Volkanovski Steps Onto the Big Screen in 'Street Fighter'

Alexander Volkanovski has added a movie credit to his résumé. The UFC featherweight champion appears in the new live-action "Street Fighter", which opened in theaters on Friday, bringing the arcade game that Capcom launched in the late 1980s to the big screen more than three decades later.

Volkanovski plays Joe, and he explained that he built the character around his real coach, Joe Lopez. He shares the film with WWE stars Cody Rhodes, who plays Guile, and Roman Reigns, as well as rapper and actor 50 Cent as Balrog, Noah Centineo as Ken Masters, comedian Andrew Schulz as Dan Hibiki, Andrew Koji as Ryu and Callina Liang as Chun-Li.

Volkanovski on the set

Volkanovski said seeing the moves recreated brought back feelings of nostalgia. He said he loved how keen the crew was to reproduce scenes and moves that fans would recognize, and that they went above and beyond to make it work. Watching some of the signature techniques come to life left him feeling giddy, because, as he put it, the production was sticking to the roots.

Despite his experience as a mixed martial artist, Volkanovski said he had no input on the fight choreography. That work belonged to stunt coordinator Jon Valera, who was responsible for turning moves such as the hadouken, the hurricane kick and the rising dragon uppercut into live action. The challenge was to make the action feel realistic while keeping the over-the-top style of the video game.

Training for the roles

Many of the actors are not professional fighters, and they trained for their roles. Centineo spent six weeks learning shotokan karate, along with how to sell punches and fall safely. Liang said she drilled kicks for two hours a day, six days a week, to master Chun-Li's spinning bird kick. Capcom representatives stayed on set throughout filming to answer questions about each character's background, something Rhodes called extremely helpful.

According to the filmmakers, honoring the franchise and its fan base required huge efforts across the board. Comedian Andrew Schulz said that the whole crew, including the choreography team, had played the game growing up.