Sam Hayden Smith joins Li Chen in cast of big-budget US-filmed Chinese TV series Seven Days

GOLD Coast businessman, model and actor Sam Hayden Smith is on the cusp of giving up his day job after landing a role in a new big-budget Chinese TV series being filmed in the US.

GOLD Coast businessman, model and actor Sam Hayden Smith is on the cusp of giving up his day job after landing a role in a new big-budget Chinese TV series being filmed in the US.

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Mandarin-speaking Mudgeeraba actor, model and businessman Hayden Smith in Las Vegas working on a four-month location shoot for Seven Days, a dramatic thriller starring Chinese actor Li Chen, also known as Jerry Li.

Sam Hayden Smith’s new co-star, Chinese movie star Li Chen, is his country’s equivalent of Hollywood heavyweight Tom Cruise. Picture: Richard Dobson

Chen, a household name in China, where he is considered their equivalent of Tom Cruise, is married to one of his country’s biggest stars and highest paid actresses in the world Fan Bingbing, who is often described as China’s Angelina Jolie.

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“It’s quite a big deal,” Hayden Smith said of his role.

He’s not kidding. Seven Days is the biggest budget TV series China has ever produced outside China.

While he can’t give the plot line away, Hayden Smith said he had “a fantastic role”.

Mandarin-speaking Gold Coast actor and businessman Sam Hayden Smith in Southport's Chinatown. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Father of four Hayden-Smith, who owns a company that manufactures high-end shop fittings for retail clients including David Jones, studied Mandarin at university before spending almost six years living and working in China and Taiwan.

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Seven Days, which also stars Wang Qianyuan and Ora Yang Caiyu, is the second big Chinese project he’s worked on after his breakthrough role in Chosen, a landmark Chinese TV series set to screen in 195 countries including the US and Australia later this year after it was picked up by Netflix.

Adapted from the US TV drama of the same name, the $4.6 million Mandarin-language Chosen also stars Taiwanese-born actor Blue Lan Cheng-lung, Chinese actor Deng Jiajia and Han Pengyi.

Gold Coast actor Sam Hayden Smith has followed his role in a Chinese Netflix series with a new role in a US filmed Chinese TV series, Seven Days. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Filmed in Sydney last year and presented in three episodes, the series was directed by Australian Tony Tilse (HBO Asia’s Serangoon Road; Channel 9’s Underbelly) and had more than 30 million views when it premiered on leading streaming platform iQIYI in China and Taiwan in January.

Reports from the US say Seven Days’ storyline will be based on a novel about a hero (played by Li Chen) racing to save a bus load of hostages that includes his kidnapped girlfriend — a plot that sounds a lot like the 1994 US feature film Speed.

Sam Hayden Smith at the launch of Mandarin language TV series Chosen — the first Chinese series picked up by Netflix. Picture: Supplied.

Li is best known for his role on Chinese variety show Keep Running, TV series Beijing Love Story (2012), Beijing Youth (2012) and The Good Fellas (2016) and films including Ultimate Rescue (2008) and Aftershock (2010).

The actor, presenter and producer added director to his CV last year with his directorial debut, Sky Hunter.

The Chinese cast of Seven Days also includes Shi Chun Zi, Wang Bozhao, Heidi Wong, Wei Wanqiu, Chen Yi Xiong, Elena Tong Yixuan, Li Xiao Jiao, Wang Xiaolong and Chen Duo Yi.