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Rayna Vallandingham’s Training Clip Is a Reminder That ‘Street Fighter’ Found the Real Deal in Juli

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When Legendary and Capcom set out to bring Capcom’s iconic fighting game back to theaters, authenticity was clearly part of the plan. Few members of the ‘Street Fighter’ cast embody that better than Rayna Vallandingham, the taekwondo prodigy who plays the brainwashed assassin Juli in Kitao Sakurai’s new adaptation.

The film premiered on October 12 at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles before Paramount released it in U.S. theaters on October 16. Set in 1993, the year ‘Street Fighter II’ hit arcades, it follows Andrew Koji’s Ryu and Noah Centineo’s Ken Masters as Callina Liang’s Chun-Li recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament.

Now Vallandingham is drawing fresh attention online thanks to a clip shared by a fan-run account dedicated to the film. Captioned as a training session and dubbed “Kick Rocks Girl,” the video shows the actress beaming at the camera beside a car, surrounded by palm trees.

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The post is a lighthearted moment, but it taps into something fans have been celebrating since her casting. Vallandingham’s fighting skills aren’t something she picked up on set, and that background is a big reason her take on Juli has resonated.

Vallandingham won her first taekwondo world championship at just 8 years old, and she went on to become a 13-time world champion. Her parents originally enrolled her in martial arts to help her become more confident, and her grandfather drove her to the dojo, where she sometimes trained at lunchtime and again in the evening.

She was revealed as Juli at The Game Awards in December 2025. Juli first appeared in ‘Street Fighter Alpha 3’ and serves M. Bison as part of a brainwashed unit called the Dolls, a role that demands agile, acrobatic fighting.

Before ‘Street Fighter’, she made her mark as Zara Malik in the final season of ‘Cobra Kai’, and she also appeared in ‘Underdog Kids’. Remarkably, her Juli role is only the second major part of her young acting career.

The part carries real personal weight for the actress, who is of Indian and Dutch descent. She has said that growing up, she rarely saw Indian women on screen in roles like this, and that she wanted to help break those stereotypes.

Sakurai describes the film’s female fighters as strong and complicated, an approach Vallandingham welcomed. Recalling her first read of the script, she told The National her reaction was “Yes, they hit the nail on the head.”

Her co-stars have felt the impact as well. Liang, who was making her first action film, credited Chun-Li with changing her life through weightlifting, stunt training and martial arts, while David Dastmalchian, who plays Bison, shared that his daughter watched a screening seated next to Vallandingham and Liang.

Vallandingham joins a sprawling ensemble that mixes Hollywood actors with wrestling and combat sports stars. Jason Momoa plays Blanka, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson takes on Balrog, Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’i is Akuma, and Cody Rhodes suits up as Guile.

The lineup also includes Orville Peck as Vega and Olivier Richters as Zangief. Momoa also serves as a producer alongside Mary Parent, Cale Boyter, Takayuki Nakayama and Stefan Makhoul.

Reception for the film has opened a noticeable gap between critics and fans, but Vallandingham has emerged as one of its most talked-about newcomers. With real championship credentials behind every kick, she brings a level of credibility that choreography alone can’t fake.

What makes Rayna Vallandingham’s Juli stand out in Street Fighter?

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