Li Meng has long been regarded as an actress with exceptional natural talent and a distinctive artistic presence. However, during the early years of her career, her rebellious personality and hot temper repeatedly caused problems that nearly cost her everything.
According to 163, Li Meng has recently proven through her performances that “there are no small roles, only small actors.” Despite playing supporting characters, she has managed to earn widespread praise from both audiences and the media.
Li Meng frequently portrays antagonists in television dramas. Although these characters often have limited screen time, she brings them to life with remarkable depth and subtlety, giving them complete emotional backstories that can even make viewers sympathize with them.
In the costume drama Against the Current, Li Meng played Zhao Xingtang, a wealthy young woman with a talent for business and a sharp mind who is nevertheless tormented by loneliness because of her unhappy marriage.
Zhao Xingtang secretly keeps a male lover, only to be discovered by her husband. The man she thought would stand by her instead easily shifts the blame onto her and betrays her with cruel words, leaving Zhao Xingtang devastated.
Li Meng has portrayed numerous villains with piercing, authoritative gazes. She is also skilled at conveying the arrogance of women born into wealthy and privileged families. Yet beneath their ruthless exteriors, she often reveals a sense of despair about their fate, making the characters more layered and compelling.
In 2026, Li Meng once again left a strong impression on audiences with her portrayal of Lu Zhenzhen, a mistress in the modern romance drama The Epoch of Miyu. Lu Zhenzhen is fiercely competitive, steals another woman’s husband, and then wants to flaunt her “victory” in front of his former wife.
The character is not someone completely consumed by love, but rather a selfish woman who constantly calculates what will benefit her most. As a result, even after taking the female lead’s husband, she remains dissatisfied and even becomes indifferent when her lover develops cancer. The character infuriated viewers, but also demonstrated Li Meng’s ability to completely immerse herself in a role.
In 2024, Li Meng also won praise for her portrayal of Princess Wanning in The Double. Wanting to marry the newly crowned top scholar Shen Yurong, played by Liang Yongqi, Princess Wanning pressures him into getting rid of his wife Xue Fangfei, played by Wu Jinyan.
Princess Wanning is obsessive, possessive and controlling, even forcing Shen Yurong to kneel before her in submission. Li Meng’s natural and captivating performance as Wanning exploded across social media.
When The Double aired, keywords praising Li Meng’s acting flooded social media, much like the renewed attention she is receiving today.
In 2020, Li Meng also made an impression as Wang Yao in The Bad Kids. Wang Yao was another sharp-tongued, somewhat selfish and unreasonable character, but she was also a mother who deeply loved her child.
Li Meng was born in 1992 and graduated from the Beijing Film Academy. From the beginning of her career, she was praised for having a cinematic face and a mysterious, captivating beauty. She appeared in several films and achieved a degree of early success, becoming the first Chinese actress born in the 1990s to walk the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival.
Li Meng was considered successful almost from the moment she entered the film industry and participated in numerous acclaimed productions throughout her career. However, it was only in the past two years that her name truly began to gain major recognition. The reason lies partly in her younger years, when her rebellious temperament reportedly forced her to pay a heavy price professionally.
In 2017, when the television adaptation of White Deer Plain was being filmed, writer Chen Zhongshi reportedly regretted that Li Meng’s scenes had been cut from the film version because he believed she had performed the role of Bai Ling very well. Li Meng was therefore invited to play the character once again in the television adaptation.
However, after spending three months with the production and filming around 100 scenes, Li Meng was removed from the cast by lead actor and artistic supervisor Zhang Jiayi. She was reportedly accompanied by seven or eight assistants and made unreasonable demands on set, disrupting the production environment.
Actor Zhang Songwen, who later worked with Li Meng on The Bad Kids, once recounted an incident he said he had personally witnessed. After Li Meng performed a scene well, the director decided to shoot it again from another angle. However, Li Meng demanded that the crew find an apple identical to the one used in the previous take. The props team searched for three hours but was still unable to satisfy her request.
Zhang Songwen suggested that Li Meng was a perfectionist with extremely high standards for her scenes, which could easily frustrate crew members. Actress Hao Lei responded sarcastically, “There are no two completely identical apples in the world. You were focusing on the wrong thing.”
In 2016, Li Meng starred in the film Lao Kang. She arrived late even for the production’s opening ceremony. The director reportedly complained to the producer that this was far from the first time she had failed to arrive on schedule.
Li Meng had reportedly also been late for costume fittings and screen tests. On the day an important wedding scene was scheduled to be filmed, she arrived two hours late, leaving more than 100 crew members waiting. Li Meng then wanted to stop filming, but the director refused because doing so would have caused financial losses.
She subsequently argued with and berated both the director and producer. During the opening ceremony, director Gao Feng reportedly kicked a chair in anger.
Li Meng had previously appeared in acclaimed films such as Long Day’s Journey Into Night and Hidden Man, but some of her scenes were reportedly cut because of concerns surrounding her attitude.
In 2019, while filming The Most Familiar Stranger, Li Meng was again criticized by crew members for alleged diva-like behavior, including reportedly spending 15 minutes simply having her hair adjusted. Director Chang Tso-chi became frustrated and reduced her role.
After experiencing repeated setbacks, Li Meng says she has now learned how to compromise. She has acknowledged that she has matured considerably since first entering the entertainment industry and has promised to maintain a better professional attitude so as not to disappoint those who have supported and given her opportunities.
Sources: k14