Source: Pool ARNAL/GARCIA/PICOT / Getty
It’s no secret how bad 1994’s Street Fighter film based on the fan-favorite Capcom video game of the same name was.
A new tell-all report from The Guardian details the shenanigans that took place behind the scenes while making the film which includes, affairs, poorly-trained unseasoned actors, a possible military coup and insane amounts of cocaine use by the film’s biggest star.
The film was doomed from the moment famed screenwriter Steven De Souza (Die Hard, Commando) came up with a pitch Capcom liked. While he served as the director on the film, producers still supplied input on who should star in the movie. That’s how we got Belgian-born Jean-Claude Van Damme to play American special forces commando Guile and Raul Julia as the iconic video game boss M.Bison to lead a cast of unknowns. Van Damme’s addition to the cast was a costly one who set De Souza back so badly he could no longer afford preproduction fight training for the rest of the cast.
Once production arrived in Bangkok things got even more ridiculous. The films second star Raul Julia came on set “looking like a skeleton” due to a secret battle with stomach cancer. The location they decided to use for the interior shots was an old coast-guard building with a tin roof and riddled with bullet holes. Sunlight coming in through the holes made it impossible to film, plus the rainy season and the sound of raindrops hitting the warehouse made things very difficult. All of the roads were shut down by the Thai military due to rumors of a possible coup. BUT the most interesting revelation came when Souza brought up Van Damme’s insane $10,000 a week cocaine habit while filming.
Souza tells The Guardian:
“I couldn’t talk about it at the time, but I can now: Jean-Claude was coked out of his mind. The studio had hired a wrangler to take care of him, but unfortunately, the wrangler himself was a bad influence. Jean-Claude was calling in sick so much I had to keep looking through the script to find something else to film; I couldn’t just sit around for hours waiting for him. On two occasions, the producers allowed him to go to Hong Kong, and on both occasions he came back late—on Mondays, he just wasn’t there at all.”
Oh, he also had an affair with singer/actress Kylie Minogue who played Cammy in the film. Despite the ridiculous amounts of struggle and being panned by critics, the film did manage to rake in over $100 million. To read the full story about the mess that was Street Fighter head here. If you need a refresher about the movie, peep the insanely ridiculous trailer below.
H/T: The Guardian
Photo: Pool ARNAL/GARCIA/PICOT / Getty
Jean-Claude Van Damme Was Reportedly Insanely High On Booger Sugar While Filming ‘Street Fighter’ was originally published on hiphopwired.com
