Cobra Kai returned to Neflix on New Year's Day with another dose of nostalgia-packed karate action. We took the opportunity to put stars Ralph Macchio and William Zabka head-to-head as the world binges Season 3.
What was your reaction when you heard the pitch for Cobra Kai?
Zabka: It was like someone was waking up a bear. My eye was slowly opening, going… “Are you for real?” I’d played with the idea, like in the Sweep The Leg music video I play a version of myself, but I was like, “Wait, you’re gonna go in the belly of the whale and bring Johnny and Daniel back?” I walked away from that meeting feeling like something was stirring in me.
Macchio: [Creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg] were very careful. They led with talking about bullying, spoke about all the themes and then they said, “And we’re gonna call it Cobra Kai!” And there was this little pause. Because they knew, “We have to say the title, but we don’t wanna lead with the title, ‘cause we might lose him.” We laugh about it now, because I was spinning it in my head, “What are the fans gonna think? What’s my mom gonna say?”
What’s your strongest memory of making The Karate Kid?
Zabka: The opening scene: coming up on the cliffside on the motorcycles — that was the first scene in any movie I ever filmed. It was Halloween, a couple weeks after my 18th birthday, and that was my introduction: coming around the corner on that motorcycle. That one moment was really special. I can still picture being there.
Macchio: There are two. Meeting Pat Morita and working those scenes together was really a strong one. It still resonates. I can smell the room, I can taste what I had for lunch those days. The flavour of all that is still deep within me. And then shooting the tournament and being able to actually fictitiously do what I did and everybody in the room just cheering me on.
When was the last time you were in a real fight?
Zabka: It was high school for me. After I learned martial arts I’ve never had a fight. You learn Karate not to fight — it’s like you have a secret that if you needed to use it, you could. So there’s no need to fight.
Macchio: In school any time I got a little pushed and shoved I’d befriend the biggest guy in the class. It’d be like the movie My Bodyguard. I was like a Chris Makepeace! After The Karate Kid, I think people just thought, “I saw the movie, I saw the kick. I’m gonna fight that guy over there instead.”
What line do you get quoted back to you the most ?
Zabka: “Sweep the leg!” “No mercy!” “Get him a body bag!”
Macchio: In the early days, it was, “Wax on. Wax off.” But as Cobra Kai has become cool, “Sweep the leg!” now gets thrown at me at every hockey game. You hear them yelling it and before you know it I’m up on the Jumbotron! And God knows if I’m in an Asian restaurant and there’s a fly even 20 feet away I have nine seconds to get out of the building!
Have you ever tried to catch a fly with chopsticks?
Macchio: Not even when we were shooting it. I can’t tell you how many different ways we tried to achieve that shot before CGI. Now you’d do it in 10 seconds! When we were shooting the scene we had a couple of flies in a jar and all the crew guys were having a go. It was like the bobbing for apples game!
Zabka: No. I’m still trying to catch a salmon roll with chopsticks — just a stationary piece of fish!
What is your go-to ‘80s song?
Macchio: Right now the song that just popped into my head is We’re Not Gonna Take It, by Twisted Sister. You’ll realize the relevance of that as you watch Season 3.
Zabka: A Big anthem from the ‘80s for me was Rainbow in the Dark by Ronnie James Dio. And then Zebra, with Tell Me What You Want and I’ll Love Them. Plus anything Van Halen. All of them, man. How do you pick just one?
What’s been the highlight of Cobra Kai so far?
Macchio: My first scene on the show, when I walk in the dojo saying, “I hear you beat up a bunch of kids.” It was the first time we’d been face-to-face on camera in 30 years. That was really special, because it had such resonance to it — it just went beyond. I knew I had it. I knew he had it. But when it came together, it just had a magic to it.
Zabka: I love the ending of season two with me and Ralph in the elevator, saying nothing — it’s all right there in the emotions. That moment encapsulates all the incredible things that happen up to that point and then sets up what’s coming.
Cobra Kai Season 3 is streaming now on Netflix.