Actor David Dastmalchian has revealed that he listened to Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Deftones, Joy Division and Nick Cave in order to tap into the mindset set of video game super villain M. Bison after being cast for the role in the new Street Fighter film.
Though largely panned by film critics – The Guardian calls it “a garish and incoherent mess” – the latest Street Fighter film has proved a hit with cinema-goers, topping the US box office charts after its first week in theatres. With the original video game being such a world wide success, Dastmalchian says that he was fully aware that his portrayal of the founder and leader of the Shadaloo criminal organisation would come under scrutiny.
“Before this, I would say the biggest weight on my shoulders was creating Mr. 3 in [the cult Japanese manga turned into a Netflix series] One Piece, because you know that globally there are millions of people who adore this world and this character,” he revealed on the Kyle Meredith With… podcast. ” So I did Mr. 3 and it was such an gratifying and incredible experience. And then I get a call from [film director] Kitao Sakurai saying he wants me to be M. Bison and I was like, Are you fucking kidding me?? Like I I love a challenge. I love being scared, but this was like you’ve been trying to make it as a football player your whole career and all of a sudden you get thrown into being the middle linebacker in the Super Bowl. It’s an intense thing.”
To help get into the appropriate mindset for the role, Dastmalchian says that he curated a bespoke playlist. Asked who features on said playlist, the actor referenced some beloved metal and alt.rock legends.
“Of course there’s a lot of [American composer] John Williams [on it],” he explained. “Like whenever I would walk to set, I couldn’t help but have some Imperial March [aka Darth Vader’s Theme]. But genuinely, for the energy of it, so much Tool. If you look at the Ænima album, like for Bison to look at each of his soldiers and say, ‘Learn to swim’, he’s not saying, like [sweetly], ‘You need to learn to swim or you’ll drown’. It’s [snarls] ‘Learn to fucking swim! It’s too late.’… You’re just a broken species that needs to be completely demolished and rebuilt. That was the Bison, that’s not David, but there’s a darker part of me that lives in there.
“We’ve got The Fragile from Nine Inch Nails. It’s a great way to start the day. Atmosphere from Joy Division. Shadow Play from Joy Division is a great fucking song for Bison. Heart and Soul [from Closer]. l. Nick Cave’s O Children. Filter. Ceremony from Deftones…”
“The the last time Tool was an integral part of my character’s soundtrack was my firstmovie, The Dark Knight,” he continues. “I utilized Undertow a lot in preparing for that day of work. I’m very, very selective about when I’m going to dip into the power of a band like Nine Inch Nails or Tool. They inspire me every day, but when I actually think about tapping into that power to try to harness that for the work I’m doing, um I’m actually intensely selective about it.”
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Watch the interview in full here.
The Street Fighter movie features a number of major rock songs – Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun, The Offspring’s Come Out And Play, White Zombie’s More Human Than Human – plus two songs from HEALTH, Negative Edge and Brainrot.
