Transcript for Ralph Macchio and William Zabka talk ‘Cobra Kai’ and reminisce about Mr. Miyagi
Please welcome Ralph Macchio and William Zabka. Hey! Hey. Welcome. Good to see you. Ralph, before we talk about the show, I want to mention that your amazing wife Phyllis, you’ve been married 33 years, she’s a nurse practitioner who has been working during this crazy time, what has been like for you with her going on the front lines? Thank you for mentioning I really appreciate it. So will she. She’s doing well. She just got her first vaccine, the pfizer vaccine yesterday, so — so, you know, it’s tough — it’s a lot of what she does is dealing with the families and she’s a nurse practitioner and dealing with the end of life scenario or how to manage, you know, being apart and going through this. It’s hero work. I’m so proud of her. She’s doing well and we are hanging in there. Thanks so much for mentioning that. Excellent. Give her a big hug from me. Now let’s speak of “Cobra Kai.” You know I lost my mind for this show. So when you’re shooting your first scene together, as Daniel La Russa and Johnny, what went through both of your minds? Go ahead, Willy. Sure, our first scene shooting together, first time we put — he walked into the dojo, we have a front staredown, the first time they were looking through each other’s eyes and it was very palatable and we knew as soon as we finished this scene, these guys were back with all their baggage and it felt alive, and when he walked off the set and we completed that scene, we felt like this is going to work, something really special happening here. 35 years ago, the hit that I took to the head and, you know, it was nice. But here he is again, he’s walking into the dojo and perfect La Russa form, it set a great spark for where. You each have two kids. Ralph, yours in their 2s. William, yours are 11 and 7. Karate kid was in theaters 36 years ago, “Can bra Kai” is a huge hit. How do your kids react? It’s awfully nice to be cool for another 15 minutes or so. As opposed to the self-proclaimed” geek dad” that I am. That’s the icing on the cake that’s something a big part of my life back in the day, now be such a big part of my kids’ lives and them championing it, they look — this show coming out, every scene it launched was like Christmas morning for them. All their friends, they’re all getting together, binge-watching it as a group. It’s really quite wonderful. They’re friend with some of the cast members. It’s the gift that keeps on give zblg William, your kids are pretty young, have they seen the movie? They haven’t seen the “Karate kid” movies. But I don’t want them to see that guy taking the crane kick.
