Callina Liang, who performs Chun-Li in Legendary’s upcoming Street Fighter movie, revealed the protein-heavy weight loss plan and intense exercise routine she adopted to carry the First Woman of Combating Video games to life.
If there’s one factor Chun-Li is understood for — moreover being the Strongest Lady within the World, in fact — it’s her thick, muscular thunder thighs, which have solely gotten extra spectacular with every new Road Fighter sport. From Third Strike to Street Fighter V and now Street Fighter 6, it’s clear the devs at Capcom have a transparent imaginative and prescient in thoughts for the character’s bodily look. (And we thank them for it.)
Callina Liang knew this was an necessary factor to get proper, so she buckled down and commenced following a strict martial arts exercise routine and consuming a high-protein weight loss plan to assist develop her muscle tissue — to the purpose the place she nearly received sick.
“Chun-Li is all kicks. So we did a bunch of Taekwondo coaching, Muay Thai, and Wushu (Kung Fu). I did two hours of {that a} day and strengthened my legs loads and adjusted my weight loss plan drastically. After I was bulking, I ate 12 eggs a day. Each two hours I needed to have a meal, and I used to be on the verge of throwing up. Nevertheless it labored. By the tip of the shoot, my thighs had grown six-and-a-half centimeters every,” she stated in an August interview with Empire Journal.
That’s not all; Liang did her homework and downloaded each single Road Fighter sport onto her PlayStation 5, the place she recorded the entire character’s strikes to make her battle scenes as correct as doable.
“I downloaded each single model of Road Fighter onto a PS5 and I recorded all of Chun-Li’s strikes throughout fights on my telephone in slow-mo, so I may play them again and research them,” she added.
Liang isn’t the one actor who put in main time to make their Road Fighter efficiency good; David Dastmalchian, who performs the sequence’ recurring villain, M. Bison, informed us that he did deep analysis to ship a model of the psycho-powered dictator that leans closely right into a cult-leader archetype.
“I don’t need to be simply one other certainly one of these unhealthy guys, minimize from the standard material,” he stated. “How do you might have all of those folks prepared to enter battle for you, die for you? …we dug in and studied actually insane dictators over time, excited about everybody from idamine all the best way again to fascist Italy in World Struggle II, and taking a look at not simply film characters however actual, historic characters,” he said during a chat with IGN’s Tom Jorgensen at San Diego Comic-Con.
Legendary’s Road Fighter flick releases in theaters on October 16, 2026. It’ll be the second Capcom property getting a theatrical launch this yr, with Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil starting screenings on September 18.
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s Information Editor. With ten years of expertise reporting on video games and leisure, she’s received a storied background within the combating sport neighborhood, influencer information, and viral on-line traits. Discover her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.