Ralph Macchio: Legacy, Identity & The Karate Kid Journey

0:00The audition for The Karate Kid came up and I heard the title The Karate Kid and I said this is going to be the worst title of anything I've ever heard in my life. When someone pitched that Rocky Balboa and Daniel LaRusso would have two kids that would meet and both be in trouble and they would fight crime between Newark and Philadelphia. I should get your ass on you if you bully me in all these ways. That movie has become a piece of everybody's childhood or life or inspiration. In a way, I just watched the end of that and I'm saying, where are these movies now? I was saying this back in the green room that I couldn't be more honored to have every speaker here.

0:40And we explained the unique significance of Cassie from earlier today. And we had a conversation about, you know, Hollywood celebrities and sports figures. And so many of these people that are going to be here have such an impact on everyone. And certainly on me as well. but there is no one coming here that, Mr. Ralph Macchio, that has a bigger impact. You know, when The Karate Kid came out, and we are clear that your career is certainly more than simply The Karate Kid, and there's a litany of films, not the least of which My Cousin Vinny, and all these beautiful, wonderful things of impact. Let's hear it again for that.

1:25Yeah, okay. that your work transcends. So we are very clear that it's not like, okay, like the Karate Kid is here, like Ralph Macchio is here. And we're clear. And what we want to do today is to make sure that we acknowledge and honor just the incredible impact you've had on the people in the room. I've explained to our partners in Elite, long time on Blinded People Mastery, the place the Karate Kid holds and our legend, our training, the video clips that we watch and endure. And by the way, for all of my lawyer friends out there, there is fair use, fair comment of what you're allowed to use clips for.

2:02So I'm very clear what we can and cannot use. All good. And what I am incredibly present to is the impact you had on my life, their lives. And I feel like a little kid with such a massive space of identity impact sitting with you. and it really is truly a dream come true, an honor for me, and I thank you for being here. Thank you, Sean. Thank you so much. Thank you. So from that place, would you mind just sharing a little bit about growing up? I know you're a Northeast guy. What was life like? Prior to the acting world, please. Well, I grew up on Long Island, which is on the other side of the two rivers.

2:48Many people say, you grew up in New Jersey, didn't you? because it kind of morphs art and life. But Rosita.

3:02Mom, dad. My dad's a self-made man. Both my parents are still with us in 88 now. Wow. Slowing down a bit. Thank you. That's tough in this chapter of life because it's changed, but I have both of them. And my brother, my younger brother, about two and a half years. And it was just the four of us in kind of, you know, middle of Long Island, Dix Hills, Huntington area. My dad owned a bunch of like one or two laundromats. That was sort of his, that was the onset of his business. And then what came from there is the cesspools would overflow from the soapy water. So he had to buy a pump truck. and then from that pump truck came the largest Long Island liquid waste removal.

3:53So we did it all. I mean, we never went to college, right out of high school, grew up in Brooklyn. That's sort of the quick Cliff Notes version of my dad. So I was brought up in a working class environment. My mom worked at the office. I would have to do my time at the laundromat on Saturdays, you know, giving change to the customers dreaming about maybe being on Broadway or movies or because I grew up watching what was the 430 movie or the Channel 11 movie the million-dollar movie in New York and maybe some of the Jersey books WPIX yeah WPIX you got it and so I come home from school I know I'm jumping around but I'm trying to give you like just little pieces of what life was like for me and and my mom would have all the old musicals on my dad would be working out mom would have the MGM musicals and I'd watch those and that's what I was first bitten by the bug of of that you know that that storytelling and the Gene Kelly was I wanted to be Gene Kelly from the from day one I just loved Gene Kelly his masculinity his smoothness his you know those were bigger than life movie stars so i started tap dancing lessons at age three uh because my my dad thought it would be good for me it wasn't in in his playbook initially he wanted but um uh he didn't want me to be bashful and and so um like he was or he explained that he was as a as a as a kid and my mom wanted to be betty grable if you know who betty grable is i'm dating myself but these are great movie stars of that era.

5:37So that's kind of how I was bitten by the entertainment bug. And I would, you know, I always look younger for my age than I am. I'm still trying. I'm still trying. If you think this man looks amazing, say yes. Now, I am blind, but I'll go with what they side so anyway so to to bring this this portion in for a landing I that that's what that's you know what got what lit my fire I enjoyed being on stage I enjoyed telling stories whether it was dance and I wasn't even that great but I knew where to land and I knew how to smile and I I I got by on that for for a bit and and in between I was dreaming I could also be Tom Seaver and and and throat you know be a 20 game winner and Major League Baseball but that was not gonna happen so I had all those kind of aspirations but it came from a very functional loving family both my parents were very supportive of anything through my schooling, although they didn't always agree on things, I was given the opportunity to explore.

6:55I understood the value of a dollar. My dad would still be like, you know, you see those two aluminum cans over there? Put those, you bring them, you get 10 cents, you put that in the bank, you know, it's like little, little, little, he's done that with my kids. So that's the long rambling story of what got me bit from the entertainment bug and then I got as it happens to often I got lucky I was in the right place at the right time and what was that that was the movie I called up the Academy it's not at the top of the resume but but and a bubble yum commercial that's probably more famous I did a bubble yum commercial that you could watch on YouTube and at my expense just ripped me to shreds but it was it played Saturday mornings and um that was sort of I went in and I got the part and then I went in for the movie of the academy I got the part and then at that point I was I was I hadn't paid my dues but stuff was coming to me um I wound up paying my dues a little bit later after all that the big success um and then it was about how to how to sustain and not be at the top of the wave you know and that's that's really a lot of the lessons that i've learned over the years are are from and um and so so that's kind of how i got into it the outsiders was a big i love that movie seen the outsiders yes

8:31we're gonna do it for johnny all night long So The Outsiders was a book I read when I was 12 years old, which was somewhere between falling in love with Gene Kelly and tap dance shows and wanting to be Robert De Niro or Dustin Hoffman, who are kind of my Pacino, all those guys growing up. So I read that book. It was written by a 16-year-old girl, S.E. Hinton, who is still with us. And I just – I wanted to be in that movie. It was the first book I read without my parents saying, you have to keep reading. And so when they auditioned for that, I just had to have that part. I just had to. And I said it to Francis Ford Coppola.

9:16I said, I have to have this part. He said, well, I want you to read for this part. I said, no, I want this part. And somehow through it all, that was the first super dream come true for me where I set out and got exactly what I wanted. And I learned later that there were other actors that might have done workshops beforehand, but somehow it landed in my lap, and it holds a special place. And what was it about that part and the Outsiders? I just connected. At 12 years old, I connected to that kid. Even though I didn't have that broken family life, he had an insecurity about him he was smaller he was kind of the runt of the litter he was uh of the boy of the guys uh of the gang and the group um he was the one they protected he felt a little bit inferior and i had some of those things from the aspect of looking young for my age not being you know probably going to puberty last i'm still waiting on that um sorry it was a big joke i had a swing it was like a beach ball over the middle of the plate but um uh so you know so so i connected to some of those adolescent insecurities that he was uh dealing with and i had and he was a sympathetic character um and i felt an affinity for for him and i and he was also described physically uh like to how i was dark hair big dark eyes kind of puppy dog elements to him and so it just i just felt like i could be this guy and i could um and then it was francis ford coppola who i've seen the godfather like 40 times i was like i have to make this happen wow and and by the way remember charlie sheen francis ford coppola his dad in apocalypse now so we have uh you have a lot of coppola can i these last two days yeah a lot of that and emilio uh estevez uh his brother amen yes so so So from there, The Outsiders, and what happens for you from The Outsiders?

11:26Well, it was, you know, that movie did well, but it did not do at its onset. And it's like any art form. It's defined over time. You know, you don't remember what won the Oscar last year, but you remember where you were when you saw, you know, E.T. or The Godfather or, you know. So art is defined over time. But that film, it came out and I was super proud of it and super, you know, it was beyond for me because I was in that dream come true section of the onset of my career. And the audition for The Karate Kid came up. And I heard the title, The Karate Kid, and I said, this is going to be the worst title of anything I've ever heard in my life.

12:18And maybe inside my head, I wrote this in a book that I wrote, a memoir called Waxing On, because you have to call it Waxing On, where I said to myself subconsciously, maybe I hate this title so much because if I ever get the part, I'd have to carry it for the rest of my life. Wow. And how old were you? I was 19 when I auditioned. Wow. So I call it the Machio curve. I played 16 for 47 years.

12:53It's my own little thing. So I was 19. I auditioned, and I read the script, and I found it inspiring, though corny was my initial reaction. Some of the high school stuff I found corny. But the Miyagi character was written, and I think these are great points to make, in this setting. The Miyagi character was written, there was some humor peppered throughout, but he was, you know, this wise master, and that's kind of what he is, but it was probably a little less of what Pat Morita brought to it in his brilliant, brilliant performance as as Mr. Miyagi um but that that that mentor student father son uh uh relationship was was just beautiful on the page um I went and I read for John Avilson who had directed Rocky who I spent my childhood running up and down the library steps pretending to be uh Stallone at the time and And so I was, you know, this was another how is this happening to me experience.

14:11And it was my first reading with him where you could watch on YouTube. You honestly go to YouTube and watch Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita's first reading. You can see my audition. And it's interesting. I didn't recall it at the time because when you're in it, you don't know it. But when I look back years later and even today, if I watch that audition right now, that's the kid. That's Daniel Russo. Like it wasn't, it didn't take, you know, months and months of work to find it. It was, it seemed like, you know, I was just meant to, I had the kind of East Coast bravado that he had, but yet he was kind of a, you know, he thought he was a tough guy, but he wasn't, which is part of what makes him interesting.

14:57And then that project, you know, just happened for me. They flew me out to California on an option deal, which is, you know, but it wasn't until we found Mr. Miyagi that they were going to sign off. And Pat Morita, this is my favorite story and feels so right for this setting. Nobody wanted Arnold from Happy Days as Mr. Miyagi. myself included on the onset because i grew up tuesday nights on abc if you remember laverne and shirley happy days morick and mindy i mean this was our you know and i just remember arnold is like bah ha ha fancy we go you know and he's and then i'm reading this that's why i alluded to Miyagi being this you know this grounded um wise master of martial arts and philosophy and philosophy and I was just like how is that guy gonna do this and uh it's interesting when I look forward I went through my share of pigeonholing for a while of you know you kind of get boxed in and i was at that time boxing in who pat marita was as an actor because i only knew what i had seen and when i walked in to john avilson the director his office i was in la they had me out there um and uh pat marita was over there and we had our our scenes and we we had one scene and we just started reading it and john was just videotaping this as soon as he started speaking like all of Arnold from Happy Days like it is I didn't even know that was the same actor and he had these beats and these comedic comedic rhythms but yet this earnest kind of what you want when someone is teaching you to connect he had such a connection and I just listened and reacted and it was a tango to the perfect to the perfect music and from from Jump Street like there was no finding it it was just there and I still think if you put you play a scene from that movie it's still there and it's doesn't happen very often but that kind of marriage and connection of those two characters as you alluded to before is quite inspiring and just a privilege to be a piece of that puzzle amazing what's here for Ralph Macho and yes so what I'd love to do for a moment is just play a quick clip and see your reaction to it.

17:44Is that cool? Yep. Okay. Tink, ready? Yeah. So we're going to look right back here. So it's going to be... This is going to... Yeah, you'll see. I think you're familiar.

18:00Depend. On what? Reason. How's revenge? Karate for defense only. That's not what these guys are taught. I can see. No such thing bad student, only bad teacher. Teacher said, student do. Could you go with me? You know, I can't. Why? You said it was a good idea, right? For you, good idea. For me, good idea. No get involved. Oh, but you already are involved. I mean you... What? I gotta carry you away too. Thanks. Don't do me any more favors, okay pal? Daniel-san. What?

18:49Okay. There you go. Oh, excellent, excellent, Mr. Miyagi. This is great. Miyagi. Miyagi.

19:04so like many of you please help yes i will and let's see how it goes from there coming back um so what does that bring forward for you if if anything well um instinctively i have two things to start to share about that scene. One,

19:27what does he say? No, get involved. And everyone laughed. That on the page is not necessarily funny. But with the textures that Pat Morita had in that carrot and the through line of connective tissue he had, that humor raised the bar. And obviously, JCPenney, 398, what kind of belt do you have? But also that scene was – there was a few scenes in that movie, and it's not done as much anymore because we're just thrown into the TikTok generation where everything's cuts, cuts, cuts, cuts, cuts. But that entire scene from the moment LaRusso wakes up and realizes he helped him out and saved him from the skeletons all the way up to JCPenney398 is one shot, one continuous.

20:16and it and we spent uh a while on it it was just and that was one of the scenes it might it might have been this uh might have been the scene the first scene i read with him when i auditioned when i was saying that when we we read together but that um you know that's the setup setup to the perfect payoff you know they're doing the chores and then being karate skills the the student the aggressive student wanting the answers before asking the questions, you know. Yes. So perhaps... Have all these Daniel-sons in the audience. Yes, yes. If you are a Daniel-san, say yes. Yes! Tink, let's... Or say yes, sensei.

20:57Yes. Yes, sensei. Yes. And you are now sensei. We'll get that in a moment and beyond. But this may be more about them even than it is about you or all of us coming up. And then next, we got a tank? Here we go. For four days, I've been busting my ass. I've been learning a goddamn thing. You learned plenty. I learned plenty. I learned how to sand your decks, maybe. I've washed your car, paint your house, paint your fence. I learned plenty, right? Not everything is the same. Oh, bullshit. I'm going home, man. Daniel-san. Daniel-san. What? Come here. Now show me wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off.

21:43Hey, wax on, wax off. Concentrate. Look my eye. Black hand. Thumb inside. Wax on, wax off. Show me paint the fence. Up, down. Up. Up, down, up, down, other side.

22:12Show me sand floor.

22:33And if you wax on, wax off for the next two days, you can do that. Yes. So if I could ask, how do you feel about watching the clips, like being present to it? Is it like, yeah, been there, done that nine million times? Is it, yeah, I'll say something about it for the audience? Does it still resonate for you? Like what's present for you when you see those moments? When I watch that, I remember, I mean, obviously, there's such a warmth of nostalgia, certainly. And I remember the day. Like, I remember, you know, I see the green paint that they put on my face. I remember, you know, John saying, I want him to look like he's been painting all day.

23:15And we were, you know, so I go into things that you're not thinking about besides just, you know, the emotional part of the scene. I start thinking, you know, it's that bittersweet because Pat is no longer here. John Aviles is no longer here. So a lot of the creators that made this magic are no longer with us. So there's a nostalgia embrace for me. But there's also, I remember how often we rehearsed that scene. Every scene we shot up until that point, that was probably about two-thirds of the way through the filming of the movie. And any time we were sitting around, John Avilson would say, well, work on the scene, the payoff.

23:55We need the payoff scene. You need the payoff scene. You know, it can't be fast enough. It can't be quick enough. It can't be sharp enough. And as witness to even the first time I saw this movie, that was the first. That was when the world was like, we are so into this story because we've been taken on this ride. And everyone was feeling that sense of accomplishment through the kids, through LaRusso's recognition.

24:23the messages, Robert Mark came in. I need to mention his name. He wrote this screenplay, and he's still with us. And if he was here right now, he'd say, how come you haven't mentioned my name a few more times? We have that sort of give and take between the two of us. And a lot of credit. It's in the writing. It's in the execution, certainly, in the casting and the visuals and all that. But the foundation, and if you're, you know, tell me of how much you use these pieces um one of these days you should you know connect with him as well because he would you know that's where that uh it came from and for him it came from a personal experience he was picked on as a kid and he had a master okinawan uh his own miyagi and that's where that story came from so when i see when i watch that scene and i i see um that father son that mentor student that that uh yin and yang give and take um where both grow and that's the beauty of the that film is miyagi gains as much in his life as daniel does from each other so it's a two-way street of inspiration it's really quite beautiful amen let's hear for that so um so maybe let's jump forward a bit and we'll come back to something maybe towards the end of our time together.

25:49But so this happens. When did you realize the impact or how transformational was the Karate Kid for your life? And when did you become present to if that transformation occurred to it and what it was going to mean forever? Yeah, that's I mean, that happened in phases. I mean, as early as the exit of the first sneak preview of that movie, which is the first time I had seen it, that's the introduction in the Waxing On book is all about my experience seeing that movie the first time not having seen anything and seeing it with an audience of about, you know, about six, seven hundred people in New York City.

26:33And I walked in that theater uh you know kind of the average kid that maybe two or three people say hey i think i saw you in the outsider it's really cool and i came out of that movie like i won the super bowl with stanley cup and the and the world series you know i you know i had to be ushered to the car and everyone on the street was doing the crane pose and and the producer jerry weintraub he turned to me he goes uh listen we're gonna be making a couple of these that night he said it and i i didn't i couldn't process any of that i just think i just knew i was in something special people were you know jumping hugging high-fiving you don't see that too often anymore in a movie theater first of all you don't see anyone in a movie theater because everyone's on their phone but um um so it was um so that was the onset and then it snowballed from there but it wasn't I'm sorry.

27:28Good question. If you saw the Karate Kid and all of a sudden wanted to take up karate and be the Karate Kid, say yes. Yes. Thank you. I know. Or open a bonsai kiosk at a mall. I always say, why didn't I come up with the bonsai tree kiosk? It's amazing. It's amazing. But then it became pop culture. That's what started to happen.

27:55And obviously it was sequels. So there was part two is an 86 and part three, which is, you know, not my favorite of all the Karate Kids, though people it gave Cobra Kai such such seeds to grow more fruit. It's amazing. Even the even the shortcomings in the Karate Kid trajectory bear fruit in the end. It's really quite, quite unique and amazing. But I think what started happening, interestingly, I think a lot of the writers that grew up on that movie that would write sitcoms and movies would reference the movie. This is years later. So maybe 10 years after, it started to be popping up on every talk show, sitcoms, late night.

28:47Then there was the Comic-Con started getting really popular. people would be dressing up in the shower costume of the skeletons and it started to become then there a theory where Johnny Lawrence might have been the good guy and LaRusso is the bully which is how sort of onslaught of Cobra time How does that land with me? Yes Initially it was like WTF man no way you'd be messing with Miyagi though So initially that's how I was. And I took it because that character has become such a part of me. And not only from a part of me but a part of how people view me. They feel like this was a kid they grew up with.

29:34Daniel LaRusso had no business winning anything. And that's the beauty of that character because he's a piece of all of us. It wasn't like he was a ninja on page two. He had to discover and learn and be the novice and be given these gifts of knowledge and legacy and pay that forward. And that's – this is not – I mean we don't know each other obviously very well at all. But that's what these folks are doing here. These are lawyers, accountants, financial service providers, doctors, holistic healthcare providers, real estate professionals. These are people who are training. And we talk about the deep practice.

30:14we use the framework of the Karate Kid all the time in terms of deep practice, the rise of their influence, what they do with how they emotionally get themselves to use it. We have deep practice every morning, 8 a.m., that people in these programs come into to increase their influence and their integrity, how they cause yes. And again, it's this journey of the Karate Kid is what these folks are literally experiencing. And if you feel that way about what you're doing here, say yes yes so please it's amazing amazing it's um i mean that's that's kind of the evolution of of of what it was like for me and certainly the whole the whole uh johnny's the real karate kid videos that came out about that the how i met your mother the barney stinson say and we actually did an episode of how i met your mother william zapka uh who is awesome as johnny lawrence both in the movie and Cobra Kai got a shout out to him but we it became like this groundswell of of a discussion and then I looked at that instead of saying oh wait they're not seeing it the right way to me it was like this is 20 years later and these people are still arguing about the theories of this movie that's probably that means we have a real footprint in society in the world in a good way um so it became um you know it had a cobra kai was just another angle into that universe and in the end if you've watched that entire series it kind of lands like a really good karate kid movie it's just the there's you know everyone uh got to to wear a different uh a different jacket here or there you know amen if you've seen the cobra kai say yes yeah like incredible right like incredible imagine imagine you work just walking into like any random room in the world and like like half the people plus have seen the things that you do like how many people in here have never seen ralph macchio ever on screen if you have not ever seen him in anything ever before seeing him today never ever raise your hand

32:25how crazy is that it's crazy 99.5 plus percent of people have seen your work like how does that feel that's insane you've done that it's like i'm an exercise right now it's it's really it's it's overwhelming it's hard to um it's hard to you know to put into words what that is the good news is most, thankfully, are, you know, smile about it. It's like, you know, there could be the other side. Like, you know, there are people that we've all seen a thousand times and wish we hadn't. I'm glad I've sustained some form of likability and inspiration throughout. So, it's a privilege. I mean, I, you know, I don't take, I don't make light of what I've brought to all this but i at times i feel like i stepped in something and it just bloomed like roses i'm just trying to stick the landing and pay that legacy forward to the next generation that's how i look at it and thank you and so you mentioned a few minutes ago that you know there was the there was another side to like the rise you said after the wave um and what did you mean by that please well that was you know there were i call those the lean years um as far as uh from an acting career and and and uh what looks like success on paper um however um my my wife and i who've been married 38 years right there wow um thank you had uh had two children my son is the youngest he's gonna be 30 next week it's insane to say this out loud let's hear from that but so a lot of my focus at that point was on my family and being a young dad and but there was their challenges of you know the sort of their when you look at say you look at the timeline it was a short amount of time when you look at the outsiders 1983 I mean there's other credits but I'll name the ones that we know the most that were most successful.

34:37The Outsiders, through The Karate Kid and My Cousin Vinny, was about nine years' time. And so by 92, My Cousin Vinny was 92, 93, 94, then everything just started to get quiet as far as work for me as an actor in the mainstream. Um, uh, one, I looked, I was not maturing into the leading man roles as, as, uh, as would be the, you know, the norm. Cause I still looked, I still had a, uh, childlike energy, which I still try to have. Um, which is beautiful and infectious. Yes. And then you have it too. We both have it. Yes. Thank you. I said, they said, I, have you met Sean? I said, my only concern, they said, would you want some coffee?

35:29I said, no, if I have coffee between Sean and I, the room's going to explode in a good way so um so those i would say you know from the mid 90s to the you know mid 2000s um was you know uh smaller parts here and there i started writing i started directing some short films i was trying to stay creative but i might not have always been the most pleasant guy every day to be around because it was you know there's such a you know a launch for me you know like I mentioned from the bubble gum bubble yum to outsiders to my into karate get to my cousin Vinny it was like yes yes yes yes and then all of a sudden kind of the bottom dropped out of in the mainstream for me and that was challenging I had my wife who's amazing and my family upbringing who I slowly introduced you to at the onset as the kind of safety net and the foundation of who I was and am.

36:29And I think that's, and obviously my children, as a part of what, you know, kept me on my feet. I've always, I get asked so many actors, so many famous kids of the 80s or whatever got, you know, went down a dark path whether it was you know whether it was drugs or things like that why didn't that happen to me and some of that is my own sensibilities a decent amount is my upbringing and and it was interesting in California I just wanted to be back in New York watching the Mets because they were good at that time. Or the Islanders that were winning Stanley Cups at that time. You got four in a row.