Street Fighter movie actor Callina Liang has detailed the impressive preparation she put in to play iconic character Chun-Li in the upcoming video game adaptation.
"I downloaded every single version of Street Fighter onto a PS5 and I recorded all of Chun-Li's moves during fights on my phone in slow-mo, so I could play them back and study them," Liang told Empire magazine.
But it wasn't just presumably memorizing her most hard-hitting moves that set Liang on the way to playing Chun-Li (anyway, we'd just suggest spamming ↓ ↘ → + K). No, it was the physical transformation – complete with a diet that might even make most of Street Fighter's musclebound roster think twice. And, yes, that includes making sure Chun-Li's most dangerous weapons, those thighs, look the part.
"Chun-Li is all kicks. So we did a bunch of Taekwondo training, Muay Thai, and wushu," Liang explains. "I did two hours of that a day and strengthened my legs a lot and changed my diet drastically. When I was bulking, I ate 12 eggs a day. Every two hours I had to have a meal and I was on the verge of throwing up. But it worked. By the end of the shoot my thighs had grown six-and-a-half centimeters each."
With director Kitao Sakurai already mentioning how he didn't want to create a "conventional" video game movie, fans can perhaps have high hopes on nailing the wild, madcap tone of Street Fighter. After all, where else does a sumo cross paths with hairy Russian wrestlers, fearsome dictators, and the devil incarnate?
Liang, though, has set herself apart as Chun-Li from the jump. She looks the part, and her video game knowledge will ensure she moves just like Chun-Li. Let's hope those kicks are put to good use when the Street Fighter movie hadoukens its way into cinemas on October 16.
For more, check out the other upcoming video game movies in the works.
