Revenged Love creator Chai Jidan recently spilled the tea about some of her casting ‘secrets’ during a live broadcast. In particular, she talked about her reasons for casting Tian Xuning in the Chinese BL drama Revenged Love 逆爱. Thanks to his breakout role in the series, the 27-year-old actor’s popularity has since skyrocketed. But his newfound fame also brought with it some unwanted gossip.
Popular for her books in the BL genre – she’s the author behind Addicted, which jumpstarted the careers of Johnny Huang and Timmy Xu. Chai Jidan said her casting Tian Xuning for the role of Chi Cheng was a long time coming as she’d had her eyes on the actor as early as 2023. She had to make three attempts just to cast him. She said her requirement for him was pretty simple. “I don’t care what role you play, you just need to sign on for a role.”
It Took Her Three Tries
The first time she reached out to him was for a different project but it fell through due to scheduling conflicts. The second time was for Revenged Love, but because they weren’t able to reach him, they had to find someone else. At the time, she shared they’d been looking around for actors to play Chi Cheng for three or four months yet no one ever came close to being suitable to play the character. She almost tabled the project completely because to put it simply, miscasting the actor to play Chi Cheng would totally ruin the show.
And it’s not to say that Wu Suowei is not important. For Chai Jidan, Zi Yu is literally Wu Suowei himself, so there was nothing to worry about whereas the role of Chi Cheng will need to be molded, whoever they end up casting. During her third attempt, it was do or die. She said she didn’t even get to meet Tian Xuning nor have him do a screen test, all it took was one video call wherein he said he’s not opposed to the role and she immediately cast the actor.
Despite begging everyone not to see the show as it was something she impulsively wrote when she was younger and that she didn’t feel it was “worthy”, Revenged Love has developed a cult following among Chinese fans (despite censorship) and gained traction internationally where it’s widely available. For its two leads Tian Xuning and Zi Yu, the series has done wonders to catapult their career after years of working generally under noticed in the industry.
Source: Wo Shi Zi Yu, Tian Xu Ning / Weibo
