Zoe Xu speaks to AJ Donnelly, a British actor who has been working in China since 1999!
“When I’m acting, my body is on fire. It’s when I’m really breathing. It’s when I’m really alive.”
AJ Donnelly describes himself in several ways on his social media profiles, and the first three are: actor, human, and husband.
Born in Bedford, England, AJ first went to China in 1999 at the age of 21, driven by his passion for Chinese martial arts. From Kung Fu practitioner to cultural entrepreneur, the early years of his life in China had little to do with performance. It wasn’t until 2011 that he came across an audition chance for a community theatre group in Beijing, and then was immediately cast in the lead role in the English-language play, Love, Sex, and the I.R.S. This was the turning point when he decided to reclaim his acting dream – a dream he had buried deep down since the age of 7, when he first performed.
Since then, AJ has worked with many top-tier directors in Chinese cinema, including Andrew Lau, Zhang Yimo & Zhang Mo, Jiang Wen and Chen Sicheng. When he speaks about acting, he becomes a yearner for emotional expression, vividly articulating what it feels like to live an entirely different life. And when it comes to Chinese culture, the balance of Yin and Yang in Taoism mesmerises him.
Throughout his career, he has often highlighted how his wife, Nic, has stood by him with unconditional encouragement and support. Being a husband, he says, is the primary source of fulfillment in his life, alongside acting. In our one-hour conversation, we talked about his understanding of Chinese culture, his life journey, his acting experience, and the future, in which he plans to keep acting in China, hopefully in the UK as well.
Zoe: I’m really curious about your Chinese name. Why Anzhen? Where is this name from?
AJ: So my original name was Andy, because it’s obviously the short version of Andrew, which is my first name. And then over the years I’ve had several different Chinese names, but I wanted a Chinese name that people easily remembered and that nobody else had. I’m a very direct person. If people ask my opinion on something, I’m very direct in what I feel and what I say, and someone said to me once, “oh, you’re too honest. Sometimes your honesty can really hurt people because it is so dark.” And I said, “how do you say that in Chinese?” He said, “Anzhen”, which sounds like AJ. It means dark truths, so there’s a philosophical level to it as well. It works on so many levels and that’s how Anzhen became my Chinese name.
Zoe: You said it’s Kung Fu that brought you to China in the first place back in 1999, so are you still practicing it?
AJ: I haven’t practiced for many years. Before COVID, I was still practicing very regularly and then when COVID came and we were all just staying at home and I just found other interests and started moving in a different direction. That kind of became part of a previous life as it were.
Zoe: You’re also a founder of cultural company. What do you like about Chinese culture?
AJ: My whole original interest in China was because of Shaolin Kung Fu. So before I came to China, that’s where everything I loved about China started from. Because I loved Kung Fu, it made me interested in all the other aspects of Chinese culture, and then when I came to China, it was really, really difficult to learn Chinese culture. Back then, it was actually easier to learn about Chinese culture in England than in China itself. Finding a teacher for martial arts, painting, calligraphy was incredibly hard. That challenge was really what led us to start the company. We wanted to give expats and visitors the opportunity to experience Chinese culture firsthand. Because I’ve always believed, and I still do today, that by experiencing traditional Chinese culture, you can gain a much deeper understanding of China itself.
Everyone in the West or the majority of people in the West, they know about Chinese food or they know about Chinese calligraphy, or they’ve seen Chinese martial arts, but they might not necessarily know the history behind them or the philosophy or the root of those things. And I have always felt both in the past and in the modern day, that China is obviously built with its roots still in traditional Chinese culture.
If you look at the core, at Taoism, and how the Yin and Yang, the black and the white interact with each other: you have the black and the white, but you also have the white in the black, and you have the black in the white. That is the core for me, for my understanding. If we use Taoism, we can still find a common ground to be able to communicate and understand each other because Taoism, for me and for my understanding is the center of Chinese culture, and it’s what all traditional Chinese culture is based on. So, yeah, that’s why I’ve loved Chinese culture so much because I think it represents so much.
Zoe: Do you think your understanding of Chinese culture helps in your performance or in working with local crew and directors?
AJ: I definitely think it helps. I know that a lot of foreigners or even more and more foreigners are now coming to China to take part in things like the vertical film industry (Ed: short dramas, usually one minute per episode, filmed in a vertical format) that’s currently going on. You know, they’re importing a lot of foreign actors to star in those and they struggle. Because you can read about China online, like the top five things to know about China before you go there, but it’s still only a surface level.
I always suggest to people when people contact me on YouTube or Facebook and they say, “AJ, we see you’re an actor in China and we’re flying out there to film this vertical. Do you have any suggestions for us?” And I say, “yeah, read a history book.” Don’t just learn what China is today. Don’t just learn what to expect at the airport. Learn what was happening 50 years, 100 years ago. Learn something more nuanced, something deeper about the country because that will inform you almost as well as watching a YouTube on you know the top five food to eat in Beijing.
Zoe: From Kung Fu to Chinese culture to acting, what is the opportunity that made your return to acting, your childhood dream?
AJ: I started acting when I was 5 years old. But when I was young and I was doing all the community theater, all the amateur theater, there was never a point where I saw the possibility of it becoming a career. You know, every single play that my school did I was in every play and I always made it very clear how much I love acting and how important it was to me. And my family knew because I was in so many different amateur groups outside of school. And then when I finished school, I went straight into community theater, but there was never a point where I said to myself or someone else said to me, have you considered being an actor like for the rest of your life? The two things just weren’t connected. It was something I loved and it was the only thing I was ever really passionate about, but I never thought this is what I’m going to spend my life doing.
So when I came to China, I said to myself, well acting that’s what I did when I was a kid. That was just a hobby. That wasn’t who I am. So 10 years ago when I was in China, I did no acting at all, then in maybe 2005 or 2006, I moved to Beijing and I just saw an ad online that said, we need an actor for one day. And I didn’t think to myself, oh my god, this is my chance. I was like, I can go and earn 200 RMB doing a day’s acting work, which is great. So I went and did that and the TV show was China Chip and I have never been able to find that show online. I did that one day and I enjoyed it, but I never thought about it again and I went back to doing business and doing my normal work.
Then my life changed when I met my future wife. I had told her what I did as a child and how much I loved that. She said to me, “why don’t you get back involved in acting?” And I said, “oh, that’d be stupid, I’m not an actor.” And then there was the chance to audition for a community theater group in Beijing, an English language play, Love, Sex, and the I.R.S. My then girlfriend encouraged me to go and try out for it. I thought there’s no chance I’m getting cast in anything but I still went and I was cast immediately in the lead role for that show. And that changed my life. I had become stuck in what I was doing and I wasn’t enjoying the job I had at that time. and I think my girlfriend/wife, she could see that, and she knew that I needed to do something different and luckily that’s what she pushed me into doing. I got to know more actors in the community and they obviously made introductions and it just went from doing that stage show back in 2010, to working with Jiang Wen and Chen Sicheng on their movies last year.
Zoe: Is acting your priority in your life currently?
AJ: It’s mostly the only thing I do now. It is either acting or study acting or practice acting because I’m at the point in my life now where I just say this is what I love. This is who I am. This is what I care about. So whether it’s in an indie production that only five people ever going to see on YouTube, or whether it’s in a multi million dollar movie. I have to make sure that I’m the very best that I can be for those opportunities and to make the most of those opportunities. So, yeah, that’s what I spend most of my time doing.
Zoe: So which one do you like more? Kung Fu or acting?
AJ: Oh, acting, definitely acting. Acting is a world of opportunity. When I act, I can be anyone in any place doing anything. When I get a script, it just opens a whole other life to me, a whole other person, a whole other existence. And I don’t know any other experiences in life that give you the opportunity to be a whole other person and to understand the experiences of other people like acting does. When I’m acting, my body is on fire. It’s when I’m really breathing. It’s when I’m really alive. The only time I feel that alive is when I’m acting. It doesn’t matter if I’m acting on a 500 person set or on a two persons stage. If that’s the only thing I could ever do, that’s all I would ever want to do.
Zoe: So, among all of your roles, acting is the one that gives you the greatest sense of fulfillment.
AJ: Well, apart from being a husband, acting is what gives me the most fulfillment in life. It’s why I spend the amount of time that I do in studying an practicing. For me that’s what a happy life is. I don’t find money or fame or objects can ever give real fulfillment. For me, personally, to be able to contribute something, to be able to to help people experience emotion, that’s fulfillment to me. And I think that’s what I can do as an actor. So whether I’m playing a comedic role or an evil role, if I help people to feel something, then I think I’ve done a good job and I find that fulfilling.
Zoe: Your first film, Iron Wing Reborn came out in 2015. How do you think you have changed since then?
AJ: You always say that your next role is your best role as an actor that’s one of the things that we say. But there are also things like that movie and I cringe when I watch it. I’m like, how was I even allowed to be an actor when I performed that badly in movies like that?
It wasn’t until I did Snipers that I actually understood the value of being a good actor. In terms of my performances, everything before Snipers is really, really bad and then everything after Snipers, I hope, gets better and better, and it gets better each time.
Zoe: So can I say your role in Snipers has had the biggest influence on you?
AJ: A hundred percent. In my entire life as an actor, both past and future, I can say nothing will ever have as big an influence on me as Snipers did. Hands down.
Before I did Snipers, I was a lazy, arrogant, entitled arsehole of an actor. I enjoyed acting, but would think to myself “I have acted before, I am a white guy, and I can speak English, therefore I must be very professional. People have said to me, AJ, you’re a good actor so that must mean I am a good actor.” That was my attitude. But in general, the kind of productions I worked on before Snipers, they hadn’t cared so much about the foreign performances. They hadn’t cared so much in terms of who they cast, whether they were good actors or not, what they looked like, what the strength of the performance was. I had grown accustomed to that where what you did as a foreign actor didn’t have value. So I went into Snipers with that understanding that no one really cared whether you could act or not.
Everything changed on that movie. I saw and I understood what it meant to be a good actor on a good set with a fantastic director and how much a difference it could make when your director cares about the performance you’re giving. Before I did Snipers, I was ready to quit acting, because I just got to the point where I was like, it doesn’t matter, no one cares if I’m a good actor or a bad actor. But Zhang Mo cared about every single thing I did, every choice I made, every intonation, every position I stood in, we talked about it. After every single take Zhang Mo would say to me, “how do you feel about that AJ? Does it work for you? Do you want to try a different way?” It absolutely blew my mind because no director had ever said to me
So after Snipers, I sat down with my wife and I said I need to tell you something and she thought we were getting divorced. I said I have to act. This is the only thing I want to do. I have to dedicate my life to this. And my wife took my hands and she said, “well, we’ll do that together. If that’s what you want, if that’s who you are, then that’s what your life will be and I’ll make sure that this is the life we create and bless her that’s what we’ve done together ever since.” I spend 90% of my time now focused on acting, so yeah, it did change my life.
Zoe: It sounds like the environment for foreign actors hasn’t changed a lot. It really depends on who the director is.
AJ: I think that’s true of not just China. Obviously in the UK or in the US, there’s more laws that will help protect actors and workers in general, and there’s a lot more structure for what can and can’t happen on set and things like this. But, in terms of within the Chinese film industry itself, I hundred percent think things have improved over the past five or six years. Five or six years ago, it was very common in my experience for the actor, the foreign actors to not be valued in any way compared to how Chinese actors were valued. But more and more every year I go on set and I see the attention that’s being put into not just the actors that are on set, but how the actors are being chosen. Of course, there are still productions that don’t care who they’re hiring, or whether this person can act or not, and they still pay more attention to what the actor looks like than whether they can act or not. And that still happens all the time, but I’m seeing more and more productions like 1840, which I filmed last month that doesn’t care what the actor looks like. They care who the actor is as a person and whether they can act or not.
And actors also have more opportunities than before. It’s more difficult now that vertical dramas are becoming more and more popular because I personally feel that they might be going in the opposite direction in terms of quality when it comes to performances and scripts and things like this. But I do hope that eventually that side of the industry will balance out and more time will be spent on quality. But I guess we still have to wait a few more years to see how that goes.
Zoe: Let’s talk about Detective Chinatown 1900. So you said your role was a small part in that film. I’m not sure if I agree with that because you even learned swimming and free diving for this small role. What made you go that far? What motivated you?
AJ: The reason I said that is a small part is because I filmed Detective Chinatown 1900 for 15 days and in total, I think I’m in the movie for about two minutes. You hardly see me until the end of the movie with everything that happens in the end. Thomas, the character, doesn’t really have much influence on the story apart from how the movie ends. But in terms of diving and the whole swimming thing, when I look back on that whole process, it’s crazy.
When they first offered me the role, they said, “Just one thing, you have to swim.” They thought I didn’t want to swim on camera, but I told them, “No, I can’t swim. I’m actually afraid of water.” My wife’s reaction was, “Are you insane? How can you possibly do this?” But I felt it was too good an opportunity to pass up. I wanted to overcome that fear and push myself. She agreed to support me, and I said, “Great, you have to teach me how to swim.” She wasn’t thrilled, because I’m not the easiest student.
We practiced every day, but it was going terribly. I hated water, I thought I’d never get it. The production told me I had until October to learn, but in August I suddenly got the call: “You’re in the water today.” The directors hadn’t even known I couldn’t swim. Thankfully, they delayed the shoot and brought in a diving instructor. I trained with her every day for two weeks, slowly getting used to being underwater with the breathing equipment.
Even then, filming was terrifying. Imagine: I’ve barely learned, and now I’m under the water, on camera, with a hundred people watching. I just kept telling myself, “You have to overcome this fear. You’re 45, this is a challenge for life as much as for your career.” Eventually I got through the scenes. But just when I thought I was done, they said, “Now we need you to dive into the water.” I’d never done that, all my training started in the pool. My agent told me, “If you can’t do it, I’ll make sure they don’t force you.” But I said, “No, let’s do it. What’s the worst that can happen? I’ll die and everyone will remember me.”
The first attempts were a disaster. I didn’t dive, I just fell in face-first. We did it five or six times until they got what they wanted. It was a nightmare, but in the end, it looked fine on screen. For me, it was a tiny role, but probably the biggest personal challenge I’ve faced in my career.
Zoe: What about your work experience with the director Chen Sicheng? Did you get the chance to talk much to him?
AJ: I know this might sound like something I prepared, but it’s 100% true. Chen Sicheng was fantastic to work with. And I always say, if the answer’s bad, I’d rather say nothing at all. So believe me, he was really great.
On set, he’s extremely serious, laser-focused. In fact, he’s almost the complete opposite of Jiang Wen. Jiang Wen is super soft, while Chen Sicheng is very hard and precise. He’s very hands-on, and I love that. Some directors just say, “Here are the lines, play it however you think.” But Chen Sicheng is the kind of director who’s there for every scene, every take, watching everything, talking to the actors. He comes down, explains exactly what he’s looking for, how he wants it to feel, and positions you in the scene.
For me, that’s ideal. I love that kind of interaction and feedback, because then I know exactly what the director needs from me. Working with him was a really great experience.
Zoe: I feel Jiang Wen looks like more hardcore, but you mentioned he’s a quite soft-spoken, lovely person. How is that?
AJ: He’s so adorable. Honestly, like a lovely fluffy uncle on set. He’s very softly spoken, very nurturing, very encouraging. Every day on You Are the Best, he’d come over, have a little chat, give me a hug, and ask how I was feeling. That kind of care really stood out.
It actually reminded me of Chow Yun-fat, who’s famous for walking around, shaking hands, smiling at everyone, and making the whole crew feel valued. Jiang Wen had that same quality. Some directors can be quite aloof. They stay up here, while the actors are down there. But with him, I felt he valued everyone and just wanted us all to do our best.
Ironically, working on that film was the most stressful experience of my career, but not because of him. He was truly lovely to work with.
Zoe: In You Are the Best, you played a conductor, and there’s no script, no prep. How did you deal with that? Did you handle it well?
AJ: No. The way my brain works is very step-by-step, in life and in acting prep I need things broken down. So actually when they said, “No script in advance, we won’t tell you what’s happening, just turn up and do it,” I was honestly scared. My agent reassured me there weren’t many lines and the character was straightforward. I thought: it’s a new experience with a very experienced director. Let’s try.
The first two days were an interesting challenge, adapting to Jiang Wen’s process and the rhythm on set. It wasn’t stressful in the sense of not knowing what to do; I let myself be guided and stayed open because it was a chance to work in a completely different style. But when we reached the orchestra sequences on days three and four, it became something else. Day three, especially, was the most difficult day of my acting life.
Zoe: What do you enjoy the most when you are portraying a character?
AJ: The ability to express myself, I think. I think most people never truly be themselves in their everyday lives, whether it’s because you have to be a certain person at work or you have to be a certain person with your family or you have to be a certain person when you’re walking down the street. Society has rules. But then when you’re an actor, you get the opportunity to express all these emotions in all these different ways. Whether you’re playing, a really loving husband or a murderous, cruel monster, there are still a key set of emotion, love or anger or hate, and all of these emotions.
In 1840, I played a drug merchant selling opium in China in the 1840s and if you look at it on a surface level, you’ll look at someone like Lancelot Dent, the character I play, who is an opium dealer. And you would say, oh, well, he’s a villain. He’s selling drugs to Chinese people, he must be a bad guy. But as an actor, I get a chance to explore the layers. Why he did what he did, what he believed, and how history shaped his choices.
I think if people spend more time seeing things from other people’s point of view and living other people’s lives in their shoes, I think the world would be a much better place. And I think maybe that’s one of the greatest benefits of cinema, and TV, and plays. It gives us the opportunity to see other people from a different point of view. And I think that’s what entertainment should do.
Zoe: You’re often described with certain labels. For example, your height and non-stereotypical appearance sometimes make people see you as a “villain type.” Do you like those labels, and how do you feel about being cast that way?
AJ: I used to be very unhappy with having a type, and I would always say to people that I hate playing the villain. But the more time I I spent studying the craft and understanding the importance of the characters and the story and the narrative, the more I came to see it as a blessing that I get the opportunity to have a type. So to me, it doesn’t matter who I’m playing and because the villains are just as important, if not more important than the heroes. You can’t have a good hero if you don’t have a good villain.
Some actors say, I don’t want to play the murderer or the bad guy, but I don’t see it that way. It’s just another chance to explore different sides of humanity. And one thing people often comment on, especially on Douyin, is that I seem completely different off-screen, you always play the villain, but you’re so nice in real life. And I love that. It proves that what you see on screen doesn’t define who a person is. For me, that contrast itself is a gift of acting.
Zoe: But do you want to see more diverse roles that written for foreign actors in Chinese cinema?
AJ: I would be lying if I said no, because I think not necessarily just for me, I think it would be good if foreigners were more equally represented now in in Chinese TV and Chinese cinema, because we’re not a common part of Chinese life and Chinese living.
But there are a lot of foreigners in China, whether it’s in business or in politics or as actors or as teachers or all the different things that they do, and I think it would be good to see that diversity represented in Chinese cinema and Chinese TV. So to see them in different ways, I think would be a good representation of the diversity of foreigners that we have in China now.
Zoe: I’ve noticed you have said you want to play more comedic roles. What draws you to comedy?
AJ: Comedy is my passion. I enjoy comedy more than any other aspect of performance. I can play every level of dramatic role, but seeing other people smile and hearing other people laugh is what gives me the most joy in life. So I’d definitely like the opportunity to do that on screen, which I haven’t been able to yet, I think in everything I’ve done over the past 15 years, I haven’t had a single comedic performance.
People often say that Arenberg in You Are the Best was a comedy character, but to me he was still just an angry white guy. On screen, I haven’t really had the chance to explore comedy. Part of that might be because I only act in English. I’ve made it a rule never to take roles that require me to speak Chinese, because I can’t perform as truthfully in Chinese as I can in English. If my Chinese were more fluent, maybe I’d have more opportunities in comedy here. But it’s something I’d really love to try, because I honestly think I might be good at it.
Zoe: Do you consider expanding your acting career to the UK?
AJ: Yes I very much hope to be able to explore opportunities in the industry in the UK, while at the same time trying to get involved in more student and indie projects here in China. The simple fact is, there are still a limited number of opportunities each year here for foreign actors. And if you look at my resume, I have worked with a vast number of the top directors in China over the past ten years, so there is somewhat a glass ceiling for my career here.
So if I want to keep developing as an actor, I think I do need to broaden my horizons. I want to go back to the UK, get an agent in the UK and then see if I can maybe get some opportunities for developing my career there as well.
Zoe: If there were no limitations at all, and you could choose any director in the world to work with, who would it be, and why?
AJ: Wow. I have to say it would probably again be Andrew Lau. Obviously I’ve worked with Andrew twice, but he’s just my favorite director to work with. He’s exactly the kind of person I connect with, and he makes the kind of films I love being part of. So for me, it’s simple: if you find someone you truly enjoy working with, why wouldn’t you want to keep doing it?
Zoe: Last question, you have spent 26 years in China so far. If you could send a message to the 1999 version of yourself just arriving in China, what would you say?
AJ: Well, probably the first thing I’d say is: don’t be so arrogant. Back then I was the complete opposite of who I am now, naïve, close-minded, and somehow arrogant. I was only 21, I’d never left my hometown, and I knew nothing about the world or my place in it. But like many young people in 1999, I thought I had all the answers.
If I could go back, I’d tell myself to be more open-minded and truer to who I was. I loved acting, but instead of embracing that, I tried to be someone else, to pretend I knew everything. And that’s the strange contradiction: if I had really believed in myself, I wouldn’t have needed the arrogance. I would’ve simply said, “You love acting so go out there, take the opportunities, and do what makes you happy.”
Would my life be different if I had done that? Probably. But that’s a bigger philosophical conversation.
