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David Dastmalchian has made a career out of finding the weird little trapdoor inside a character and dropping through it, whether he’s haunting The Dark Knight, unraveling in Prisoners, putting dots all over himself for The Suicide Squad, or staring into the abyss in Late Night with the Devil. His latest trick is M. Bison in the upcoming Street Fighter, although this isn’t quite the chest-thumping final boss gamers already know. Speaking with Kyle Meredith, Dastmalchian describes a Bison still trying to become Bison, building an entire cult-like philosophy around Shadaloo while secretly lacking the Psycho Power he promises his followers. Along the way, the actor also gets into practical stunt work, his friendship with co-star Orville Peck, the future of Murderbot, and his wonderfully morbid interview series Grave Conversations. Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.
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For Dastmalchian, the key was making Bison dangerous before making him superhuman. Director Kitao Sakurai and the actor imagined a charismatic ideologue whose power comes first from getting people to believe him, pulling inspiration from authoritarian leaders and cult figures while developing what Dastmalchian calls the “seven pillars of Shadaloo.” “I have to present as a guy who’s in control of an entire cult criminal organization movement and know secretly that if everybody finds out that I haven’t been able to do what I say I can do, I’m fucked,” he explains. That tension turned the familiar video game tyrant into something closer to a desperate prophet with a private panic attack, surrounded by followers who have been convinced that Shadaloo offers them money, food, dignity, and evolution. Sakurai also pushed the production toward practical action whenever possible, which Dastmalchian says made the set feel like “living in a video game.”
Then there’s the soundtrack. Dastmalchian built Bison out of Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Joy Division, Nick Cave, Deftones, John Williams, and the original Street Fighter themes, with Tool providing a particularly useful portal into the character’s contempt for humanity. “You’re just a broken species that needs to be completely demolished and rebuilt,” he says, quickly adding, “That was the Bison.”
Music has long been one of Dastmalchian’s secret weapons, stretching back to using Undertow while preparing for The Dark Knight, and he lights up just as much discussing Orville Peck’s ability to reclaim country music as he does talking about Grave Conversations. The coffin-based talk show, he says, works because the setup knocks guests out of the machinery of the normal press circuit. “When you can just jar people for a second and put them into an environment where they’re feeling and thinking about something they don’t normally get to feel and think about… you get more opportunities to sniper moments of authenticity.”
Listen to David Dastmalchian talk about Street Fighter, Grave Conversations, Murderbot, and more in the new episode above or by watching the video below. Keep up on all the latest episodes by following Kyle Meredith With… on your favorite podcast platform; plus, check out all the series on the Consequence Podcast Network.