Written by Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Zhang Weili is crossing over to both the big and small screen.
The UFC strawweight champion, who is heralded as a massive star and influence in her home country of China, is having her life story adapted into a new drama series. The untitled project got the greenlight from China’s biggest streamer iQiYi with the announcement coming during the Beijing International Film Festival witih production expected to start soon.
The Hollywood Reporter first revealed the news on Wednesday.
In addition to Zhang’s life story being adapted into a TV series, the 35-year-old fighter is also crossing over into acting after landing a featured role in a new movie After Typhoon, which is directed by award winning filmmaker Li Yu.
The art-house drama features Zhang in a role where she plays Ah Xi — “a woman with a tragic past whose life is turned upside down after she meets a young stranger on a storm-threatened island.”
While Zhang has stayed plenty busy with her fight career, she never really considered acting until she met Li and received the script for the film that made her consider the role.
“Not at all. Never [considered acting],” Zhang told The Hollywood Reporter. “It happened all of a sudden, and because it happened all of a sudden, I was initially against it. Especially because this isn’t a fight film, it’s not action. It’s a very emotional film, and I wasn’t really sure to start with how that might affect me.
“I am comfortable fighting – that is my world. But digging into drama, into emotions, is so very different from what I usually do. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of taking on this challenge.”
It turns out, Zhang received the script for the film around the same time she was preparing for a title defense against Yan Xiaonan at the historic UFC 300 card. While considering her acting debut could have easily distracted the two-time UFC champion, Zhang says being able to focus on something away from fighting actually helped her at the time.
“I think it was actually very helpful in terms of helping me to relax,” Zhang said. “Usually, before a fight, we’re always only talking about the tactical stuff, about the fight itself, but we could actually have a discussion about the script, and forget for a little while about everything else. It was a very interesting thing to do.”
Zhang defeated Yan at UFC 300 and then more recently dispatched previously undefeated challenger Tatiana Suarez in impressive fashion at UFC 312 in February.
As of now, Zhang doesn’t have anything booked, although there are plenty of rumors swirling that she might consider a move to flyweight to challenge the winner of the upcoming UFC 315 co-main event between Valentina Shevchenko and Manon Fiorot.
While fighting remains her main priority, Zhang admits she enjoyed making her feature film debut and now acting is definitely something she will consider again in the future.
“My focus is back on training now, but who’s to say what will happen in the future?” Zhang said. “I think if a good role came along, whether it’s action or drama, I think now I’d take it.”