Ralph Macchio on the one thing that still bugs him about Karate Kid Part II
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Ralph Macchio's true Hollywood story is about as unique as it gets. After being launched into movie stardom in 1984 with The Karate Kid, the boyish-looking actor from Long Island rode the Daniel LaRusso wave for nearly a decade — until it crashed in the early '90s. After the success of My Cousin Vinny in 1992, Macchio spent years trying to distance himself from his Karate Kid image — which wasn't always easy. Now, thirty years later, the actor is feeling the warm glow of success once again for playing... Daniel LaRusso, this time in Netflix's hit karate comedy Cobra Kai.
In his new book, Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me, Macchio gets candid about the challenges of his post-Karate period, and how he ultimately learned to embrace the beloved film's legacy. The actor also shares the one thing about Karate Kid Part II he would have handled "totally differently" today.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why did you decide to write a book?
RALPH MACCHIO: I've been asked for a couple of years [to write a book]. Before Cobra Kai ever hit, I was asked. Publishers would come, or lit agents would say, "Would you ever want to write about the making of the Karate Kid film?" Cary Elwes had his Princess Bride book that was a [hit]. You know how [publishers] go, "Oh, this is a New York Times bestseller. What other movies could we get?"
I do have a kind of interesting perspective what this journey has been, even before Cobra Kai. The Karate Kid has never gone away, certainly not for me. I kept thinking what a unique story I have, and walking in the shoes of this character, who has become such an inspirational character to so many generations around the world. I felt it was a unique story to tell.
What happened was that the pandemic hit, and then the world shut down, that was when I started saying, "What am I gonna do in the spring and summer of 2020? We can't leave the house." And I started writing a proposal with the help of a great lit agent to guide me on how to do that. And I started jotting down chapter names, like "Strawberry Shortcake and the Cannoli," which is what [Karate Kid director] John Avildsen called me and Elizabeth Shue; or "The Crane Takes Flight," which was a nice title for when the movie comes out; and "Theories and Debates (and the Birth of Cobra Kai)"; and "Soulful Magic," which was a Pat Morita-based chapter.
[The proposal] was the easy part, and selling it was easy part. Then you have to write it, all by yourself. I wrote it during season 4 and 5 of Cobra Kai, which we shot back-to-back during the pandemic. I would shoot the scenes during the day, and I'd go back to the apartment, order takeout because you couldn't go to any restaurants. It was an amazing journey. It was difficult at times, staring at that white page. But I had all these stories over these years.
You share some very detailed recollections from the making of Karate Kid, from early talks to auditions to productions. Did you keep journals or diaries at the time? Or do you just have a super-human memory?
It's not super-human. [laughs] There are certain things that stick. Like the John Hughes audition for Sixteen Candles, when I went in with Emilio [Estevez]. I just remember that day. There are probably 10 other auditions or experiences that might have even been more remarkable than that [audition] that have gone out of my memory. But that one sticks for whatever reason. Or Warren Beatty walking into the dressing room when I'm on Broadway with Robert De Niro and what my mood was and what he said — that one stuck. I met a billion people backstage Broadway with De Niro. Everyone came to see that, but I don't remember all of them. I only wrote about what was clear, so I come out looking way smarter with a better memory than I really have.
In one passage you talk about how Elisabeth Shue's character, Ali, was just sort of dismissed with one throwaway line in Karate Kid Part II — it seems like that is something that's always bugged you?
Yeah. I really like that chapter. Because of Cobra Kai, because they wrote that ending for her character, and because I got to reconnect with her after 30-something years, I didn't know how she felt [about Karate Kid II].
I didn't even realize it until I was writing that chapter — I would've handled it totally differently now. When that character was written off, I would've picked up the phone. But at the time, I was just wrapped up. I was on the movie Teachers at that time with Nick Nolte, and the world was going fast. I never looked at it from her perspective. It was always from my perspective.
It's interesting when I look back at that, having the closure and working with Elisabeth Shue and that emotional goodbye scene that we have in Cobra Kai that Jon [Hurwitz], Josh [Heald] and Hayden [Schlossberg] created — it kind of mirrored this weird absence of us and as actors and characters, and it was quite meaningful. The beauty of Cobra Kai is that it gives me all those do-overs.
Robin Platzer/Getty Images; Everett Collection Ralph Macchio and Anthony Michael Hall
I loved reading about some of your other experiences in the '80s — you auditioned for The Geek in Sixteen Candles! Marty McFly in Back to the Future! What did it feel like to revisit those experiences and talk about them honestly with the perspective you have now?
I wanted to be honest and humble, and a little self-deprecating, because that's one of my favorite hobbies. The only person who gets thrown under the bus in this [makes air quotes] tell-all memoir is me. It is not a tell-all; it's the anti-E! True Hollywood Story. [laughs] Is there any other actor to play Ferris Bueller? I say there are plenty of actors to play Ferris Bueller, but Ferris Bueller is that face, it's Matthew's face. And Marty McFly is the other example. So, I touch on the '80s of it all. Maybe that's the way I deal with the fact that I didn't get [those parts], is by saying, "Well, I just wasn't the right guy." [laughs]
One thing that impressed me about the book is how honest you are about your career and the bumps it hit after the 80s, when you were pigeonholed as the Karate Kid. Were there misconceptions or other things you wanted people to know about this time in your life?
I just wanted to be open and honest about it. It was frustrating because you're trying to show other sides [of yourself] and work and be creative. By talking about it in the book, it's kind of paying it forward. On Cobra Kai, I work with a lot of young actors, like Jacob [Bertrand] and Mary [Mouser] and Tanner [Buchanan] and Xolo [Maridueña], but if they can learn something from what I went through, something I would have told my younger self, I enjoy sharing that with them. I got [advice like that] from De Niro when I was working on stage with him. Anthony Hopkins, I worked in one scene with him, and he had something to offer that I just took away, you know, one little piece. So I enjoy being [makes air quotes] the old guy, shall I say?
I think in the book, it's about that honesty and humility. Maybe someone can look at that and take my experience and see where that may apply in their lives. Even though it's a pretty breezy read and it's not a super deep dive into anything specifically, maybe there are a few pearls in there from either my mistakes or successes.
You also talk about The Ties that Bind, the sitcom you did in the early '90s that didn't go anywhere, and you openly admit you weren't fun to work with at the time. You're really honest about this in the memoir — how for a while in the '90s, you were "holding on to the past instead of embracing the future." Was it cathartic at all to talk about those past frustrations?
That was the one project where I probably did not put my best foot forward and was a little bitter and maybe not the most pleasant. I take pride in coming to the set or the stage in a positive way, so that was different for me. It didn't feel good, and it wasn't working. Listen, it wasn't working on the page either, so I'm not going to take all the responsibility. But I was completely out of balance. That was my moment where I was hanging onto the past, not being open to what was in front of me, and both my career and family were suffering.
I was a rudderless ship. "Walk right side, safe. Walk left side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later, get squished just like grape." I tie in those Miyagi-isms. It was fun to write that, to say, here's one of my favorite Miyagi lessons in life. The only bad choice is no choice, and I was making no choice except to not be happy. In writing this book, I always circle it back to the Daniel La Russo of it all, the Karate Kid of it all, no matter what I'm talking about in my own life.
Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me is on sale now.
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