Taiwan stars." Regarding their strongly bullish fees, Qiong Yao feels helpless about it, "This is beyond our control. When we used new stars then, it was about one to two thousand Renminbis. But now, it costs very much hire them."

Among the Mainland actors, the one who is commanding the highest price is Zhao Wen Zhuo. Prior to last year, his fee was about seventy to eighty thousand Renminbis. However, after finishing Wind and Cloud (Storm Riders TV series), his fee rose to ninety thousand Renminbis, about the level of many big time stars in Hong Kong. Expensive, but not implausibly so. Zhao Wen Zhuo's kungfu serves as his guarantee. This is the skill he mastered through years of arduous training, and also his forte.

Refined and cultured, with excellent acting skills, but having done not too many projects - Ren-Jian Si-Yue Tian (April's Heaven on Earth), Ju-Zi Hong Le (Tangerines Have Ripened), Lu Bu and Diao Can - yet all are of great quality, result in the shocking price Huang Lei commands.

Also a martial artist, but compared to Jet Li and Zhao Wen Zhuo, Wu Jing is perhaps "subservient". As he wasn't in time to ride upon the trend of Once Upon A Time in China, his fee cannot be compared with "movie-class" stars. However, among the drama serial field, everyone respects him greatly for his authentic martial arts skills, and the fee he commands is fairly high too. With his enthralling performance in both martial arts and dramatic parts in Metamorphosis of Heavenly Silkworm and How Affectionate the Empire's Sons and Daughters Could Be, he should be doing even better this year.

Wu Jing emphasised that if the script is good, he doesn't mind having a lower pay, "I understand the producers' concerns; They wish to produce a good show and it may be necessary for them to spend less on the artistes' fees. It happens that my primary concern is the script. As long as it is a great production, it doesn't matter if the pay is lower."

Mainland Actors' Drama Serial Commanding Fee Per Episode

Information Courtesy of Noray and Ninnie

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