Callina Liang says she felt intense pressure after reading how fans reacted online to her casting as Chun-Li in the Street Fighter movie, and she used that pressure to push her physical preparation for the role. The actress spoke about the experience in an interview with Project Big Screen, describing a Reddit thread that questioned whether her physique matched the character.
«There was this Reddit thread: ‘Callina Liang’s thighs are nowhere as big as Chun-Li’s,’» she said with a laugh. Rather than dismiss the criticism, Liang said she understood where fans were coming from. As a longtime fan of the fighting game series herself, she said she would want whoever plays Chun-Li to match the image fans have from the video games and anime. «She looks insane. Her body is insane,» Liang said of the character.
Liang had only two months to prepare for the role, a timeline she described as a hard limit on what she could realistically achieve. She said her guiding motto throughout the process was «No regrets. Give it your all. It doesn’t matter how big you can physically get.» She explained that she had to remain a functioning person who could act on screen, and that going full-throttle with bodybuilding could have made normal functioning impossible.
Her training combined martial arts disciplines suited to Chun-Li’s fighting style. «Chun-Li is all kicks. So we did a bunch of Taekwondo training, Muay Thai, and Wushu (Kung Fu). I did two hours of that a day and strengthened my legs a lot and changed my diet drastically,» Liang said in an August interview with Empire Magazine.
The dietary changes were extreme. Liang said she ate 12 eggs every day and had a meal every two hours while bulking, a routine that left her on the verge of throwing up. The result, she said, was measurable: by the end of the shoot, each of her thighs had grown by 6.5 centimeters.
Her physical transformation even affected the production’s continuity. Liang said her stunt double could not keep up with the change and had to wear butt pads so that the two could realistically appear to be the same person on screen. Photos taken from the set, she said, show that her efforts paid off.
Liang’s comments offer a rare look at how online fan discourse can shape an actor’s approach to a role, particularly when the character is as visually iconic as Chun-Li. The Street Fighter character has been a fixture of the franchise for decades, and her appearance is closely tied to fan expectations. Liang said she felt that weight directly after the casting announcement, which was reported by Deadline.
She also acknowledged the limits of what two months of training could accomplish. «I had to be realistic with myself. I had to be a functioning human being who could act on screen at the end of the day,» she said. «If I went full-throttle with building my body a certain way, I probably wouldn’t be able to function normally.»
In the end, Liang said she is satisfied with what she accomplished. «Whatever result you end up with, you can say, at least I gave it my all. That’s what I did, and I think I’m happy,» she said.
Audiences can see the results of that preparation when the Street Fighter movie opens in theaters this Friday, October 16.