How the film "Street Fighter" was filmed: footage from filming and 16 interesting facts about the film (20 photos)

The film, which was based on the computer game of the same name, hit theaters in 1994. The film did not fail at the box office, but did well below expectations. All the blame for such a mediocre result in Hollywood was placed on Jean-Claude Van Damme.





1. Initially, director Steven de Souza wanted to cast little-known actors in the main roles, and spend part of the budget on professional martial arts training for them. But Capcom literally demanded that the main roles be played by famous actors. And since Capcom was the main sponsor of the film, they had the right to dictate their terms, and every step required their approval.



Thus, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia and Kylie Minogue ended up in the film. These actors cost the studio a considerable amount of money, so they had to cast unknown actors for the remaining roles.

In addition, Capcom demanded that the director introduce as many fighters from the game as possible, but he refused, as he believed that the abundance of characters would only confuse the audience. He decided to focus on 7 main characters.





But this did not stop the bosses of the Capcom studio and they asked director Steven de Souza to insert a couple more characters, and then a couple more. As a result, the script had to be rewritten several times, and there were really a lot of characters (almost all that were in the first two parts of the game).



Jean Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia and director Steven de Souza

2. During the filming of the film, Raul Julia, who played the main antagonist M. Bison, was already suffering greatly from stomach cancer. Every day of filming was hell for him. However, Raoul was able to perform all of his scenes without showing his pain on camera.

Actor Raul Julia died in the same 1994. Unfortunately. he didn't even live to see the film's premiere. In the end, the film was dedicated to him. All members of the film crew remembered Raoul only on the good side.



Translation: For Raoul. Bless you

3. Only many years after the film’s release, director Steven de Souza admitted that it was very difficult to work with Jean-Claude Van Damme, as he threw drugs right in between filming, which greatly interfered with the filming process.



Jean Claude Van Damme on the set of the film "Street Fighter"

This information was later confirmed by Jean Claude Van Damme himself. Moreover, he even clarified that he spent about 10 thousand dollars a week on coke.

And one day Van Damme simply locked himself in his trailer and simply did not want to come out. Finally, after some time, the Belgian macho came out of his trailer and showed up on the set with a bottle of booze. And when the assistant director made a remark to him about the ban on bringing in alcohol, Van Damme became incredibly angry with the assistant. This is what happens when you work with a star.



And I’m already silent about the fact that every now and then he was late for filming, left earlier than expected, fought with members of the film crew, etc. In order to control the “star”, a special person had to be hired. True, this did not help, because instead of keeping an eye on Jean Claude, they became drinking buddies, and also got banned for a couple of them.

4. The film was initially rated adult due to some scenes. The creators of the film could not allow this, because the main audience of the film are fans of the game "Street fighter", that is, teenagers. As a result, the film had to be greatly revised in order for it to receive a teen rating of PG-13. But even this did not save him from the defeat of critics and viewers.



5. Jean Claude Van Damme had a choice - to play in the film adaptation of the game "Street Fighter" or "Mortal Kombat". Moreover, in the film "Mortal Kombat" he was supposed to play one of the main characters - Johnny Cage. But Van Damme made a choice in favor of the film adaptation of the game "Street Fighter", which he later greatly regretted, because "Mortal Kombat" eventually became a hit, which cannot be said about "Street Fighter". DetailsI talked about this in my separate article.



Jean Claude Van Damme with his stunt double

6. Raul Julia agreed to the role of M. Bison largely at the request of his children, who were fans of the game "Street fighter".

7. To meet the deadline for the film's release in 1994, the crew had to split into two groups and film different scenes in different locations at the same time.



Stunt coordinator Charlie Pecherny was appointed second director. Pecerny directed mostly action scenes with supporting characters, while Steven de Souza focused more on the main characters and dialogue.

Due to such inconsistency, some fight scenes had to be re-shot, since Pecherny did not include any of the characters’ signature moves, although Capcom bosses demanded it.



8. With a budget of $35 million, $8 of which went to Van Damme, the film grossed $99 million worldwide, as well as several tens of millions from video sales. And it would seem to be a success. Nevertheless, critics and viewers were dissatisfied with this film adaptation and everyone quickly forgot about it as a bad dream, which cannot be said about the film “Mortal Kombat”.

9. In the film, Guile, played by Jean-Claude Van Damme, holds the rank of colonel, while in the game he is an Air Force captain.



10. The famous Australian singer Kylie Minogue got into the film by accident. When director Steven de Souza was flying to Thailand for filming, he saw a magazine with the singer on the cover. He immediately asked for a meeting to invite her to star in the film. Well, you know the result. The singer played the role of Cammy.



Kylie Minogue as Cammy

Members of the film crew spoke well of the singer. She was never capricious and behaved very professionally. And one day she rented a whole club with her own money and invited all the members of the film crew there so that they could relax after intense filming.



11. Capcom bosses insisted that Japanese actor Kenya Sawada play the role of Ryu. But the director did not like this idea, since he personally saw Byron Mann in this role. In addition, Sawada's command of English was rather poor.



Kenya Sawada

Then Stephen de Souza proposed a compromise. Byron Mann will play the role of Ryu, but he will also find a place for Sawada in the film. Thus, Kenya Sawada played the role of Captain Sawada, who was invented specifically for the film in order to butter up the Capcom bosses.



But Sawada himself didn’t like it, since it was he who wanted to play Ryu. And as the performer of the role of Ryu (Byron Mann) admitted, Kenya Sawada literally pierced him with his menacing gaze, showing his hostility.

12. To immerse himself in the role of M. Bison, Raul Julia spent a long time studying the behavior of various famous dictators and crime bosses. In particular, he based his image on Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Pablo Escobar.



Due to illness, Raul Julia was very emaciated, therefore, in order to make M. Bison more impressive, it was necessary to hide his thinness with a special suit, makeup and certain angles.

13. The final battle between the forces of good and evil was filmed in Thailand. According to the script, the military was supposed to arrive from the air, but due to the turbulent situation in the country, the Thai authorities prohibited the use of their airspace for filming. Therefore, it was necessary to replace air transport with water transport.

14. In 2003, Jean Claude Van Damme wanted to make a sequel to “Street Fighter” and even signed Dolph Lundgren to do it. Also, the performers of Ryu and Ken - Byron Mann and Damien Chapa - were supposed to return to their roles. But in the end, the film didn’t go anywhere beyond the idea.



Damian Chapa as Ken

Only in 2009 was a reboot released with a completely different cast,which turned out to be even worse than the original film. Even Van Damme refused to participate in the filming, despite what he was offered.

15. In 2012, Jean Claude Van Damme admitted that he and Kylie Minogue had an affair during the filming of Street Fighter. And this despite the fact that at that time his wife was pregnant.



16. Actress Ming-Na, who played Chun-Li, was very disappointed after watching the movie "Street Fighter". She was very worried that this film would ruin her career. But many years later, she still admitted that she remembers with nostalgia the cool time when she starred in this film.



Kylie Minogue and Ming-Na on the set of the film !Street Fighter!