Zac Wang or Wang Zhenwei
Early Life & Martial Arts Training
Zhenwei was born into a family originally from Handan, Hebei. His father moved him to Beijing (Peking) to give him better opportunities including in education and training.
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At around 4½ years old, his father sent him to train at the Beijing Shichahai Amateur Sports School (Beijing Shenshahai), believing the young Zhenwei to be weak and sickly, in order to build his strength through wushu training.
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Wikipedia
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He trained for several years, did well in competition, and won awards in youth wushu competitions in Beijing.
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Acting Career & Role as Cheng
The Karate Kid (2010) was Zhenwei’s debut film. He had never acted before that role.
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He was cast as Cheng, the primary teenage rival (antagonist) to Jaden Smith’s character Dre Parker. Cheng is a skilled martial artist from the Fighting Dragons Studio under Master Li in the film.
To get the part, he went through a very competitive audition process. Tens of thousands of hopefuls from martial arts schools were considered. The audition criteria included fluency in Mandarin and English, wushu skill, physical appearance, and acting ability, including facial and eye expressions.
During filming, he suffered a head injury requiring stitches—a result of a stunt where he was chasing Dre and hit his head on an oil pail. There were some minor injuries in addition to that, but nothing that severely impacted the production in the long term.
Later Work & Other Facts
After The Karate Kid, Zhenwei appeared in Martial Arts vs. Reality (2012) among other projects.
IMDb
thekaratekid.fandom.com
He is also associated with stunt work.
thekaratekid.fandom.com
Zhenwei is bilingual (Mandarin and some English), which helped him in The Karate Kid. He even taught some Mandarin to Jaden Smith during their work together.
IMDb
Wang Zhenwei has been suggested to play 63 roles. Click below to see other actors suggested for each role, and vote for who you think would play the role best.
