APRIL 23, 2019 12:44PM ET
Ralph Macchio on ‘Cobra Kai’ and the Legend of ‘The Karate Kid’
The actor talks about reprising his most famous role, his crazed Eighties superfans and the movie’s alternate title that almost was
By BRIAN HIATT
Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso in YouTube Premium's 'Cobra Kai.'
Guy D'Alema/YouTube/Sony Pictures Television
“It’s a karate soap opera,” says Ralph Macchio, accurately describing Cobra Kai, the YouTube premium show that revives the Karate Kid universe, with a few twists. Middle-aged Daniel LaRusso is a dad and a car-dealership owner who’s also doing his best to become a Miyagi-style sensei to a new generation of would-be crane-kickers. With a second season debuting April 24th, Macchio discussed the show, the original movie, dealing with Eighties fame, the glories of Crossroads and more.
Seeing a recreation of Mr. Miyagi’s house on the show was unexpectedly moving. What was that like for you?
Well, the house they used in the original Karate Kid film was sold and torn down — and then they had to build it on the back lot of what was Columbia Pictures for parts two and three, and it changed a little bit. Now we shoot exteriors in Los Angeles, but a lot of the stuff is shot in Atlanta, so we had to figure out how to pull that off. That was part of the early discussion: I said, “OK, so how do we disguise it not being exactly the house, because it’s not.” Hey, it’s 30 years. Anything could have happened to it!
Mark Hamill told me about being emotionally overwhelmed when he walked back onto the Millennium Falcon after three decades.
I was the same. Because Pat Morita is no longer with us, nor is director John Avildsen and the producer Jerry Weintraub. But more so because the first day I worked on the Miyagi set, in the backyard, it was a scene with Robby, us painting the fence side by side, going opposite directions. We rehearsed the scene, and I just, “Wow, this is where the magic all happened.” It was emotional because some of my friends that I made that movie with are no longer here. And also, from the get-go when they pitched this idea, I needed to have those moments, the legacy of what Miyagi brought to Danny LaRusso’s life. It’s important that it was peppered throughout the Cobra Kai series, and they assured me of that. Because I remember shooting those scenes in the movie more than getting my ass kicked. Because those are just like, “Is this over yet?”
Then on the flip side, on the personal side, it’s me as someone who is not 18 anymore, or 16 anymore, or 25 or 35 or 45 anymore, saying, “Wow.” It was just a realization of how much time has gone by. Not that deep, dark place like, “Oh my God, I’m old now,” which is true if you’re my kids, but it’s the nostalgia of life. Most of the time that I’m talking to, say, someone like you or someone on the street for maybe the first time, the conversation is funneled into a small section of time in my life, which is not the norm. So Cobra Kai is just going back to that same section of time, which is now 34-plus years ago. It’s kind of wonderful and beautiful, and on the flip side it’s like, wow, that is a long time ago.
It’s hard to convey to young people just how famous you were in the Eighties. What was your experience of it like?
I guess it was overwhelming at times. I always kept one foot in and one foot out of Hollywood. I lived in the ’burbs of Long Island, not far from where I live now. When I wasn’t working, that’s where I would go. I had attention there — it was like the map of the only star’s home. I was the only guy. It was me and two hockey players. Going to a mall on a Saturday probably wasn’t something I was apt to do. The most difficult was when I was on Broadway in a play with Robert De Niro and Burt Young, and The Karate Kid 2 had just come out. I was at the Longacre theater, and then just up the street the movie was playing, so when I would come out to the street, that was like… I’m not saying the Beatles at Shea Stadium, but it was crazy.
I watched your first audition for Karate Kid, and your naturalism is incredible. I also saw someone said you came off as obnoxious.
That was probably the writer, Robert [Mark Kamen]. Obnoxious is the wrong word. You could have said maybe a little cocky. I don’t know if you’d describe me as obnoxious, but hey, listen, sometimes I’m in it. I can’t step back and look.
Were you, at that point, very confident in your abilities?
Yeah. I think I had an aura of confidence. Where it came from, I have no idea.
When you went into The Outsiders, were you confident?
I was confident I wanted that particular part, and I didn’t want to read for another part. I just wanted that. But Coppola wanted everybody to read for a different role. I said, “I just want this part.” I had the balls to say that. I knew who Francis Ford Coppola was; I knew who I was in the room with. So it’s interesting. I probably would say that now, too. That’s just the essence of me. I read that book. I connected to The Outsiders when I was 12 years old, and when they were doing the movie I had to be in it, and I had to play that part. That doesn’t happen often and may never happen again. I did have, and probably still do have, a little defiance and cockiness, and that’s bled into LaRusso and that makes him entertaining. A guy who has such knowledge about balance and inner peace and all those Miyagi-isms and philosophies, but when the wrong guy rubs him, he goes to his childhood ways — that makes him entertaining.
So when they first brought the Karate Kid script to you, do you remember your first reaction?
I didn’t like the title. A lot of people didn’t like the title. They kept trying to change it.
Was there a leading candidate?
The Moment of Truth, which was the end-credit song, was what it was called in France and other countries where martial arts weren’t big. The Moment of Truth is kind of a lame, forgettable title. But with Karate Kid, Jerry Weintraub said, “You know, it’s a great title because it’s a terrible title.” I said, “Yeah, but if the thing’s ever a hit, I’m probably going to have to carry this for the rest of my life.” And here we are.
How about the script itself?
I thought the script was corny at times. The Miyagi character, there was a little bit of humor, but they wanted to cast Toshiro Mifune. But he didn’t speak English! The human Yoda that was Pat Morita was perfect. They didn’t want Pat Morita at first. Jerry Weintraub and the studio said no way: “No Arnold from Happy Days. Not going to happen!” John Avildsen just said, “You have to watch this tape.” And now the footage of Pat’s first reading and mine, you can see it on YouTube, and Avildsen cut that together. That was his first reading and my first reading, and what’s most intriguing about that footage, it was just me and John Avildsen. He had a big video camera. There was a line of guys out in the hallway of his apartment; one after the other, he just brought them in. When I watched that, and I watched myself listening to him, a little nervous — as my wife would say, “You keep touching your nose.” I was nervous. But when I read the scene, that’s LaRusso.