After Daniel Wu graduated from the University of Oregon in 1997, he traveled around Hong Kong for three months on a limited budget. Close to the end of his trip, he was in a bar when he was randomly approached to be in a TV commercial. He said yes and it changed his life.

1997年吴彦祖从美国俄勒冈大学毕业后，在香港穷游了三个月。旅行快要结束时，他在一家酒吧喝酒，偶然被问到是否愿意拍电视广告，他答应了。从此，他的命运发生了改变。

"What I had planned for myself in life is not what it ended up being," Wu recently told Speakeasy from Los Angeles.

吴彦祖最近在洛杉矶接受《Speakeasy》采访时表示：“生活并没有按我计划的那样上演。”

Sixty-plus films later, Wu is a big movie star in Hong Kong and Chinese mainland. He's done romantic comedies, action thrillers, art-house films and martial arts films. And now, starting this Sunday, Wu will star in his first American TV series, AMC's new dystopian Kung Fu show “Into the Badlands.” He originally signed on to be an executive producer but like his fateful trip to that bar nearly two decades ago, things ended up changing. "I'm not a spring chicken any more," he says. "I had my peak and [AMC was] asking me to come back out of retirement."

拍了60多部电影后，吴彦祖成为红遍香港和内地的电影明星。他拍过浪漫喜剧和动作惊悚片，还拍过文艺片和武侠片。现在，从星期日开始，吴彦祖将在他的首部美剧——美国经典电影频道（AMC）的反乌托邦功夫剧《荒芜之地》——中担任主演。当初签约时他是执行制片人，但就像20年前决定他命运的那次旅行一样，命运再次发生了改变。他说，“我已不再年轻，虽然曾有过演艺巅峰，但我打算退休了。而AMC公司希望我能回归。”

Wu became interested in martial arts after his grandfather took him to see a Jet Li's first movie,1982's "The Shaolin Temple." It was a hard sell to get his mother on board, but eventually she came around and he got an instructor. "I was a hyperactive kid and my mom thought I was going to get into school yard fights if I learned a couple moves."

1982年，吴彦祖的爷爷带他去看李连杰的第一部电影《少林寺》后，他就喜欢上了武术。说服母亲让他习武很难，但她最终还是改变主意答应了，吴彦祖也因此有了一个武术教练。“我那时很淘气，所以母亲怕我学会了几个武打动作，就会在学校里打架。”

In "Into the Badlands," Wu plays Sunny, a hitman of sorts who has no problem killing for his master. It's a world where no guns exist and there's a distinct caste system. The feel is dark and gloomy, with an element of fantasy thrown into the mix. Sunny continues the anti-hero path that many characters in AMC shows take, but with a twist. Instead of going from good guy to bad guy, it's the opposite. 'The series is about him coming out of this darkness," Wu says.

在《荒芜之地》里，他扮演的“桑尼”是个武艺高超的职业杀手，连他师父都不是他的对手。那个世界没有枪，有的是明显的等级差别。该剧弥漫着黑暗和阴郁的气氛，有一丝魔幻色彩。就像许多AMC电视剧的主角一样，桑尼继续走在反英雄的道路上。但这部剧也有不同——主角不是从好人变成坏人，相反，他是从坏人变成好人。吴彦祖说，“这部剧讲述了他如何弃暗投明。”

Part of Wu's concern about signing on as the lead actor stems from the show's intense fight scenes. In a kung fu movie, it can take weeks to shoot one fight scene. "Into theBadlands" had to turn around an episode in eight days, fight scenes included. The first season is just six episodes and 12 fights. Wu is in 11.

关于担任该剧的主演，吴彦祖有些担心的是剧中激烈的打斗戏。在功夫电影中，拍摄一场打斗就会花去数周时间。而《荒芜之地》8天就要拍完一集，包括打戏。第一季有6集，12场打戏。其中吴彦祖要拍11场打戏。

Training for “Into the Badlands” was intense. He started six months prior to shooting, doing lots of yoga to keep limber and flexible. He ran a lot, too, and had to learn how to fight with two swords.

拍《荒芜之地》前，吴彦祖接受了密集的培训。开拍前6个月，他做了大量瑜伽，以便保持身体的柔韧度和灵活性。他也加强跑步训练，并练习双刀功夫。

The show also had two shooting units operating at the same time, which is a bit unusual. One was for the dramatic scenes and one for the fight scenes. Wu was often doubling up on days, going to both shoots. "In my 20s, it was easy," he says. "In your 40s, it's a lot more challenging. You have to look at it like you're an actor but you're also a professional athlete. You have to train."

与其它拍摄不同的是，该剧有两个拍摄组同时运作。一个用于戏剧场景，一个用于武打场景。吴彦祖通常连续几天有很多场打戏，要兼顾两个镜头。他说，“在我20多岁时，高强度的打戏并不难。现在40岁了，这对我是个不小的挑战。你必须要看镜头，就像你是一个演员，但同时你也是专业运动员。你必须加强训练。”

AMC decided to get into the kung fu genre to fill a void in the TV landscape. "The challenge was doing something true to the genre," says Joel Stillerman, president of original programming at the network. "There's a very simple style of storytelling [in classic Kung-fu films]. We tried to embrace that."

AMC公司决定拍摄功夫剧，以弥补该类剧在电视剧领域的空缺。公司网络原创节目负责人乔尔·史帝勒曼表示：“我们面临的挑战就是要在这方面做到力求真实。传统功夫电影叙事风格简单，我们会保留这种风格。”

Wu thinks “Into the Badlands” stays true to the kung fu genre while also pushing it forward. He didn't want to do a reboot of something, and he hopes the storylines and characters resonate more with the audience than the cool action sequences do.

吴彦祖认为《荒芜之地》还原了真正的功夫，同时又有所突破。他不想在这部剧里重复自己以前的打戏模式，他希望该片的故事情节、角色能比只追求功夫酷炫的片子更能引发观众的共鸣。

"It can't be just a martial arts show," he says. "That's a very narrow niche. Just like what 'The Walking Dead' did for the zombie genre, you have to elevate it to another level so an audience can get into it. It's not zombies chomping on people. We've seen that since the '60s. It's the same thing with us. We're trying to create a really compelling story, around the martial arts."

他说：“这不仅是个武打剧，那是狭隘的理解。就像《行尸走肉》为僵尸剧所做的突破一样，你必须将电视剧提升至新的高度，观众才能被吸引。不能只是僵尸吃人，那是上世纪60年代以来的老套路了。我们这个片子也是一样。不仅是功夫，我们还希望创造出真正引人入胜的故事情节。”