Earnings Call - VIVENDI

I will give away my firstborn child, but I love that game. I put in a hundred hours into that game girl. Imagine if I was like a wrestling. Hi everyone and welcome to Varieties Up Next. I'm Tiana and my guest today plays Chun-Li in the new Street Fighter movie, which is out right now. Please welcome Kalina Lier. Thank you for being here. I am so excited to be here. I'm so excited To have you. We were already yapping because it turns out we are both from Toronto and have the same cat and have the same cat a British Shorthair shout out shout out and you were saying that your cat recently lost some weight and you're celebrating I celebrated this morning he lost over a kilogram like I got a call from my vet saying he was morbid morbidly obese and I was like oh my gosh he's been on a diet for six months it's it's a big milestone this is huge for him this is what's his name cookie cookie cookie needs to maybe not have cookies I know and it's really funny because like now his stomach just like sags but he's like lost the fat so now it's just like flappy skin plus his soul my makeup artist was like tummy tuck I'm like girl let's not put that on cats now too no he's beautiful he's perfect before we get into everything because I want to hear about your journey um you know being cast in Street Fighter I do have a fishbowl sitting here and it's basically all the internet searches for your name today shut up so I'd love for you to pick one read out loud and see like why people are searching wait like today today printed today wait i'm excited i'm also scared so nice bowl wow not the nice bowl nice bowl okay kalina liang lucy lu okay we did film together honored putting our names next to each other honored yeah we did do um presents together and had a blast when i found out she was playing my mother i think i cried for about 50 minutes because like i looked up to her so much growing up and like she did so much for I think Asian actors especially during that time paved the way for the industry so like to have worked with her is like it's still insane to me and she's so lovely were you a Charlie's Angels fan absolutely I was a huge Charlie's Angeles fan I mean who isn't and Kill Bill yeah she was amazing though like phenomenal yeah and she still looks the same I'm like what's your secret I remember I sat next to her during the scene together and I was like can you tell me your skincare routine she's like I just washed my face and I'm like wash face wash face and maybe get good jeans has she reached out at all since like you're now in this like huge film I went to the premiere last night the fans were going crazy for for this film I feel like people were cheering when you would come on screen I'm curious if if anyone you've worked with in the past has reached out and how you felt even at the premiere um okay should i put this bowl down you can put the bowl down i'm like holding on to the bowl the whole comfortable yeah i mean lucy hasn't reached out but like we do talk here and there she's so busy but like she she's been such a mentor um and she sends me christmas cards still every year what do they say it's like updating me on like what she's up to with her son like every year it's really sweet wait that's so cute does it include her art because she's like in art doing art stuff i know it's amazing no it's it doesn't include her heart but it's always a really sweet photo of her and her son and like it like it makes my night um makes my year but I mean the fans for Street Fighter they're crazy and they make the whole experience just like that much better last night was crazy like Mexico Mexico City was like insane they are like diehard fans over there I don't think I've ever had like a crowd chant my name like Kalina Kalina I'm always just like hi and they want you to sign I'm like oh my god I want to like sign every single thing but then my team's like no we gotta go we gotta get on like okay how do you even like prepare yourself for that level of um because it has such a fan base Street Fighter the game and then obviously there have been films how do mentally prepare to play such an iconic character I think like I definitely felt the pressure I'm not gonna lie had a few mental breakdowns here and there um but like for me i was just like i just need to give it my all like have no regrets you know i downloaded all the games i read the books the mangas i watched the anime movie i researched all the lore i could i found out chung lee's blood type what is it it's the same as mine taipei oh okay meant to be meant to me i guess but like i was like i Just Gotta Do Everything I Can and you know that's all I can do right she looks a certain way as well so I tried to transform my body as much as I could yes I needed to ask you about the workout routine not that I want to be asking women about their diet and workout but you did put on a lot of muscle yeah so how did you achieve that like what did your day-to-day look like in terms of working out and dieting so from the day I got the call that I got The Roll to my first day on camera I had two months so i was already like freaking out i'm like oh my gosh that's nothing it's nothing exactly and i had to stunt train as well but i i hired i hired a personal trainer his name is rich he's from toronto he's amazing i still train with him toronto no toronto literally shout out shout out to him um i was doing leg day every single day at the gym but like it would be a different muscle group so like one day would be like quads one day it wouldbe like glutes the other day be like hamstrings because like I also couldn't afford getting injured you know and then stunt training started in Toronto as well with this amazing guy called Yusuf um two hours every single day I think I had one or two days off per week away from stunts but even then I'd be doing weight lifting I had to stop cardio like I was not allowed to do cardio why is that I had to put on the weight okay so that was you know I was like oh interesting um so yeah i loved like a berries class or spin class was not allowed to do that and i was just eating a lot i had to be in a surplus every day and when you're working out that much you're burning a lot so i was eating about like 4 000 calories a day wow how do you even achieve that like because i assume has to be like clean eating too you can't just like pound a burger or maybe you can you know what i think i'm gonna be so real like because chung lee's costume it didn't really i didn't have to show my midsection i didn't really have to show like much definition i was like i could really just dirty bulk and you know see like let's have the size over definition right i'm like i gotta pick one so like i was eating whatever i wanted still like obviously mainly eggs a lot of like ground turkey ground chicken ground beef it was just meat are you like sick of all of that now you're like i can't even look at an egg you know what like i'm still i was still like eat that stuff i think i like i don't know it's doing street fighter changed my life in a lot of ways you know from like the martial arts training to my diet to weight lifting i like I still do a lot of the things but I don't eat 12 eggs a day anymore it's like four to five I mean that's still that's still a lot it's a lot yeah but it was just like eating random things I was putting like eggs and like oatmeal I was like putting eggs in like my smoothies I was just trying to sneak in calories sometimes at the end of the night like if I didn't eat enough calories I just like pound half a jar of like peanut butter because it's really caloric like and I was like I'm enjoying this with some ice cream sure dessert a very interesting diet anything you can kind of get in there for the calories well you talked as well about the martial arts training I want to know a little bit about what you did and is there a martial art that you prefer now that you really like fell in love with Muay Thai really I love it because it is like Taekwondo and Wushu is like very like it's almost like an art form you got to get into these really you know hard stances you got to be able to hold a stance and it hurts my knees a lot i can't even lie you're always in a horse stance you're almost your legs are always like 90 degrees um taekwondo though it's like it's precise it's fast but why i love muay thai so much is because it's not just like it's it's faster it's explosive every hit it's you take your time you go bam so like with the kicks I'm just like screaming and just like hitting really hard over speed and kind of feels a bit street fighter-y street fighter and also just very therapeutic I did all three of those for street fighter but the one I keep up with most now is yeah Muay Thai because it's like I just scream for an hour straight my trainer's probably like oh my god did you have to do weapons training as well I guess in prep for the role did you keep anything kept the nunchucks they're still in my house i remember i had a party once and i was like guys look at my nunchucks they're like what is wrong do you do it as like a party trick because you were very good in the scene i assume that was you and not a stunt double it was both of us um i was i was able to do the whole routine they also had a stunt devil do some of the parts i think just just in case but i was i'm pretty sure i did the entire sequence but the thing is they dropped that on me and gave me two weeks yeah it was like a newly added scene for the script it wasn't in there from day one and they were like we have to get her doing cool things and looking pretty no literally literally because you know talking about chelsea's character she's very like she's very rage filled and like you know she kind of has these outbursts and i was talking with kale and kital and i Was like right like we i think we need to like make this make sense we should kind of show her by herself and see what she's actually going through so it makes sense when she you know does kind of have those moments with other characters and that's why we came up with that scene of her in her hotel room just like having it out with the nunchucks like that's her emotional outlet she's also drinking you know she's Also drinking she's also drinking yeah cuz like when you really think about it she's going through a lot and she doesn't really have anyone to talk to about it. She has like no friends and she's undercover for Interpol and also for Bison and like with Bison it's like you know is that she wants to take him down but I feel like she also finds this weird sort of comfort with him because that's the one thing she can focus on so she doesn't have to think about her grief so I'm like yeah she's definitely like going through some shit like she's got to be doing some stuff when she's alone and that's why we came up with the nunchucks and the drinking and yeah so yeah I had two weeks and they were like all right you gotta make it look like she does this all the time and this is her way of emotional you know letting go and I'm like okay they gave me the nunchucks I was like can I take it home with me I brought it everywhere with me in Australia getting a coffee I was whipping it around at breakfast is that legal girl I was just gonna say after I filmed the scene and I stopped doing it someone like from the crew in Australia came up to me and was like you know it's illegal to carry those well it is a weapon I mean I know I did have the padded ones though So I was like, girl, imagine if I was, like, arrested. Like, you're like, I'm doing a movie, I swear. Like, Kalina can't make it to set today. She got caught with nunchucks. She's in jail. I'm Chun-Li. I have to. But yeah, no, it's not legal. It's not illegal. In conclusion. Yeah. We'll not be doing that again. Talk to me a little bit about the audition process, because if you only had two months to train, like how fast did, I guess, you get cast or how did you hear about the role? Was it something you were immediately interested in? Yes. well because i grew up playing the game and i like looked up to chung lee as a little girl so i was freaking out i was in like austin texas at the time on like a girl strip with my friend my best friend inara um my team from uta calls me and they're like hey do you know this game street fighter i'm like yeah they're Like have you ever heard of this character chung lee i'm Like have i heard of yes yes what's up they're Like oh they're making a live-action movie and i'm like okay okay anyway long story short it was very unconventional they didn't have a casting director or at least i wasn't casted through a casting director my first meeting with them was just like a zoom call with kale and kital where we just chatted for 30 minutes they asked me about my life um and then right after that phone call kale called my agent at uta and was like dude i'm gonna be so honest with you man like you know she she seems like a cool girl but like i don't fucking know her like I don't think it's gonna happen like she's been in like two movies I'm like so fair I'm like I know it's crazy I'm Like fair and I love kale I love like now I've gotten to know him and we're like good friends it's like he's just such a bro and he has no filter and it's great but so when Jordan told me that I was like okay my hopes are very low um but I was still like I'm gonna try my best they sent me the script and I did a tape and then I did the tape in like this random room in my hotel like in austin and the background was very chaotic i had my camera like stacked on like four books it was crazy and then kital replied straight away was like hey like i want to direct you for some of the scenes can we do a zoom and i was like how about i just fly to la like give me 12 hours i'll be there like i want to do this in person so i flew myself over and then we worked in person which i think made a huge difference good for you you wanted that role man You're like, I'll be there. I will give away my firstborn child. I was like, hey, anything. Anything for Chugly. And then I flew back to Toronto. Kale called me randomly one night. I was, like, can you fly out the next day to Ken Reed with Noah? I was. Like, yeah. And it happened on my birthday. So I was supposed to, like. Celebrate with my friends. And I was., like, sorry. I can't. We did that. And I flew. I flew to Toronto and it was, I think, three days. And Ketel called me. Not even my age. No one knew. But Ketal just called me and was, you're in. I was like, what do you mean? He's like, you're in. You're Chung Lee. And I was like, how did you celebrate? Did you play the game? And you're like, I got to hop on and play her right now. I mean, I played the game. I downloaded the game, I ate my birthday cake. I was like doing the research and I immediately was like okay, hire a personal trainer, hire a nutritionist. Like I was like, all right, it's game time. I feel like what's super interesting about you as well is you kind of like grew up in a lot of different spots around the world like so you were born in Vancouver and then did you move to Beijing is it or Singapore or you kind of were all over the place tell me a little bit about what your childhood looked like you want like the long version or the short version I like a yap so the long all right okay I'll give you the app so I was born in vancouver um both my parents were chinese my whole family's from china but they were like let's have her there for the passport which now I'm very grateful for canadian passport canadian transport you know makes life a lot easier but yeah I never lived in vancouver i was two weeks old as soon as i could go on a plane they brought me back to china um i grew up in china for the first 10 years of my life my dad put me in boarding school when i was five um i went to this boarding school like next to the gray wall of china and didn't really enjoy it then but now i thank him for that because i'm very independent and like nothing scares me um and then i think it was around when i was 10 years old my dad's like you should learn english I'm like yeah sure I'm down but like the way he wanted me to do it was okay pack your bags we're um we're moving to Sydney oh I'm like okay didn't I did not know a single word in English wow yeah I was 10 we had some family drama issues anyway we moved to Sydney and he puts me in the school and I just remember like I was like I don't even know what homework is like it just it all was gibberish to me you know but it Again, I learned the language very fast, I think, because of that environment. So I lived in Sydney for two years and then the Gold Coast for two years. And then I moved around a lot because of my dad's work. And then I move to Singapore for five years and that's when I like dropped out of high school and went to drama school because I like finally was able to convince my dad. What did he think about it? Oh, he was like very against it. Really? Yeah. I've been trying to convince him kind since like the age of 14 and I tried like 15 16 and then I think when I hit 17 he was like okay sure and what made him agree to it was because do you know what GCSEs are yes yeah so I did the IGCSEs and like I did drama as one of my electives and for some reason that year I got like top of the world grade oh like see I meant to do this yeah like out of everyone that did the test that year for like the november testing i was like top of the world even though i only got 91 i mean only 91 that's that's pretty good 91 is pretty good top of the world you think it'd be like 98 i don't know 99 but anyway so when he saw that he was like oh okay maybe you're like not crappy at this okay and then so he was like i'll make you a deal i'll let you pursue acting i'll give you four years prove to me you can do it if not you're going back to school and you're going to med school because i was always meant to go to med school i was supposed to go into medical research and how old were you at this point i was 17 okay yeah so when he gave me that timeline i was like all right no time to waste you know i dropped out immediately i had like one year left of high school dropped out found a drama school in singapore i went there and then i didn't really like i don't know i felt like singapore was like not the place to pursue the arts so i found a school in new york like a drama school in New York convinced my dad to let me try out they let me audition without a diploma ended up giving me a scholarship it was a new school yeah yeah and then so I just like dropped out of the drama school Singapore I went to the school in York and then and then COVID hit and then um it was like I think New York was kind of messy at that time especially for like Asian people you know when COVID kind of first happened in 2020 my dad was very worried and he was like you got to go to canada you have a canadian passport they'll take care of you i'm like okay that is the thing though if you're like in america and close to canadah they're like go to Canada yeah if you are looking for some safety i don't want to say it like that but you know i know i know it was like a weird time um i mean we were all freaking out the whole world so i hopped on a plane to toronto and my dad was like i don' t want you going back to new york like i dont want you to go back to the states like i do'nt feel safe with you being there and I was like well damn like I I didn't finish school so I found Toronto Film School so I transferred there it was like all online classes and then I literally I swear to god I had like I think it was two months or something left of the course and I wasn't going to graduate I got my first job something about that end of school they're like they don't want me to finish they're going to take you out of this and put you in something else I swear they don' t want me to get a diploma or anything so i got my first job and it was like this uk tv show and i was like a series regular for my first drop which was sick and i said to the school i was like hey everything's on zoom anyway i gotta go to london to film this thing like let me finish i'll do both they're like no you either like stay in toronto do this or you take the job and i'm like well i'm taking the job i would also probably do the exact same thing yeah and what did your dad think at that point you're now it's like okay you're a working actor well yeah and that's like at the end of my four year that was in 2021 you know it was like the end of my four-year period he gave me I was like oh thank god you know just in the nip of time and he was like okay I guess you're supposed to do this the tv show was great it taught me a lot and then kind of from there I lived in London because of that I stayed there for a little bit and then I moved back to Toronto because my my visa was done and I was like Canadian passport and what does he think now seeing you in Street Fighter just such a big movie big franchise lots of fans like was he at the premiere no he wasn't at the premier no my dad he's a funny human being like he's he's like a very stereotypical asian dad you know like he doesn't say i love you he doesn'T say like i'm proud of you but like i can tell he's happy and he's excited because he's like send me photos oh this is so cool you're fighting yes i like action movies do more be the next jackie chan like can you please do a film where you're like fighting with guns and weapons i'm like dad okay relax like he's like all in now he's all more weapons yeah he's like i would love to see you be in a sci-fi film a film with guns uh i want to see you doing this and that i'm like okay like you think i got to i get to pick i'm not gonna do that i don't think i'm like hey i would love to but you know it's also like what's out there what's right but i think he is excited and it's it's sweet he's just he's just telling me to be the next like woman jackie chan i'm like I don't think my body can handle that the diet and exercise you did for Street Fighter you might be able to I can honestly do that like once a year but if it was like two of them back to back it's intense it's very intense are you already getting calls to be in like more action movies since Street Fighter funnily enough I think I'm getting a lot more auditions now for like action-y things or like IP things but also other things too like really cool like you know for me yes I want to do more action things but I also really want to play like interesting characters I want be challenged as an actor I want like I don't know I love indie films too you know like just fun scripts and like crazy stories like I want do just I want get to act more and do more that too so it's been a bit of both but yeah picking the next thing is it's exciting do you have any any interest in comedy or anything yes yes yes and like for some reason every single character i keep auditioning for like they're always so serious which i'm like love love i love to be serious i can be serious but i'm Like dude my favorite show is superstore like my dream is to be in a show like The Office or Superstore like it's yeah so the answer is yes I want to go back to as well when you first put the costume on for Chun-Li what did that feel like oh man I think I like so her costume actually took the longest to come together Kim Barrett the costume designer like she worked so hard and it was like so many moving pieces because it was like i had to wear like a full body leotard and it was like the top half and the skirt clipped on at the front what was connected in the back and then the belt so i was already filming for like i think a month in and i still haven't tried on the outfit you're like i don't feel like her yet yeah i'm like i'm dying i'm trying to see it but when i when i quando finally kind of like put it together and it worked and i put it on i just remember like looking at myself in the mirror and just like pinching myself like is this real like it's crazy I still see myself in the film and I'm like that's is that me like you know it's just it's just insane because truly like I love that character growing up and I still do do you foresee um a lot of Chun-Li Halloween costumes this is coming out in October so I mean hey I I hope so that'd be cool I've already seen like so many fans you know showing up to these events and like doing their own take on the costumes and like people are creative there was this guy that came in with like the male he was like this is what the costume would look like you know for for a man and he like chopped up like the top half made it into like a crop top bolero situation blue tank and I was like, this is a serve. Like what's your Halloween costume? Can you just wear one of your your fits like from the movie? Oh my god, I don't think I'm gonna dress up as Charlie for Halloween I think that would be too much maybe maybe I'll give it a year or something to breathe yeah I'll pull it out in a couple years in a double years yeah yeah yeah so what do you do in your downtime when you're like not auditioning martial arts you know the gym I love both of them now it's every day it's kind of a part of my life but however at the end of this press where I'm like I think I'm gonna take like a week off where I just like lay in bed and do nothing um but I love to read I read a lot of books are you reading something right now you like um i just finished um iron flame no not iron flame onyx storm yeah it's like the third book in the fourth wing series love oh i've heard a lot about fourth wing yeah i know several people in this room are reading it right now so good i read the first book like in 2022 or something and i like reread it oh my god wait you should keep an eye on being in the movies like auditioning i mean hey is there a character you would like kind of like to play i love imogen she's personally my favorite um but i mean hey we'll see we'll see i'll manifest but i feel like that's perfect when you read a book and you really like a character it's like you you know what you can bring to it and i'm like i see myself in pink hair yes i see that i can be scary i can kick ass like hey oh we know you can kick us and street fighter has told us that yes but also rf kuang one of my favorite authors of all time like yellow face i just finished taipei story oh my god i like literally called my team and i was like can i meet her i just would love to talk to her like she is so talented crazy the poppy war trilogy insane but yeah i'm a i'm big like crime psychological thriller reader also fantasy i do both of those and like weird stories like i've read a hundred monas i don't know if you've read that book that book it's fucking crazy okay i need it's a good recommendation then it's crazy it'sa crazy story i won't tell you anything about it okay don't tell me it'll be a surprise but you said crazy it's insane i read the book and i was like what's the inspiration i'm curious just curious and what about tv and film what do you like to watch well superstore duh um a lot of things i mean i love black mirror i love like i just watched resident evil recently that film was amazing did you ever play the games or yes oh yeah oh i'm also a huge gamer okay well i assumed street fighter yes but like i have a pc set up at home so when i'm not working i'm either reading or playing online with my friends what kind of games do you play right now i'm playing a lot of dead by daylight it's this like horror game um it's like you you like get into a lobby and you're just trying to escape from the killer and like it sounds really scary and gory but really it's it's funny to me at this point because you're just like being chased and you're getting hooked you're trying to get unhooked but i love that game i put in a hundred hours into that game over the last two months i was gonna ask how many hours you put into street fighter is it and more i don't i don' t know i don''t know i feel like for street fighter when i got the role i played less of the game more research but like growing up i played more you know the cabinet game and stuff so probably more yeah because i was like for many years yeah dead by daylight i love you mentioned resident evil which one was your fave I liked biohazard it was like the scariest one I think people were saying but also the movie was scary just saying like the jump scares I didn't have a minute oh girl I was by myself at the cineplex yeah I was also by myself I love going to the cinema by myself it's like my favorite thing but yeah I don't know for about that one because I was terrified and this woman next to me was like sat with her boyfriend I was like oh that's really cute if someone lean on but she kept screaming dude sometimes i wouldn't even be scared and she screamed like oh like she's scaring me but it was a it was great a lot of like comedic relief but a lot a lot as you would the director for that film is so talented like i felt like you were in the game yes as a gamer i was satisfied and that was like the number one thing i like went on discord afterwards and i was Like, guys, go watch this game. Like, you guys will go watch this game, go watch this movie that you guys will enjoy it on Discord. OK, you are a gamer. Yes, I have like a Discord group chat where like there's only one person in there I've met in real life and everyone else like we're just online friends and we don't know each other's they don't we don't know who we really are, but we talk and it's like it's kind of a nice escape, you know? I love that. I'll leave you with what's a game you would love to see turned into a movie that maybe hasn't yet um well they're turning dead by daylight into a movie are you auditioning me for everything you're saying and will you be auditioning i hope so i met with someone at blumhouse earlier this year and they told me about it and i remember we did the meeting in like this glass meeting room where like the rest of the office could see inside and when they toldme they were turning deadbydaylight into a a movie i i screamed and i fell off i like slid off the couch and i was like this is really embarrassing this is not a good look um but also someone on the creative team like dm'd me and was like look at what we're doing we're playing the game like in the office for research i'm like guys just call me i can tell you everything you need to know about this game like you guys don't have to play it to like to find out you know so that call of duty i heard i've been playing that game since i was like 14 15 so i'm excited to see that um yeah mario bros already turned it into one so yeah probably dead by daylight okay i love that well i'm looking forward to seeing you in it because i feel like the manifestation is there so i am like it's gonna happen we'll see thank you so much kalina for being here all the way from toronto oh my gosh another toronto girly i love this i feel i could talk to you for hours i really could and we will we will discuss toronto after this please i can't wait yeah let's take the mic off and just discuss