Shanghai Fortress Director Teng Huatao: I used Lu Han wrongly

The domestic science fiction film "Shanghai Fortress" directed by Teng Huatao and starring Lu Han and Shu Qi had a huge publicity before its release, but suffered a Waterloo in word of mouth after its release. The main creator Teng Huatao and the original author Jiang Nan came out one after another to apologize to the audience on Weibo, and Teng Huatao recently accepted an interview with "Poisonous Tongue Movie" again to respond to the negative word of mouth and the controversy over the choice of actors. He explained: "I apologized without any coercion from anyone, nor for any commercial purpose, it was just a personal choice ." During the conversation, Teng Huatao also talked about one of the biggest controversies in the film - Lu Han, saying that he had no opinion on Lu Han technically, but ignored the difference in actor types, "I used Lu Han wrongly, in a type that was not suitable for him."

Shanghai Fortress Director Teng Huatao

Teng Huatao explained why he "misused" Lu Han, saying that he wanted to shoot a sci-fi war movie, but ignored Lu Han's type of actor when choosing the actor. " I used Lu Han wrongly, in a type that doesn't suit him", which also means that Teng Huatao directly admitted that Lu Han is not suitable for sci-fi war themes. In addition, when talking about Jiang Yang (the character played by Lu Han)'s bangs hairstyle, Teng Huatao also frankly said: "I think it may be a (problem), but this is an irreversible thing. After it is decided and filmed, do I have any other possibility to adjust it?"

When asked if he would change actors if there was a possibility to do it again, Teng Huatao said that his intuition was "It's not that Lu Han is not good, but that we have never made a film of this type", and without any experience, "I didn't judge whether I could let an idol like Lu Han play the role."

Lu Han's stills

In addition, Teng Huatao also refuted the rumor about Lu Han's sky-high salary, emphasizing that he "received very little money." He said that when he decided to use Lu Han in 2017, he did not consider people's opinions on traffic stars, "traffic stars are always a double-edged sword." He also denied that he used Lu Han for traffic considerations - the conversion energy of the movie tickets that fans can buy is limited.

During the interview, Teng Huatao also mentioned that the actors were selected by themselves and were "innocent". "When the film does not perform well, it is unrealistic to expect them to say something (apology)."