---
title: '"He Looks Like John Cena!" | David Dastmalchian Explains His Approach to Street Fighter''s M. Bison'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=V4ZnlcXIimU'
video_id: 'V4ZnlcXIimU'
date: 2026-10-18
duration_sec: 883
channel: 'IGN'
---

# "He Looks Like John Cena!" | David Dastmalchian Explains His Approach to Street Fighter's M. Bison

> Source: ["He Looks Like John Cena!" | David Dastmalchian Explains His Approach to Street Fighter's M. Bison](https://youtube.com/watch?v=V4ZnlcXIimU)

## Summary

In this interview, actor David Dastmalchian discusses his role as M. Bison in the Street Fighter movie adaptation, revealing his personal connection to the character and the creative process behind building a compelling villain. He shares insights into how he and director Katal researched historical dictators and cult leaders to inform the character's psychology and physicality, and reflects on the transformative power of being seen by a visionary director.

### Key Points

- **Early Gaming Memories** [00:12] — Dastmalchian recalls playing Street Fighter at the Fun Factory in a Kansas mall, favoring Blanca due to button mashing, and also playing Indiana Jones and Dragon Quest.
- **Bison's Aesthetic Appeal** [01:09] — He always found Bison's aesthetic, vibe, and silhouette to be his favorite—striking, powerful, cool, and imposing.
- **The Glass Menagerie Story** [02:53] — Dastmalchian shares a personal story about being cast as Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie, a role he never envisioned for himself, which became one of his most rewarding stage experiences.
- **Director's Vision for Bison** [04:44] — The director helped Dastmalchian see himself as Bison, causing him to 'levitate' during the conversation because it revealed something he didn't see in himself.
- **Researching Dictators and Cult Leaders** [05:48] — Dastmalchian and director Katal studied figures like Idi Amin, Mussolini, Jim Jones, and David Koresh to understand how they enthralled large groups and presented themselves as leaders.
- **Building Shadaloo's Backstory** [08:10] — They developed a backstory where Bison uses criminal enterprise to fund his mission of human evolution, coming to a destitute nation to train and empower people, presenting Shadaloo as a 'shadow law' greater than man's laws.
- **Bison's Secret Insecurity** [10:50] — Dastmalchian conceived Bison as lying about possessing psycho power, making him the star of his own movie with a mission he can't fail, adding depth to the villain.
- **Two Types of Powerful Figures** [12:14] — He distinguishes between those who genuinely believe they are the best thing ever and those who harbor a 'creeping demon of insecurity' late at night, which he found more compelling to portray.
- **Grounded in Authenticity** [14:02] — Despite the film's wild action, Dastmalchian grounds himself in authentic feelings, noting that Bison's signature moves are a facade—he can't actually perform them, which is terrifying.

## Transcript

And Bison is one of the most iconic villains. Oh my God, the Bison's coming out already. I love it. He's one of the most iconic villains in all of video games. When you found out that you got this role, what was your awareness of Bison?
And past the script, where were you looking for a sense of, you know, how to find who that guy is? So I didn't always play Bison when I was playing Street Fighter back in the day. In fact, I would go, like, the easiest character for me to play was always Blanca.
and I would play it at the Fun Factory at the mall in Kansas where I grew up. And that was my most winningest character because I could button smash my way through it. Like, we'd go to the movies, my friends and I, and then you'd go to Fun Factory.
And whatever quarters you had left, you'd put into the machines. And I would play Indiana Jones of the Temple of Doom, Street Fighter, and sometimes, oh shit, what was it called? Dragon Quest. Dragon Quest, thank you.
Which was just all about timing. Quarter monsters. Monster. Quarter monsters. But Bison, aesthetically, I always thought the aesthetic and the vibe and the look and the feel of Bison was by far my favorite.
Striking, powerful, cool. Great silhouette. Yeah. Just like a really imposing figure. Yeah. There's something that is, like, you know, iconic about the figure, and it evokes so many different feelings and thoughts, and I love it.
So when, take all that into mind, and you go, okay, I see Bison in my head. I see a figure floating in my mind.
If you say to me, I'm Bison, I see a guy who's floating like this, who's got the broad shoulders and the red and the hat. I like the red more than the green. But what I didn't see was me.
So when a director who I really respect and who has great artistic vision sits down to talk to me about a Street Fighter movie, and my thought is like, what?
I wonder what role he could be considering me for. And he starts talking about Bison. I just, I was like, it was one of those, it was a moment, this is just like a deep cut for anyone that's not a theater nerd, I apologize to you.
Now, PSA number three of the day. Here we go. When you are on a pop culture talk show to discuss a video game adaptation of a film, probably don't use theater references,
because many members of your audience may go, what is this guy talking about? But I trust that you will go along with me on this, guys. I remember this director coming to me when I was in Chicago. One of my favorite playwrights of all time is Tennessee Williams.
One of my favorite plays that Tennessee Williams ever wrote was The Glass Menagerie. I had so many personal connections to the story, and I felt like I understood it, and I understood what it was about. But I also understood that I would probably never get to play Tom Wingfield because I just am not the all-American Midwest boy that is Tom Wingfield in that play.
and this brilliant director came to me and just said, I'm doing the glass in action. I was like, wow. He's like, I want you to work on it. And I was like, I could see myself as Amanda before Tom.
I was like, who am I playing? And he was like, you're Tom. This is what I'm going to do with this play and this is how it's going to work and this is why I want you to be my Tom. And that the gift of what I do man It the gift of directors that see me and say to me like I have a vision and this is why I think you can do it And then they give me an opportunity to think about it which I did with the Tom Winfield of it all
and ultimately went and embarked on that, which terrified me because I felt like it was something so far removed from how I envisioned myself as a human being, as an actor, and I just did it.
And it was one of the most rewarding, most incredible, most powerful experiences I ever had on stage. And fast forward now to a career in acting where oftentimes people see me in a thing, and they see me in a thing because they see me do something similar or adjacent to a thing, which is great.
I'm so grateful for that. So you could be like, Dave normally plays characters within this kind of bullseye zone. Then you have the director of such distinct vision who cares so much about this video game,
who cares so much about making this movie, and he starts talking to me about why me and Bison, and do that, just like this. I was levitating. I was on that conversation.
I started levitating because he helped me start to see something in myself that I didn't see in myself. That's huge. And you don't have to be an actor or a writer
or a creative person even for someone to impact your life like that. I hope somebody in your life at some point see something for you that you don't even see for yourself and that you can have the courage or at
least the insanity enough like me to trust them and go for it because that's how we level up it's just like in a game like if you really want to level up those one of those moments where
and it doesn't mean you're you're you're infallible or that you're you're you know impenetrable by concepts such as failure or fear but like that was insane dude I really felt like
I was like oh I can feel the psycho power bugger they're not picking me now well we talk about that silhouette of Bisons and I have to imagine as an actor you there's a degree of like how do I fill that silhouette where do I find myself within that character I know that you and Katao
last time we spoke we talked about how you look to dictators like Idi Amin and Mussolini for how to inform your performance a little bit. What did you learn about enthralling large groups,
and how did that make its way into how you approach the character? What's the... Help me, Internet. What's the synonym for, like, iconic?
There are these archetypal human poses, gestures, energies that when you look at, you just go, oh, yes.
So with Kital, we were like, okay, in the game, obviously, Bison is the most confident, some would say cocky,
brave, bold, whatever the word is, I guess confident. Like he just, the way he looks down on everybody else, the way his attacks even come from up here to be like, he's looking down on you.
He is more powerful than you and he knows it. That kind of physical architecture as a human and presentation as a leader amongst like a movement,
I was like, that's awesome. Yeah, how do we find the people that presented themselves that way so that they could then get hordes of people to follow them and help them do their bidding so they could bring their mission to life Idiot me like such a like charming powerful his smile could like melt a room
but also he always made sure everybody knew he was, like, the most, like, you did not cross this, man. Mussolini, exactly. Think about people on a more, like, a different level,
but there was definitely something to the Jim Jones, the David Kreshnick. And, Kital and I read this narcissistic Pied Piper's book series of like all the different psychological templates for people that were able to convince people to do these movements.
And how somebody gets people to, because you can't just say to everybody in the room, like, I'm going to give you all $1,000 if you do this. It's not enough. It's not money. It's not this. So with, I built with Catalan, with our writers and with the creative team, I wanted to build out an idea of like,
Shadaloo, criminal organization, sure, that's not enough. so was Jim Jones's organization was a criminal organization so was David Koresh's so was technically EDM means because he was breaking all kinds of international law and laws and even his
country's laws so I was like criminal leader of criminal organization is to me just like a very thin part of the definition of this person who is got an entire army of not just dolls like
soldiers and warriors like how do you get that many people to believe in you and I was like how cooler to be if he comes to this destitute third world nation state island after a lifetime of him like
building up and learning and training in both martial arts and trying to understand the esoteric power of magic and power and cycle power and the haruken and all these things that he's been trying to study and master because he understands and believes that humans
have held themselves back because we're such a foolish creature that the time to evolve is now and we are ready and those who are brave enough to take the call and make the evolution happen, we're going to move forward and everybody else can just
f off and die. So in this world we started building, I was like, what if he started this movement, he understood that he could utilize criminal enterprise and breaking laws, the laws of man, national laws, federal laws, international laws, as a way of developing the resources needed
so that he could train and help people get to understand his mission. And then he comes to this place where people are like can't feed their families they can't and he trains them and he helps bring in casinos and drug trade and human trafficking all that's just part of the operation
that's not because it's he's evil or it's fun it's like oh and he shows these people how they can feel empowered and they become they start to accrue wealth and they start to actually
understand that like with their bodies if they do the training that I've been studying we could all evolve to that next level. And it's the shadow law. The law that is greater than the laws of man.
So we build all this shit together. It's so fun. We think about it. But I keep going like Kital, why me? You can look at the game, especially post
Street Fighter 2 as you get into the evolution of the series. Yeah. Alpha, etc. He becomes bigger and bigger and he looks like John Cena, you know? Yeah. I love John. I mean, the brilliant actor.
But he wasn't what Kikawa see. Kikawa see me in his head. So I go, I get it. I can put on the hat, the cape, the countenance, the presence of Bison.
But what if the power I haven't accrued yet, that I promise all these people who are now following me, that I can guarantee them is going to be given to them And I basically lied And I told them I have possession of the psycho power
that I can do these things, and that I can't. So this movie to me became about an objective. I'm not just the villain of the film. In my opinion, Bison is the star of his own movie, because he has this very important mission he has to fulfill,
and he doesn't have, and he can't let, if anybody finds out that he doesn't have what he's supposed to have, like outside of his very tight, enclosed, like, you know, lair,
he's best. Everything's fine. Well, you know, it's something that's so interesting about that iconic bison pose. It's arm's crossed, but we know that this is actually quite a defensive way to hold oneself.
And I think it's very interesting that you guys are finding that kind of nuance in that body language. Oh, 100%. When you think about the archetypal gestures of this, you can think of like, yeah, like a bully, a dictator, a powerful figure like that.
I don't believe at the end of the day that, I think there are two types. I think we may or may not be in the current historical timeline of our humanity
in the presence of an individual who goes home at the end of the day and genuinely looks in the mirror and is like, I am the best thing that's ever happened. I think that is a possible one fashion of this.
In fact, like I said, I think we're living in the timeline and under the shadow of a person or maybe people who are like that, who are just sometimes freaking idiots and, like, totally do crazy stuff
and, like, can go home at the end of the night and just be like, I am the best thing that ever happened to this world. That's one version. From the reading and the work that I've done trying to understand, like, a Mussolini or, like,
I mean, I think there's that late at night, home alone, laying in bed, thinking about everything where there's that like creeping demon of insecurity that's like
you're going to fail. It's all going to fall apart. Your whole mission's about to like collapse. And if you can't get everybody on board to believe you, you're dead. That to
me is awesome. And I can find that as a character and as an actor. Um, and it, it helped me in the most crazy shit that you see in a movie like this
because this movie is so fun and so wild and so action-packed. At the end of the day, as an actor, I still need to ground myself in something that feels authentic to me. So I just put that in every day.
Present full power. Keep one secret. Keep a secret every day. Here's one. As much as I bragged about it, I cannot do my signature moves that I know I should be able to do because of the cycle power.
I don't have the ability to flex my biceps and squeeze somebody's head between them the way that I should be able to because I don't have the power. And that can be terrifying. Hey, thanks for watching that clip of my conversation with David Das Malton. But that
is just the tip of the iceberg. For more in-depth interviews with all of your favorite people, you're already in the right place. IGN.