Callina Liang, who performs Chun-Li in Legendary’s upcoming Street Fighter movie, revealed the protein-heavy weight loss program and intense exercise routine she adopted to carry the First Girl of Combating Video games to life.
If there’s one factor Chun-Li is understood for — in addition to being the Strongest Lady within the World, after all — 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 started following a strict martial arts exercise routine and consuming a high-protein weight loss program to assist develop her muscular tissues — to the purpose the place she virtually acquired 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 rather a lot and adjusted my weight loss program 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 top of the shoot, my thighs had grown six-and-a-half centimeters every,” she mentioned 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 all the character’s strikes to make her combat scenes as correct as potential.
“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 wish to be simply one other one in all these dangerous guys, minimize from the everyday fabric,” he mentioned. “How do you may have all of those individuals keen to enter battle for you, die for you? …we dug in and studied actually insane dictators over time, serious about everybody from idamine all the way in which again to fascist Italy in World Warfare II, and 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 acquired a storied background within the combating sport group, influencer information, and viral on-line traits. Discover her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.