10 Things You Didn’t Know About 1994’s Street Fighter

The amount of good movies that were based on video games isn’t what you might expect. For some reason, the things that make for a great game typically lead to a rather shitty movie. I guess the same could’ve been said for comic books up until about 15 years ago but I’m afraid they are still having trouble cracking the video game code. 1994’s Street Fighter isn’t remembered fondly by many critics. In fact, it was probably thought to be a massive dud even though it starred a bonafide action star in Jean Claude Van Damme and had quite an ensemble cast of legit actors and pop stars. As a film, it’s always intrigued me that a game so amazing could make for such a lackluster film. Especially when you take a guy like JCVD and put him right in his wheelhouse. Oh well….here’s 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Street Fighter.

1. Directorial debut of Steven de Souza. He was a screenwriter on 48 Hours and Die Hard. The movie was sold as being “inspired by the game” and not based on it.

2. Raul Julia took the role of Bison because of the look on his kids faces when he mentioned the title of the film to them. They were avid players of the game which had already made half a billion dollars at that time.

3. During the lead up to the film, some of the big talk was about Jean Claude Van Damme wanting to take on roles that would be more dramatic. He starred in a music video for MC Hammer which featured in the Street Fighter soundtrack, but he talked during interviews about wanting to branch out away from action. His big dramatic role in JCVD wouldn’t come for another 14 years.

4. Van Damme was excited about filming a movie that was to be released as PG-13. The violence was really toned down in order to make the film have a broader appeal. It was originally rated R but they had to re-cut the film multiple times to get the rating the studio wanted.

5. Capcom wanted Stallone or Arnold for the starring role but de Souza said “you can’t afford them”. Van Damme was chosen through the process of elimination.

6. There was a line in the film that said that Guile was from Louisiana. It was meant to explain why his accent was the way it was. Somewhere along the line, the scene was cut and everyone just kind of forgot about it.

7. The studio had hired a handler to keep Van Damme’s antics in check but de Souza said the handler “became an enabler.”

8. Damian Chapa claims he took the role as Ken Masters because Raul Julia was in the film. He had passed on the film when it was first offered to him but later accepted it when he found out Julia was on board.

9. On the day that Jean Claude had to deliver the big speech at the end of the film, his father, who was on set, told him that it was the same day that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis had invaded Belgium many years ago. Van Damme used that feeling in order to dig down a little deeper for the scene.

10. Raul Julia showed up before filming having lost lots of weight due to his stomach cancer. His people told filmmakers that he had gotten sick on set of a film in Brazil but it wasn’t true. Director Steven de Souza was able to move all but one of his scenes to later in the filming process so he could gain back some weight.