#20190419

Jake had a secret crush on Cao Yanhao (Yen Tsao) in <Close Your Eyes Before It's Dark>, and thus is no stranger to shooting male-male love parts. It was Chris' first time shooting a BL drama; he thought bed scenes and kissing scenes would be challenging.

But after shooting started he discovered that the real challenge was to conceal his angry or sad expressions. "My character needed to be calm and composed, and even if I was throwing a raging fit I couldn't show it. The same with falling in love with him (Jake), it's obvious [Tang Yi] likes him but I couldn't reveal it too much." And this is similar to his own personality: "I can ugly cry while watching a movie, the kind of crying that gets embarrassing when the lights turn back on."

Even though it's the first time that Chris and Jake are working together, the two, born on the same day and month, have excellent chemistry. Laughing, Chris recalls the first time they met each other. "That day I was really tired. We were already shooting the boxing scenes from <Da San Yuan> for two days, and I was tired and dizzy. When I saw him (Jake) at the auditions, I remember saying, hey, this guy is pretty cute, but why does he have a head full of golden hair to play a police officer? Is that even right?" Jake stood on the side, amused, and explained that it was his hairstyle from a previous drama he was in. After dying it back he instantly felt back in place again.  

As if they have known each other for a long time, Chris and Jake shared a lot of stories about the filming process and couldn't stop talking about it. They praise each other but they will still make fun of each other too.  Chris looks at Jake with an expression full of love, and even when taking pictures he is/they are very committed. They gave the photographer ample 'love poses', among which one where their faces were nearly glued together, almost on the verge of kissing, which caused both their managers to break out in a cold sweat, saying 'they should stand apart a bit'.(1)

Maybe it’s because they share the same birthday, but Chris revealed that when he played scenes with Jake, he had a kind of feeling as if he was falling in love with himself. "He (Jake) acted out [Shaofei's] stubbornness very well, and gave me a lot of feelings. In order to be on his best efforts towards me, it felt like a reaction I would have when meeting a person I like in real life."(2)

To measure up, Jake's next words wetted the appetite of the audience when he said "we were only worried about whether or not they'd be able to broadcast it." Hearing this, Chris laughed and said "Basically there was almost nothing left to expose [literally: there was no dew point, but this is apparently a slang of exposing nipples and/or genitals], we did what we had to do."

Starting when he was shooting his previous movie <Da San Yuan>, Chris, in order to maintain his figure and to look good in front of a camera, reduced his body fat from 14 to 8%. Joining the <Trapped> cast, he trained on a daily basis during shooting, and he started his diet. "I couldn't eat the cast and crew's bentos/lunches. I only ate vegetables and meat."

Jake feels that this pressure/burden was undescribably big. He reports that in the early stages of shooting, when they were training in martial arts, the staff ordered roast chicken for dinner one day. "In the end, the two of us received a plate of salad, of which the dressing had been removed. We thought it was a hint that we had to lose weight." (3)

Also because the drama has many fight scenes, and the styles of fighting of the police and the mob are different, the two are not careless in practicing their hand and foot movements. Often they were shooting until their hands were full of bruises. Simultaneously fighting each other and protecting each other was both a physical and mental test.

Even though they shot a male-male love show, it all returns to the essence of love; [the show is about] wanting to protect the other person, about showing tolerance for the other's feelings, regardless of gender. When watching the trailer, both Jake and Chris' eyes unconsciously turned red-rimmed [they became teary-eyed], as if those on the screen were not them, but Meng Shaofei and Tang Yi. (4)

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(1) This may have given rise to the rumours of their managers keeping their apart because they caught feelings. 

(2) Okay this is a typical Chinese vague sentence, omitting subjects and other words that might make it easier for me to translate this. Native people, feel free to help out! I believe Chris is saying that playing with Jake made him really fall in love with Jake a bit 😋

(3) I hate this!! It makes me so angry. Like, honestly! Having a fat percentage of 8% is really low, that’s basically an athlete’s body! There’s this other interview which I can’t locate immediately where Chris is like “the cast ordered fried chicken wings and sweet potatoes, and I would just sniff the food a bit.” Then there’s him saying he was going to ‘enjoy’ the kissing scene with the whipped cream because it tasted sweet, and eating their dessert on the Hong Kong date. It’s all very telling. For heaven’s sake, let the man eat. 😒 This kind of restrictive dieting is how eating disorders are developed, honestly. 

(4) I think they started crying because they were so invested in Shaofei and Tang Yi’s story, forgetting it was them portraying the characters. ❤