Playing Daniel Larusso in ‘The Karate Kid’ made Ralph Macchio famous for a lifetime. For decades, people have told him where they were when they saw his 1984 popcorn flick and how that underdog story affected them.
But such blanket fame had a downside.
He couldn’t quite leave the role as he tried to advance his acting career. He said that at times he even felt suffocated. No longer free-spirited and vulnerable, his 22-year-old character in the film has learned the importance of balance in life and martial arts.
Nearly 40 years later, he wrote a memoir, Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me, about the making of the film and how it shaped and continues to shape his life.
The book is devoid of scandal or self-destructive behavior and has a sense of security, but there are glaring inconsistencies throughout its 241 pages, but ultimately the tone leans towards optimism.
Having reprized his role in Netflix’s surprisingly popular sequel series, Cobra Kai, which ended its fifth season, Macchio seems to have reconciled and even accepted what he calls “a wonderful gift.”
In retrospect, the original film “is a classic example of when Hollywood gets it right. It teaches and inspires through pure entertainment.”
On a recent morning on a sunny roof terrace in lower Manhattan, Macchio — who doesn’t look 60 even with his sunglasses off — showed the natural friendliness that has characterized his career. It’s something he shares with Daniel LaRusso, “every kid next door,” he explained, “and had no business winning anything.”
Growing up on Long Island, Macchio often watched MGM movie musicals with his mother. Soon, he took tap-dancing lessons between Little League games and began working with his father on Saturdays. (His brother took more to the family’s laundromat and pumper business.)
In addition to roles in school plays and dance recitals, Macchio began auditioning for commercials, leading to two Bubble Yum spots. After his first film “Up the Academy” In a one-season stint on ABC’s “Eight Is Enough,” opposite Francis Ford Coppola’s teen idols C. Thomas Howell and Matt Dillon, the career-altering “lost puppy” Johnny Cade’s played a role. “Outsider.”
Upon returning home, Macchio, who was 21 at the time, was called to another audition. The script was based on an article about a bullied kid who learns martial arts for self-defense.
“I remember being immediately connected to the father-son element and heart of the story,” Macchio wrote of his first reading of the script. However, he “found some of the characters in the high school storyline a bit corny and stereotypical.”
Another thing that bothered me was the title. I thought he was silly. “I mean, can you imagine?” he writes. “If I play this role and the movie hits, I’ll have to keep this label for the rest of my life!”
For Robert Mark Kamen, who wrote the screenplay for the film, Macchio was a natural choice.
“He was sharp. He was smart,” Carmen said in a telephone interview. No, it was just that character.”
Then the 80’s leaned towards the 90’s. Macchio felt that he was aging from the character, but the character had not aged from him, at least as far as the entertainment industry was concerned.
In 1986, with The Karate Kid Part II in theaters and a third film on the horizon, Macchio was cast as a struggling drug dealer played by Robert De Niro in the Broadway drama Cuba and His Teddy. I got a chance to stretch as a son who is doing it. bear. “
“It all went so fast,” he recalled in an interview.
De Niro said in a phone interview that he admired Macchio’s calmness and work ethic. “We could have had it,” he said. “We already had work to do.”
But behind the scenes, Macchio’s personal frustrations were mounting.
One night, the famous film director Sidney Lumet was in the audience.Backstage after the show, Lumet said he was planning a movie called “Run empty” And he was interested in playing a “significant role” in it, Macchio recalls in the book.
The problem was that the time Lumet was scheduled to shoot “Running on Empty” at one studio directly conflicted with the production schedule for “The Karate Kid Part III” at another studio.
“The ‘running on empty’ ship is set to sail,” wrote Macchio. (River Phoenix was nominated for an Oscar.)
Another night, Warren Beatty visited Macchio’s dressing room. The young actor shared his frustrations. Beatty advised him and suggested finding a balance between his commercial success and other ambitions. I remember that “I need it as much as I want this (meaning playing De Niro).”
She was cast alongside Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei in 1992’s My Cousin Vinny. Macchio’s daughter was born the same year, and her son three years later.
Still, he wrote of the 90s: The future was looming and unknown, and the unknown was daunting to me. “
His agent came up with the idea of making a television series, but the development deal only led to a few episodes, which never aired. turned to
“I learn from the lessons I have learned from Avilsen and Copporus all over the world,” he wrote. “I continued to thrive, creatively, during the years of my acting decline. I was finding a balance between work and home.”
Then came 2018 with Cobra Kai, the vision of creators Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald and Hayden Schlossberg.
Macchio once again played Daniel Larusso, this time as a man from a middle-aged family, but with his rivalry with Johnny Lawrence and Cobra Kai Dojo still open, this time things were a little more complicated.
A deal with Macchio had to be persuasive.
“I understood where I fit in the composition and storytelling of ‘Cobra Kai,'” he said. “If the show got bombed and tanked, I would probably say I was right.
He said the new series understands why “The Karate Kid” has become so popular. Understand it. “
In the book, Macchio admits that Cobra Kai “has a different tone at times”, but that “the commonalities it shares with the film are: heartIt’s the kind of emotional openness screenwriters’ masks saw in actors decades ago.
After the interview was over, Macchio stepped into an elevator that headed for the building’s lobby. One recognized him and asked for a photo.
“I’m just an elevator operator,” he grinned.