The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Ralph Macchio

Episode Date: November 1, 2022

Ralph Macchio (Cobra Kai) joins Andy Richter to discuss returning to The Karate Kid universe, the advantages and disadvantages of a young face, song-and-dance men, planning life around New York sports teams, and more.

uh hello everyone uh this is another episode of the three questions uh i'm andy richter and i am talking today uh with ralph macchio where am i talking Where am I talking to you from? I'm in New York city. I'm in New York city right now. Yeah. And you've been in, I mean, you're from New York, you're an East coaster to begin with. So. Always been. Any kind of Hollywood life that was sort of, that was the unusual part, right? Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't say unusual is the word, but I guess, you know, the longest I lived in L.A. was, I would say, 80, 81.

I was on a TV show called Eight is Enough. Uh-huh. I'm familiar. I was nine. Eight is enough to fill our hearts with love. Exactly. And so I lived out there. I did 22 episodes of that.

And then i stayed there the following year i figured maybe i should take some acting classes and learn how to do and then the you were doing fine without them and then i did and then the outsiders uh auditions came up and then that that as soon as i did that film then i moved back to new york and i i spent chunks of time with movie times or, you know, hitting the tarmac, pitching from behind the camera times or audition pilot season. Why do I have to do this again to get nowhere at times? Right, right. So they're those chunks.

So, but yeah, home has always been New York. I do enjoy my time in Los Angeles. It's much sweeter now than when i'm pounding the pavement to nowhere sure so are you is it were you born in long island or like from long island and established family there you know parents are still here and still with us and you know my kids are in their 20s my daughter 30, which is just stupid because I'm in my late 30s now. And, you know, and then we just – so it's home base. And for me, it's like it's, you know, the Mets and a playoff run.

Now I'm heading out of town to do a book tour. I'm like, did I time – could I have timed this worse? It's one of my big sports. Oh, yeah. It always brought me home too. The sports, whether it was the islanders my hockey team or the the jets okay the jets we could you know they're right you can you can watch them lose from anywhere that's from any place in the world but i used to love going back i would that would

be oh often be the inspiration of when i got done with a movie or a project i would you know it's like wait no it's it's they're the Stanley Cup finals. I got to go home. Yeah. So that maybe that that's how I avoided the pitfalls of the darkness, the slopes, seduction of the crash and burn. Yeah. Now you you're from a big Italian family, I would assume. Is there really not really?

No, my family uh my parents and my brother that was it no but we have cousins yeah that's what i meant like but not not the big like you know uh the big me with the gravy and the pods yeah yeah yeah all and made in the mozzarella and getting slapped in your hand when you grab the i mean that that's sort of um which i've been a part of but it's not that wasn't my sort of nucleus right it was it was still traditions you know there was a christmas eve and and the stuff and the and the family tradition a close family but not necessarily you know frankie get over here veto sitter you know it's not necessarily that although i bear witness to that in my life was there any show business in your family?

I mean, how did – what happened that you became plucked from obscurity? Yeah. What happened is – and I write about it in this book. I mean, I wanted to be Gene Kelly when I was a little kid. And the reason I wanted to be Gene Kelly as a little kid besides gene kelly being amazing yeah is that when i would come home from school my mom was probably the one maybe there was a piece a time where she probably would have gone down the path of yeah payment business i mean she was a growing up she was into the betty grable movies all that i mean i'm dating myself big time but you know that's that's part of another generation i would come home from school

and in the den would be well in new york was channel 11 wpix yeah 430 movie you know it would be singing in the rain or it would be you know uh um whatever fred astaire or whatever you know clark gable or whatever that was that was on on sort of the Turner classic movies of then. Right. But I would watch these movies with my mom. And so, so then I took, I went to, my cousins were taking tap dance lessons or whatever at that time. So I, you know, I signed up to be pretend Gene Kelly and do shuffle hop and hit the mark and smile.

And then I go to little league practice and i was between sports and and theater and so that's how i fell in love with storytelling and watching those great great movie musicals with with mom you know i yeah and i think like you are of an age too that where that was still you're like at the tail end of probably kids at that age becoming fascinated with, you know, being a song and dance man, you know, and kind of like, and thinking about stardom in Gene Kelly terms, as opposed to, you know, Robert Redford terms. Right. Yeah. That's what I was. I was that, but I wanted to be Tom Seaver also, you know, this was, you know, so that there was, there was a little bit of that. And, and, and I, I fell short of my athletic and, and physical dance prowess fell

short of my expectation. Did you, did you try hard to be an athlete and it just didn't happen? No, I, I mean, I was, I enjoyed sports. I was never a great athlete athlete but I was sort of as I am as a performer I was on time, I knew my lines I knew my position I had my glove oil you put Machio in he's going to be ready he may not have the god given talent

he might not win the game but he's not going to lose it either what happened with Little League once they started throwing not underhand and at my head i started diving out and then if you can't lean in and you're afraid of getting hit yeah yeah i did make the all-star team one year i don't know how it must have been by default second base and then and then as soon as as soon as puberty kicked in for the rest of the world and i was staying like my youthful self uh you know what that's i guess this ain't

happening for me but i love it and uh i enjoyed being part of a team and all that stuff was that boyishness a family trait like were there other because i mean i had the same thing you know everyone thinks i have a bit the baby face mine's a little wider than yours but you know but you had that you kind of had that same and I mean and you look much you look much younger than you are and people say the same thing about me and I and I hated it you know I hated the baby face I hated it's kind of emasculating you know yeah but then now as I've gotten older, I'm like, well, you know what? It's not that bad to look younger than you are. You know,

it only sucks for like the first 25, 30 years. And then it's like, you know what? This isn't that bad. Yeah. Was that your experience? Yeah. Well, it did. Cause I mean, I was baby face and I was twinkle toes because I would be tap dancing. So I did the one-two punch. And even though I got on the all-star team in second base, I was not hitting the home run to win the game. But, yeah, I mean, it becomes, you know, I would even write about that in a book, just deflecting all the barrage of, you know, when are you going to age? When are you going to go through puberty? Wait, you're 20 what right now? How is this? Yes, there is youth in my grandmother's both look extremely looked extremely young for their age. My parents, I blame it on them. So it is genes. But I guess I have very useful energy. So that kind of adds to the package. energy so that kind of adds to the package uh but it was there was you know you have to defend yourself and then you wind up feel like you have to earn it more because you're being treated like

a kid yeah people assume you know i went i remember one time uh i was on the set of the outsiders so there's a movie where i was 19 and i looked you know 13 yeah and i remember francis coppola saying to me gave me a one day he just came over he gave me a hug you know it was like we were in between scenes and he he said i'm sorry i'm sorry i just i think of you like sofia and and and roman and and i know you're much older and it was an interest i i distinctively remember that i've never actually spoken about this uh before but I remember that moment is galvanized in my mind because it was a pinpoint moment. But for some reason, I got to see from the perspective of someone who was treating me like a kid, but understood, you know, that I wasn't. But I just young and I look like one of his kids.

Yeah. Well, did you have like mixed emotions about it i mean it must have been it's nice to be hugged i assume by an academy award winning francis yeah yeah but also but then to be told it's because you look like a kid is all it's you know it's like a slap and a tickle yeah at that point at that point it was less that because i was it wasn't like i was you know know, 14, 15 and people thought I was 11 or 12. That's when it was the toughest. And later, when I'm in my, you know, when I'm 30, like and on and on and uh and i i came in and i just uh i think i said a line like something like i i well listen i don't know what i know you're fascinated but i'm due back at the museum in half an hour and i got a big roar and this isn't

yeah this story is in the book uh i try to tease him and not give the punch line but that's too good of a punch line yeah yeahline And he just sort of rolled back The wheels of his chair went back He put his hands up And from that point on The rest of the interview was gravy Yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, because he knew it was time to move on

But I was proud of myself And for the split second I'm like What did I do? But it was great You did the right thing That's what they want You know, classic talk show, good action, you know. Right, right.

So it was some kind of talent scout that started you on this path, correct? And how old are you when this happened? I was, well, my first movie I was in, I did like some Bubble Yum commercials, Saturday morning singing. And, oh, yeah, it was sort of like a sing and dance commercial. You could see them on YouTube. They're painful, but it's really funny. But really using all of your talents, you know, if there'd been a little baseball in it too.

Kind of. There must have been a swing. And then I auditioned for Robert Downey Sr. in a movie called Up the Academy. I got that in 79. Oh, yeah. I was 17 years old. Downey Jr. was like 14 at the time.

And so then after that movie, there was an ABC talent search. The casting director was by the name of Joyce Selznich. What they were doing was years later, the Disney Channel Nickelodeon they would do that scouring the country next hannah montana or i carly or whatever so for me it was like who's the next scott baio if you would yeah yeah yeah and uh that would be me i guess and uh i was casted in as big you know know, it was the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, I believe it was, the Drake. The Drake Hotel in New York seemed like 20,000. I'm sure it was like 14 or 18 or 30 kids. But lining up to wait to go in to grab some piece of paper that would fit.

And they would read, you'd read a couple of lines. And I was signed by ABC. They flew me out to L.A., they said, we need a new kid on eight is enough. This is where you're going. And I, I auditioned for eight is enough. And I didn't know this until I read Rob Lowe's book that he was the other kid. I never knew that. Oh, wow. So, um, I didn't know that till he wrote that. And then we just talked about it recently on his thing. Um, it was kind of, so that's how i broke in if you will and you were 17 i was uh 18 at that point 18 turning

18 so you were out of high school yep my my dad came out my mom came we looked around i said santa monica okay that looks pretty good pretty close to the water yeah picked up a a Mazda 626 for nine thousand dollars and eighty eight cents. My dad paid cash for it and I drove it from Panama to Mazda. I mean, there's certain things I remember. And that one, the fact that we're digging out the eighty eight cents to drive the car off. That is great. That's 1980. Wow. And then the actors went on strike for three and a half months. And I had a car sitting in L.A. and I went back to New York and waited.

And that was the 1980s screen act school strike. So you could live here alone. You never needed your parents to tag along. Correct. I mean, they came in and out and I made some I had some friends and I was on the, you know, I had some other friends that were out west. But yeah, I mean, I basically learned how to drive on the 405 all by myself. Yeah. Did this interrupt college plans of any kind? It did. You know, it's interesting.

I was enrolled to CW Post College in New York. Probably most famous from my perspective is that's where Springsteen recorded this Santa Claus is coming to town that we all hear every holiday season. What a claim to fame. I'm sure it's famous for more things than that. I'll be playing the letter soon, but that's a pretty good stamp. Right, right. Anyway, so in liberal arts, because I wanted to be gene kelly i wanted to be marlon brando i wanted to be de niro i wanted to be pacino and all but it wasn't happening by 17 18 and it was time to so and i didn't i auditioned for a few theater programs like nyu and hofstra and others i didn't get in any of them and uh and so that i i signed up you know liberal arts cw post local i could drive let

me get the baseline in and uh and then i got the up the academy movie the robert downey senior movie that i told you about and then yeah i was like see ya and i'll go back after you know i see you cw and then uh i figured well i could always go back and never have. And I don't regret it desperately. But when my kids went to college, my daughter went to Hofstra, my son went to Boston College. I really enjoyed living that through them. And that's a time I didn't have those. Yeah. You know, pretty good tradeoff.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you got it. You got a very weird college. You went to college, but it was just a weird college. Exactly. Had you taken a lot of acting classes at this point, or was it mostly just school stuff and you were just trying to break in by auditioning?

It was mostly school stuff i'd be in the musicals as the token tap dance kid if you will yeah or you know just do a student choreographer even though i don't i mean what do you know yeah what do i know step together turn and clap i would get so frustrated it was funny i'd get so frustrated because I knew basic Gene Kelly dance steps or, you know, kind of a box step or whatever, a turn. And then when you teach that to the people who never took a dance class and they can't do it and the rhythm, it would drive me crazy. It's like, yeah, yeah. But so mainly school stuff. But so mainly school stuff. Never did the plays in school.

I did the musicals, but I always got like, you know, third guy from the left in the back. Or I, for some reason, played Harry the horse in Guys and Dolls, which is because the movie was like Sheldon Leonard, which is a massive producer. Absolutely. That's the heavy of the whole show. My little squeaky voice said, yeah, we're going to get him south street we're gonna get him you know all damon runyon style yeah yeah and so acting classes like i said that happened after eight is enough before the outsiders i studied in la at the beverly hills playhouse scene study well when i mean when you get these jobs you know like up the, you're there when you're 17. Is it intimidating?

Are you like, oh, shit, they're going to figure out? I'm just doing it. I'm reading the lines and acting. Yeah, that I'm just winging it. Yeah. It's interesting to think back that far. I think at that age, you know, you think you're invincible. It was all gravy. You know, the weird, the interesting thing is i kind of paid my dues all after the initial

success yeah that's where my hard times were you know more in the 90s and in the early 2000s leading up to where we are today so but i don't know if i ever felt i did listen though i was pretty good at listening um when when a veteran actor would you know give me a tip here or there or slow down a little bit and just think about react off of me don't you know and i did uh and then i started just doing those things at face value yeah like i didn't take i didn't have a cynical kind of what is he trying to tell me is he trying to make me do this so he looks better you know or she looks i just took it as like a like a wide-eyed student oh okay so i should right do that or do

this or or maybe if i slow it down and and they and you know put meaning behind the words as opposed to just get to the end of the sentence yeah you know so i i think i was pretty good at absorbing. And I also did that with the crew and other people. I liked to know what everyone was doing. I was probably that nagging kid, like, don't leave me alone. I just am getting through the day. I want my check. But I was like, how come you're on the sound mixer? So when that goes up and you switch it to that guy, you know, he's not going to yell and then it's going to go too high, the meter or asking the cinematographer why this lens.

And that was my film school. That's sort of how I learned. I really enjoyed because there's so much downtime on set. And certainly this was mainly with The Outsiders because it was so ensemble. Karate Kid, I was in almost everything. So I still ask those questions. I'm a karate kid. I was in almost everything. So yeah, I still ask those questions. I've always, cause I went to film school and started working in film production. So I came from a kind of from that side and I was, I've always been astounded by actors who don't seem

to give a shit how anything else works, how any other department works. And I think it hurts you like understanding your place on the set because i think that's just good career advice anyway yeah and life advice you know know what everyone else is doing around you you don't have to be an expert about it but i think it broadens your ability to understand and don't just be laser focused on my part my part my part of my job my job it's more communal certainly have you know have have focus on what you want to do and don't be disjointed but in it for me there have been times where i've been as an actor as a young actor especially so focused on not focused so aware of everything that i would become aware

of myself and step out and then you all of a sudden you find yourself watching yourself act or, or being concerned of whether that flag that's going to take the light off my face that is blaring right now. Yeah. Yeah. Like I'm saying this line, I'm feeling the sun and shit. Maybe the shot's not working because he didn't get there on time. And all of a sudden I'm not in the scene anymore. Yeah. It's like, you know, that famous freak out that what's his name christian bale has yeah yeah somebody's walking around hanging lights in his eyeline like he's 100 right in that you know like if there's an actor acting don't walk around

you know right changing lights and i actually i know i worked with the guy he's yelling at so it's like i'm even more like you know yeah christian he sounds like a hothead on that but he's 100 correct and yelling like what are you doing you know i do that when there's movement because i i also get easily distracted like if i if i see that going on then i step step out of it and then so i ask no movement or clear the eyeline on this. It sounds like such a pretentious. It all depends on how you ask. You know, that's the other thing.

Yeah. It's also a nice thing about kind of flying. Because, you know, I mean, I had taken improv classes and I'd done stage shows, but I didn't have any real classical training or anything. And the first job I got was for, you know what they could then called a cable movie and you know and my first scene uh was with swoozie kurtz and beau bridges and and i had i didn't know you know you just be quiet and kind of you know figure out like you know kind of follow context clues as to oh i think i should be over here now you know that kind of thing but what's great about the movies too is that like they're the movies are only in their present form like maybe a hundred

years old you know every mogul just made themselves that they didn't there was no they didn't have a history of working on film there's like they made up how to make a movie you know and they made up how to act in a movie and they made up how to light a movie, you know, and they made up how to act in a movie and they made up how to light a movie. It was all, you know, like just a bunch of clever immigrants, you know, like just figuring out like, Hey, Oh, you know what, this is, how about if we move the camera closer, you know, like, so that was always good. So, um, how does getting this kind of fame and getting to LA, how does it change your vision of yourself?

Is there imposter syndrome? Is it all good? Is it stressful? Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. And yes, you know, depending on what chapter I was in, I mean, I think it came easy for me at the onset. Like I said, there was a time it felt like any, not any audition, but most all the auditions, I kind of got the gig, you know, at the onset. I think, you know, I attributed some of that to people when I was auditioning for a 14 year old character, I was 17, 18 at the time. Maybe I was just a little more seasoned, even though I really wasn't, you know? So then you get, you think it's never going to end. You know, I remember I wrote this in the waxing on book

that I remember that the stupid, one of the stupidest statements I ever said, I was like 30 years old, not even 30 years old. I was in 25-ish. I was on Broadway with De Niro and Burt Young and a play called Cuban is Teddy Bear. The Crossroads had come out. The Karate Kid 2

is about to launch. The Mets were in the World Series. Everything was just amazing in New York for me. I said a line like, yeah, someone asked how long you've been enjoying this. And I said something like, maybe I'll figure the next five or ten

years, maybe 35, I'll slow down and kick back, enjoy life, maybe retire. Just the stupidest, youthful thing you could possibly say. And then within a couple of years, all of a sudden, there was no Broadway show. There was no movie opening. The Mets sucked. Everything was – it was like what and then then it becomes um so you're cocky at that point when it's on top of it you know because it was a little easy and then you become you have to fight not to

become desperate to you know to sort of create yesterday and uh but i you know i never slipped down the you know the slide and any of that, you know, I, but there were, there were tougher, drier times. And, and then it became about, you know, me staying, you know, I always talk about, I keep one foot in and one foot out of it. And that's sort of, sort of how I balanced it. And I still do. That's still paramount at the end of the day. Now it's easier now that I have a hit show and, and other things are happening and a book about the breaking and it's down the line. So it's certainly easier, but I always kept creative even when I couldn't get a job as an actor for a chunk

of time. I would write, I would direct some short films. I would take them, you know, I got into Sundance. I got, you know i got into sundance i got you know when you find making a it's the difference between being creative and making a living it's when i do both which is what i'm able to do now which is awesome it's uh so you could always be creative it's at what point do you have to let go of this as your your livelihood yeah and that's that's it i you know i got close to that a few times, but I was always fairly conservative with spending. So I was able to survive. When I look back at it now, I'm like, how did I do that those years? You know, we were, you know, my wife and I talk about it. We just were able to, you know, she's a she was she's a nurse practitioner. And so she had an income and we but we somehow balanced it and raised our kids yeah during those drier years it all it's almost like i planned it to have all this time off when my kids were growing up it was not the plan to have your second film be the outsiders i mean there was eight is enough in between right you're working with francis ford coppola

and you've got this just like this every hot young actor on the planet does for a while does that seem like okay this is going to be my peer group yeah for a little bit around that time yeah yeah I mean everybody goes their own way I mean I was I was sort of one of the outsiders in the outsiders I mean like Emilioio estevez knew tom cruise knew rob lowe matt dillon was from new york i was from new york so there was a kindred connection there the two new york guys coming in and then it was you know and then diane lane we just everyone wanted to you know just hang out with diane yeah yeah um matt amelio c thomas howell you know uh i remained friends with in different areas for the next few years.

But it was never like I wrote this in the book, too. I never got a Brat Pack membership card. Why do you think that is? I don't know. I talk, I write about it because I think I was never in a John Hughes movie. Yeah. So maybe if I got in one of those, if I was in one. In St. Elmo's Fire or something. If it was not Rob Lowe playing the saxophone, it could have been me.

Could have been me. Yeah. Like he doesn't have enough. Yeah, right. I mean, come on. Enough of that. But yeah, so. Did that bug you?

No, it did not. Yeah. That's a good question. It did not. But whenever the article came out that was like i don't know was it the cover of something the brad rolling stone i think was the big one of those guys yeah ollie alley sheedy and yeah emilio anthony michael hall and all i think there might have been a split second was like okay so matt dillon's not on there i'm

cool and i go down my list go down my list of like credible actors that didn't make that cut. Yeah. I feel like I'm not, I'm the only, only one, but yeah, I tell a story about auditioning for 16 candles with, with Emilio. He was auditioning for the jock and I was auditioning for the nerd. For the John Cryer. No, no, this is 16. So this was Anthony Michael Hall.

Oh, I'm getting me too. I do. I get him. Pretty. Forget it. They should just make. They get one movie. Right now.

Just do pitch that home. You know what? You could sell that. You could totally sell a completely. Cause that's all they want these days. Tell tell me about it yeah yeah yeah so and i remember uh auditioning for john hughes and i was i i think i was just too cool in my own mind they wanted me to just play the role as natural and i was bringing in this sort of nerdy quirky walk and talk and they didn't want any of that and they were trying to adjust me to just we just want natural ralph and i was like

what i can't be this nerd i am way too cool in my head but i kept and i wonder if that oh i always joke uh i wonder if that that was where my john hughes. But, you know, listen, Matthew Broderick is Ferris Bueller, and he should be Ferris Bueller. And the writer gets the right part in success. I always say that, and I write to that as well. Although, too, I just have had this conversation twice in the last couple of weeks. When you go back and re-watch Ferris Bueller, you just see that guy's fucking insane. Like he's an asshole.

He's a sociopath and a manipulator. Yes. And everyone else takes the fall for his bullshit. It's like, fuck Ferris Bueller. He is not a hero. He's an asshole. That's exactly right. Yeah.

It's funny when you look back can't you tell my loves are growing i mean jesus christ too you get to go from the outsiders to karate kid gigantic gigantic hit i actually saw the karate kid in the theater on my first day of freshman year at university of illinois that's amazing well that movie is one of those i talk about that there are certain movies you remember where you saw them you know and i'm generalizing a little bit but it is true it does have that about it you you know especially when it's during those formidable years when you you know yeah and that movie that movie's just like it's just really really good you know especially when it's during those formidable years when you, you know. Yeah. And that movie, that movie is just like, it's just really, really good. You know, it's, it's not, it's not high art.

Nope. But it is, every scene's necessary. It builds great. The character, you know, it's just like, it's just a real impressive piece of work, you know. And it's used in film schools. impressive piece of work you know and it's used in film schools that's that's you know that three act structure the yeah all those all those pieces all the nuts and bolts of how it's supposed to work but then you have the nuances and you create the human yoda and mr miyagi and you get that magic and the the every the every the kid every kid next door with daniel larusso was the wish

fulfillment part and then you have the magic of you could clean a car and learn how to, you know, win a tournament. And kick the bully in the face. It set up some payoffs. You know, My Cousin Vinny has that too. It's one of those scripts that really builds that. But The Karate Kid was, you know, it was a great script. A great director, John Avilson, who directed Rocky. Is that the one that like like do you

go from being like occasionally people notice you to being like everywhere you go holy shit look it's the karate kid it's the crowd it's not and you're not even ralph macchio you're karate you're though karate kids i was more the local hero that won the football game than I was a movie star or a celebrity. I think people treated me as that every kid, that every guy next door. Partly because that was my sensibilities and how I presented myself, maybe. And two, the Daniel LaRusso of it all, of that character that had that, you know, he did not feel like a movie hero as much as he felt like a kid we knew and good things to happen to. The one that to me is so funny is Crossroads. I remember seeing Crossroads.

So you go from being Karate Kid to being- The Karate Kid with a guitar. Yeah, like a blues legend. And having a devil went down to Georgia Georgia guitar. Was it Steve Vai? I mean, and talk about like, for a young person, you know, to like all of a sudden, like, I mean, I have that guitar. I have that telecaster. I kept it. It's so, it's just so cool. That was Walter who directed that film, who directed 48 hours with you know, Nolte and Eddie Murphy and the long riders and other, the warriors. And so he was a filmmaker I really liked and,

and Crossroads arguably was probably so close to the Karate Kid. And in fact, it was a student and mentor it was dynamic with metaphysical shit thrown yeah right right right yeah yeah so um but i love the blues i loved the folklore of that and that sort of the robert johnson history of the 29 songs and was there a 30th song and this kid is chasing it and and john fusco who wrote that screenplay who went on to write you know young guns and and other big big movies this is nyu you know submission oh wow so i love the music part of it so i learned i studied and it was for columbia pictures who was making the karate film. So I had a classical guitar coach.

I had a blues guitar coach. I had, you know, I was training in martial arts for part two of the Karate Kid. Wow. You know, I learned how to fake it well, just kind of like between us, how I learned how to fake martial arts and continue to do so. You know, so it's a little bit of fantasy camp right yeah sure difference is it's like the tournament at the end of karate kid i win the thing you kick the guy in the face the crowd cheers it's awesome we shoot it all at once and crossroads it was it was even

more cool because i got to to play you know like i was you know whatever ed I was, you know, whatever, Eddie Van Halen or Jimmy Cricks or Prince or Springsteen. And everybody's cheering and I'm jamming. And then they call lunch and I can't get Mary had a little lamb out of the son of a bitch. All that stuff was just played back. It was Ry Cooder, the amazing Ry Cooder, his slide guitar, who would score a lot of Walter Hill's films. Yeah, yeah. A lot of uh walter hill's films yeah yeah a lot of a lot of everybody's movies and then steve i he did both sides of the the duel which has like 60 million views i mean

the guitar gunfight at the end so it's cool it's cool you brought that up because it's fun to reminisce on that one i don't know why i mean that movie stuck with me and i remember you know and like i said i saw karate kid in the fall of 84 like it had already been out and was a hit and i just had didn't happen to see it and i think crossroads i saw right off the bat yep well so then they there's two more karate kids with you in them right and then do you start to feel as those sequels are coming like like things slowing down? After Karate Kid 2, during Karate Kid 2 and when the option was a three picture option. So that was the most challenging part when I wanted to after part two and I wanted to venture into other possible opportunities.

I mean, some of those were blocked out by the option uh because then it was they were going to make a third one yeah and but more than anything else i was feeling the you know the pigeonholing of that character and i was aging but i wasn't aging yeah yeah so i was really caught in it was like uh a perfect storm of difficulty getting out of this pigeonhole, if you will. So yeah, that became the beginning of the challenging time, to say the least. But, you know, I never, you know, there were days that it sucked, but I never let it get me, you know, I never- You were never like pissed off, like, you know know like what what do you people want from me you know there were moments listen my the story for my cousin vinnie is i it was very hard to get me to get them to even bring me in the room really but from the studio's perspective

i was not on that list no it's an italian guy in new york who's joe pesci's cousin um and i knew joe i met him through den Niro through the Cuba and teddy bear De Niro play. And, you know, it seemed like a, a no brainer, at least to audition. Yeah. Cause that's kind of, you are sort of that, you know, you can be that guy, you know, college age. It wasn't like he was, you know, 14 or, or so, even though there was probably nine years between his age and what I really was. Oh, yeah.

But but that's the Machio curve. You just have to grade on that curve when I'm cast. I mean, it's fun to look back in success now. It's so easy to talk about all this stuff. And because the end result is one, it was a good movie. And two, it makes the decision makers look like they were short-sighted, which they were until, you know,

I got in the room and the director said, you know, this makes sense. Yeah. Were you, because I know I read that you met your wife when you were like 15, like your grandmother introduced you? This is my cousin's sweet 16 birthday party in my grandmother's basement. And then we, you know, we met, we talked and she was a little older than me, way prettier, way out of my league.

And but she, you know, seemed to like me and we got to talking and that's, that was the initial spark that we dated in a platonic kind of teenage way for a couple of months. And she went off to college. I went off to eight is enough. And then years later, we got back together and we're a little bit older and still had the same feelings. And I literally just got off the phone with her before I logged on to this uh interview so yeah 35 years do you think having that in your life was like the constancy of having someone like did that ground you going through all this kind of heady stuff i would i would think it did i would say yeah yeah it challenged it as well because now you have a relationship or and and or and when the kids came along in 92 95 and stuff was dry then it puts a stress now i have to provide for the family it's not just like stuff is not sure happening as well so then it was so it put strain on there but uh not to a place not to a dangerous place ever and i do it's you know it's a long time ago when I think back to the, yeah.

And he's, especially with what's happening now and then writing about how it all started. It's I forget that there's a whole middle. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I do die in, in the book, I do touch on all of that and, you know, not super deep dives in, but you know, those, those sort of honest look backs that, what was I thinking at this point and how did I navigate that? Maybe it'll be a seed of a kernel for someone, a reader to say, you know, maybe getting some wisdom from it in a way. It has to have like just provided you with such a tether to reality.

I mean, she and our relationship simultaneously grounds and elevates me. Yeah, yeah. That's the way I, you know, that's kind of the blessing I have with that, you know. And listen, relationships at any level and long term, you know, there's ups and downs and it's work at times and it's, you know, anyone who says anything differently, it is a journey, you know anyone who says anything differently it is a journey you know and and then when you add in you know this fame thing or this actor thing or this being recognized this whole from such a young age even though i wasn't a quote-unquote child star you know where

i came up at eight years old and was the so-and-so on the tGIF show for whatever. But still there's that me, me, me element that you just, you can't help but get it be part of who you are. Yeah. That you need someone who can stay in the wings and be cool with that and be supportive. And that's what my wife does. But the beauty now is that both she and my kids with this Cobra Kai series and how it's kind of exploded, they're just having such a good time with it. They're such cheerleaders for it all.

That's nice. Especially for my kids. Something so big, part of my life gets to be such a big part of their lives you know 35 years later yeah yeah crazy unique when the Cobra Kai thing came back around did you have any mix any like misgivings or mixed feelings about it or were you kind of I mean did you think it would work first of all not at this level not it works I think I always felt it would you know the Karate Kid has never gone away. You know, a lot of people say everything old is new again. But for me, the Karate Kid has never been old.

I would always feel that if you brought them to the well, they would drink the water. It just had to be good tasting water. Right, right. Execution is always the thing. I said no for 30 years. I mean, everyone would say, hey, what about this years i mean everyone would say hey what about this or what about that or what about uh this and i was just saying you know what i don't i don't i don't want to call it like you say high art but i also put it on a pedestal and it's a part it's something

i was part of that was kind of perfect for the time well and it's also like there are cheeseburgers and there are cheeseburgers yeah you know what i it's also like there are cheeseburgers and there are cheeseburgers yeah you know what i mean there's like really fantastic cheeseburgers and then there's just thrown together garbage cheeseburgers yeah so it might be a cheeseburger but it's still i mean and i've i've done plenty of you know yeah shitty cheeseburgers you know but i mean but then it's also like when you do a really good cheeseburger that's possibly better than a really good gourmet thing you know what i mean exactly and that's that that's exactly it and it hits and and it hits on those cylinders it still does and the guys who create the show uh john josh and hayden um they pitched me the idea, New York, at a time that I was starting to loosen my

grip on the no, no, no, no, I would never, I would never. Streaming, so I had seen Creed just like maybe two months earlier. So I saw a way to get back into the Rocky universe. That was fantastic. And not Rocky VII. Yeah. That sort of informed me of, and they came in came in with okay we're going to come in from the angle of whatever happened the guy who got kicked in the face what yeah his life that inversion is key at least from an entry point now yeah when you look

at season four and five it's all that that is, it's still there. Yeah. It's not about two guys just saying, you know, you're an asshole. You're an asshole. Right. It's become its own world. But that coming into it that way was at least like not just. We had an angle and it was, they had written Harold and Kumar and Hot Tub Time Machine. And so I felt that they could write for a young audience. time machine and so i felt that they could write for a young audience when they talked about the secondary the the next generation characters that's when i got excited because i started to

see okay who johnny lawrence's son is who my daughter is how they enter now i started seeing okay because live and breathe in its full um full painting not just yeah yeah and uh and it was smart well executed they are super fans of the original movie and the whole uh trilogy they know it way more than i do and i figured at that point um if i'm going to jump in the pool i i have no idea what the temperature of the water is or how deep it is but this is the time and so so now super smart for no reason. And yeah, yeah. Smart and lucky is a good combo.

But there was instinct. I mean, they would, they did not come in with saying, Hey, what do you think if this happened? No, they, everything was, any question had an answer. But the biggest question with the Cobra Kai pitch was, is it a comedy? Is it a drama? Is it a soap opera? Is it an hour? Is it a half hour? And they had, they would just say yes, yes, yes, yes. And yes. And every network said the same thing in the pitch. They were like, yeah, but Karate Kid is, is this, it's a comedy. It's a,

and they just knew what they wanted and trust at some point you have to trust the guys behind the wheel. And I also knew, and Zapka, Billy Zapka knew the same thing. It's so precious to us that we have to let go of it. We can only see it through the prism of our vantage point. And these guys see the whole world from a bird's eye view. Yeah, yeah. But what it's become you know is number

one in 83 countries last week it's insane wow wow that's fantastic and also in it and also in a you know streaming's falling apart cobra kai sticking together you know at least for a little while thank god you just got to release something the following friday and then and then every yeah yeah it goes it goes quick but as they say in italian mazel tov exactly oh yeah i know what you're saying um well you got the book uh waxing on it's a memoir had that been in the works for a while did you feel like no it was the pandemic i was i'd been asked by a few publishing houses and a couple of lit agents would you ever write about making the movie? I guess Cary Elwes had his Princess Bride book that shot up to the top of the list. So they probably – this was a couple of years back.

So I think that's – they would always mention that. Even though this is very different, it became very different. So I thought about it. But then once we just finished shooting season three of Cobra Kai, YouTube was not going to continue with the show because Google mandated them out of scripted. So we were hit with no home and the world shut down in March of 2020. And we had 10 episodes of Cobra Kai and we were trying to sell it eventually went to netflix and you know blew up to what it is well during that time i just said maybe i'll write a proposal and we worked on shaping it out and it was you know they a lot of uh publishing uh publishers latched on and we we figured it out and then i they let me write for the most part i wrote it

myself and they let me write what i set out to do you know it was challenging it was emotional they had big highs with it frustrating staring at that cursor flashing and other stuff it would just become magical in a way and then i you know get emotional because i'm talking about sometimes people that are no longer here that help give me the rewards I have now. So it's really kind of my journey in the shoes of becoming Daniel LaRusso, making that movie, the untold behind the scenes of how some of the iconic things happened. And then it's the from the crane takes flight section, which is the summer of 84. And then all of a sudden everything gets dry and quiet. Navigating through that, having a family and taking the lessons.

The last sort of act is the lessons from the movie, the do-overs. I wish I could have had a second chance at. And Cobra Kai actually gives me that. and um you know sort of the journey and a celebration of of what this little movie as sleeper of 84 has done and continues to do it's pretty unique and and uh kind of a story that only i could tell and my uh introduction to the book is the day i'm in a full theater seeing it for the first time when i hadn't seen it frame one and i just take the reader through what that was for me walking into the theater pedestrian pretty much maybe someone would say hey I saw you in the outsiders

and then walking out of that theater like the Beatles leaving Shea Stadium yeah what was it like watching it I mean did you know like oh the shit this is big you could feel i mean that's the whole introduction it's like by the time the green station wagon drove from newark new jersey to the san fernando valley you could feel the audience leaning into this kid the fact that i was that kid was just so out of body you know and then you know i'd seen the outsiders in the movie theater and i'd seen up the academy and i watched state is enough and that was all cool and awesome but this was something else because it was like 700 people seemingly having one brain uh sort of like when you're on a back of a roller coaster and you see everyone's heads and shoulders moving that's what it was like

for me on that day wow and so it's that's sort of how i open the book and i take it through to today and cobra kai is peppered throughout all the chapters because i have a bookend to almost every story yeah yeah well where do you want to go from here i mean what do you how do you see things heading forward i mean you got no kids left in the house listen you got you got you got grownups. That's true, but parenting is not seasonal. You know, you think you're in an advisory position only, but sometimes it's not the full month.

You think you're out and they drag you back in. You know, hopefully we get to finish up Cobra Kai in a way that pleases the fans. And I think we're feeling confident that we'll get to land that plane. And it's now become in the Karate Kid cinematic universe almost. Sure. There's more chapters there, but other areas to work. I did this show, The Deuce,

that I really enjoyed being on. It was David Simon, George Pelicanos, James Franco, Maggie Gyllenhaal. Yeah, it was great. And I had this small part, but I was in like 17 of the 20-something episodes. And I would love to do more behavioral kind of – I love the movies of the 70s. I love that one. Yeah. So I would love to find something in that era or that style, that acting style that – I just watched network the

other day and dog day afternoon i was on the sydney lamette uh run and uh those films so that type of work maybe more theater i haven't done and i'm i would love to help theater and be come back you know as it's uh on the you know getting back in and, and anything above, you know, I mean, I'd host something if it was the right something, if it was the right fit, you know, that world. I mean, I see actors come to either hosting game shows or it would be, it's a challenge, you know, it's really a challenge. You look at, I mean, listen, you know, it more than him. You've been sitting there where you're sitting now and with Conan all those

years. I mean, it's that's not an easy task. And I'm not looking to be the host of The Tonight Show or. Yeah. Like in writing the book, I think I tried to have a real conversational kind of perspective, sort of honest, humble conversation. And I think if I could, you know, give a piece of that, that might be something in years to come when it's like, Ooh, you want to put him in? He's looking terrible. Put on a baseball hat and be like, I don't know. And more writing and, you know, and sipping of really good wine on a nice espresso. That would be good. Yeah. In exotic locations. That's always nice too. Yeah. Well, what do you, I mean, you've, you've written sort of like, you know,

you're, you're promoting the story of your life in many ways. And I mean, what, what would you like people to take away from that? I mean, what's the thing that you think you've learned that, that you hope people can take away from, from your story and just from what you've been through? journey at least using the karate kid as the spine and the food like is the memoir is really it's kind of it's not an autobiography it's not i'm i touch on all other things but it's really every chapter still ties into the daniel la russo of it all the the karate kid of it all but it's it's really what i've gained back from it richer than what I've gotten for it. I don't know. You know, it's like when I see, it may sound corny, it's hard not to sound like a bad Hallmark card, but if I, you know, I see a kid that comes up to me or not even a kid, a guy in his fifties or forties in this movie or that character had such a

profound impact on their lives, whether they were a teenager or now. I'll get fathers saying my kid would not look at me. And now we watch the show and have it together. Or someone who did not have that Mr. Miyagi during a tough time when they were a teenager. And they literally come up male or female with tears in their eyes. And I just it's ridiculous. I'm just the kid who got the part, or I'm just the not was a kid who got the part. And so it's not false being false modesty or disingenuous, humble. It's really earnestly that I was part of something that still resonates. And my life is all the richer for it.

That's what I'd like, you know, take away. It's not about, oh, this is me. Let's talk about me in this movie. It's this is a unique experience that I've, you know, gotten through some of the tough parts and I've hung on to my family and relationship and and have this ridiculous second you know third act on this role um that i don't take it for granted and it's really it's been it's because the fans love the damn thing is why i'm in this show you know i mean it's well

executed and everything else but it's so i mean that you know, that's kind of a rambly version of an answer to your simple question. Well, it's a good answer. And I mean, it's not that simple. You know, what do you, what do you want people to take away from your life? It's pretty, it's actually turning the lens off of me and onto what I've gained, even though it's, I'm writing from my perspective, but it's a two-way street. The rewards of it are a two-way street. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. And thank you for giving me this time. I appreciate it. I know you got lots of people to talk to about this. You got a book to sell. You had an asterisk next, so I was glad to have the opportunity.

And it's nice to meet you. You know, I've done, I've only done Conan like this. I did it once and I'd done a back in the day. So I never got down and, you know, get grilled from both sides. All right. Well, thanks so much, Ralph. Yeah. And check out the book, Waxing On. And thank all of you out there for listening and we'll be back next week. Bye-bye. on and thank all of you out there for listening and we'll be back next week. Bye-bye. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco production. It is produced by Sean Doherty and engineered by Rob Schulte. Additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel. Executive produced by Joanna Salitaroff, Adam Sachs, and Jeff Ross. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Maddie Ogden.

Research by Alyssa Graal. Don't forget to rate and review and subscribe to The Three Questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts. Can't you tell my love's a-growing? Can't you feel it ain't a-showing? Oh, you must be a-knowing. I've got a big, big love.

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