Callina Liang is getting real about the pressure of playing one of gaming’s most iconic characters. The actress, cast as Chun-Li in the upcoming Street Fighter movie, admitted she felt “a lot of pressure” after reading fans’ reactions online — including one Reddit thread dissecting her physique.
Speaking with Project Big Screen, Liang revealed she saw a Reddit thread titled along the lines of “Callina Liang’s thighs are nowhere as big as Chun-Li’s” after Deadline broke her casting news — and instead of getting defensive, she completely understood where the fans were coming from.
Chun-Li (Credits: Capcom)
“She Looks Insane. Her Body Is Insane.”
Liang, who describes herself as a huge fan, said she gets it: fans have a mental image of Chun-Li from the video games and anime, and it’s an intimidating one. “I would want whoever plays Chun-Li to be what I envision her to be in my head,” she laughed, acknowledging the character’s famously powerful build.
With only two months to prepare for the role, though, Liang had to be realistic. Bulking up to match the First Lady of Fighting Games’ cartoonish proportions in that timeframe just wasn’t happening — and trying would have come at a cost.
“No Regrets. Give It Your All.”
“I did feel a lot of pressure. I was like, ‘Right, I gotta get my s**t together,’” she admitted. But her approach was grounded: “My motto the whole time was just, ‘No regrets. Give it your all. It doesn’t matter how big you can physically get.’”
Liang said she had to balance training with being “a functioning human being who could act on screen at the end of the day.” Going full-throttle on a body transformation, she reasoned, would have left her unable to function normally. In the end, she’s at peace with the result: “At least I gave it my all.”
It’s a refreshingly honest take in an era where actors routinely destroy themselves for roles. Liang clearly respects the character and the fans — without pretending she can become a video game sprite in eight weeks.
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Source: IGN — read the full story there.