Sean Kanan Had a Blast Becoming Karate’s Bad Boy Again in ‘Cobra Kai’

Just about everything surrounding Sean Kanan's experience with the Karate Kid franchise is totally bonkers. And he knows it. “First of all, let's go back to how ridiculous it is that a billionaire meets a 17-year-old boy while he's naked in a hot tub,” the now 55-year-old actor says on a video call from his home in California.

He’s talking about his first scene in 1989’s The Karate Kid Part III, when evil billionaire Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) hires his character, Mike Barnes, to intimidate our hero Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) into defending his title at the All-Valley Karate Tournament. After seeing an article that describes Barnes as the “Bad Boy of Karate” in a martial arts magazine, Silver flies him out to California to start his reign of terror. Their first meeting happens, you guessed it, in Silver’s bathroom while he’s having a soak.

This was Kanan’s first big screen role, and his actual story happens to parallel that of his character—though just a bit more mundane. “I had transferred to UCLA to finish my degree in political science, but really to start my career in acting,” he says. He was also studying karate with Fumio Demura, who was Noriyuki “Pat” Morita’s stunt double in the movies. He told them there was an open casting call for the new villain. “It was described as a 17-year-old, white Mike Tyson,” he says. Though 22 at the time, he got the part.

With Terry Silver back in Raceda, in control of the Cobra Kai dojo, and tormenting Daniel-san once again, it was a natural fit for Barnes to reprise his role on the hit Netflix show. Daniel is initially skeptical of Barnes, who has left karate (mostly) behind and opened his own furniture store. And what’s the use of even having a furniture store if you can’t have a karate brawl in the middle of it and crash someone on top of a table?

He only appears in a few episodes, but that’s because he was filming Cobra Kai while he was also on his day job as Deacon Sharpe on The Bold and the Beautiful. Though he never gets to use his martial arts skills, Kanan has kept himself busy with a prolific career in soaps, also starring in General Hospital in the ‘90s and The Young and the Restless.

Switching duties meant he had to make one big sacrifice: Mike Barnes’s iconic flat top. “Rocky IV had just come out [when we were filming KKIII]. And I thought Dolph Lundgren was such a badass. [Director] John Avildsen said, ‘What do you want to do with your hair?’ And I said, ‘Let's do a flat top,’” he says. Sadly, the continuity with B&B meant a more traditional cut for his big return.

In the full conversation with Men's Health, Kanan talks about how he initially scored the role, a life-threatening injury from KKIII, and what he wants to do if he gets to play Mike Barnes again.

Men's Health: How did you first get involved in The Karate Kid universe?

Sean Kanan: I went to the casting director's office, and I said, "Hey, I've got my SAG card. I've done a couple episodes of network TV. Can I audition?" And she said, "No." And so, I had to go to the open call. And there were probably 1,500 to 2,000 people wrapped around the studio. And there's John Avildsen, who directed The Karate Kid, and The Karate Kid II, and won the Oscar for Rocky.

He's making his way up this line, stopping intermittently. And I knew I'd have to get this guy's attention—and I locked eyes and got his attention. And he stopped, and he asked me to do a quick improv, and I did. And he said, "Okay, I buy it." And he sent me inside the soundstage where they were doing the screen test. And there's Ralph Macchio. They said, "Go intimidate him." So, I did—and eventually I got the role.

You got pretty badly hurt on the film. What happened?

We were filming a scene, and it really had nothing to do with martial arts. I was in a stationary position, and I had to basically hop and land on my side, about two feet away. We did it again and again and again. We broke for Christmas, and I was going to Las Vegas with a friend. I started having some pretty significant pain in my left thigh. So, I started taking a lot of aspirin. Long story short, Christmas Day 1989, everyone was home preparing for the holidays with their family, and I was in the emergency room of Humana Sunrise Hospital fighting for my life. I had been bleeding internally for days, and the pain in my leg was the blood dripping down on my femoral artery. The aspirin exacerbated the bleeding, and I passed out.

And so, Christmas Day, they told me. They said, "Listen, we're going to try and save your life. We don't know if we can." It was like Twilight Zone. It was, "Wait, wait. I'm 22 years old in peak physical condition, doing a martial arts film." "You've been bleeding for a really long time. We have to get you into surgery." And I thought, "Okay, you mean Monday?" And they said, "No, in 15 minutes."

When did you first hear about Cobra Kai?

I heard about it when it was greenlit for YouTube. I'm a huge fan. Listen, I was a fan of The Karate Kid and Karate Kid II. I'm a guy that bought a ticket. So to be the guy in the third one, it was surreal. I had about five minutes for a pinch-me moment. And then there was a lot to get done and a lot to learn. So yeah, I'm a fan of the show. I've been a fan of the films. Even now, when I watch the final tournament scene from the first one, it's like watching one of the final Rocky fights. You get that visceral emotional reaction that it generates.

And did you start lobbying for a return of Mike Barnes? How did your return come about?

The producers were very aware that I wanted to do this. And I did a lot of that as a way of instigating the fans, because I knew ultimately, if the fans were vocal enough about wanting me to come back, that probably would help. And I figured, look, they're already bugging me anyway—I might as well motivate them to bug the producers.

Other than soap opera fans, hell hath no fury like the Cobra Kai army, let me tell you.

Have you been practicing karate between Karate Kid III and now?

I've trained off and on for years. I've had long periods when I haven't trained, but I've also had periods where I have. And I am right now. I’m really fortunate that I was still able to do everything by the time I got down there. Now I'm even in a lot better shape physically than I was. And I went on this journey where, from my heaviest, I lost about 45 pounds.

When I did Cobra Kai, I had done a film with Bruce Willis earlier that year where I played a mercenary, and I had put on about 25 pounds for the role. And I hadn't really lost it yet by the time that I was doing Cobra Kai. Now I'm probably a good 20 pounds lighter than I was when I did Cobra Kai, and still practicing martial arts.

And did you have to do any special training to get back in the saddle of filming martial arts?

Well, I trained a fair amount with Darryl Vidal, who was in The Karate Kid. I have a friend who's a third-degree black belt and trained pretty extensively with him. And then I've gone back to Sensei Demura's dojo in Santa Ana, California, back to my roots, which is Genbu-Kai karate, which is really about as close to what Mr. Miyagi taught Daniel as there is.

What was the difference between filming fight scenes when you were 22 and filming fight scenes all these years later?

I think you have natural elasticity in your twenties that you don't necessarily have in your fifties, unless you work at it. I'm pretty close to being as flexible as I was in my 20s; It hurts a little more afterwards. I think you take a lot of stuff for granted when you're younger—I used to be able to just kick above my head and not even warm up. Now I wouldn't even try to do that.

Did you get any advice from Ralph Macchio and William Zabka? They've been at this for a few years now. Did they have anything to share going into filming?

They're such great guys. They just said, "Listen, we're so happy to have you. Have fun, enjoy it." And we just fell right back into it. I felt like we had really good chemistry, and it wasn't forced. We're all actors now that are 30, 35 years down the road in our experience as performers, so we're able to bring a lot of different colors and bags of tricks to the table. It really was a lot of fun working with the guys. It was one of the best work experiences I've ever had.

Do you have any favorite moments from filming or any stunts that you got to do that you were excited about?

Oh yeah. My fight with Chozen was a lot of fun. Him crashing through the table was a lot of fun. Certainly having a little back and forth with Billy, with Johnny's character, was fun.

Did you have to do any research for your coke-fueled bender when you rob a limo?

I did all of that research in the ‘80s—I was a single guy in the ‘80s living above Sunset Boulevard. I’ll let you do the math.

What's the difference between a soap set and filming for Cobra Kai?

One of the most basic differences is the volume of dialogue. We do more than one show a day on the soap. A couple of weeks ago we did 11 shows in a week. I probably had a hundred pages of dialogue to learn. So, when I get on the set and have to learn five or six pages, and I've got a week to do it, it's nice. Because really, you're focusing less on the dialogue and more just on the performance and everything, which is great.

Cobra Kai knows it's a little bit ridiculous and a little bit far-fetched. Have you ever had to do anything in soap opera that was more far-fetched than stealing a limo to have a karate fight because someone burned down your business?

Oh yeah. I knocked up my mother-in-law. While I was married to her daughter. I dressed up like Elvis and sing. Actually, they made me sing twice.

Cobra Kai is also a very funny show. I hear that you do stand-up. Do you feel like they utilized your comedy skills as much as they could have?

I think I definitely had some funny moments. I think there's certainly more that we can do. I would welcome doing more, but I'm also appreciative of the opportunity that I had, too. I think I did my best to put a humorous spin on Mike Barnes within, again, the parameters of what the scenes were about.

All these years later, all the characters have evolved. You got to hang out with them, fight with some of them on the set. Is Mike Barnes still the bad boy of karate?

I think when push comes to shove and when Terry burned his life down, we see that Mike is able to revert and tap into the bad boy of karate. He's definitely there.

We've been hearing that they're filming some scenes from Season 6 currently. Should we be prepared for the return of Mike Barnes?

That’s something I can’t comment on.

If you were to be invited back, is there anything that you didn't get to do this time, when revisiting Mike Barnes, that you would want to do again?

Sure. Kick Terry Silver's ass.

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