The Karate Kid And Cobra Kai Star Ralph Macchio Reveals Whether He Actually Knows Karate In Real Lif

Ralph Macchio’s career as an actor took off in 1984 with the release and massive success of The Karate Kid. The film would go on to make 2 sequels, The Karate Kid Part 2 and The Karate Kid part 3 in 1986 and 1989 respectively, cementing Macchio as the original Karate Kid even though 2 other actors would take on the role in 1994’s The Next Karate Kid and 2010’s Karate Kid. Macchio stayed out of the Karate Kid franchise until it was picked up again in 2018 as a Netflix Series titled Cobra Kai which was set in the same continuity as the original 3 Karate Kid films.

The series recently finished its 5th season which is its highest-rated season yet. The series features Macchio reprising his role as Daniel LaRusso from the original films. Other stars from the original films have also returned in the series, including William Zabka who played Johnny Lawrence, Daniel’s antagonist from the first movie.

After so many years in the Karate Kid franchise, the most crucial question that fans want to know the answer to is whether Macchio actually knows Karate in real life. This question was posed to Macchio in a recent interview with WIRED and he dished out the details of how he was trained in Karate in the first movie by  Pat E. Johnson who actually played the referee in his final fight in the first film. Here is his full quote:

“That would be a gentleman by the name of Pat E. Johnson. If you’ve seen The Karate Kid film, he played the referee in the final tournament, and that was Pat Johnson. He taught all of us, trained me in goju-ryu style, Okinawan classic karate, and Pat Morita as well. He was a big part of creating all of those sequences. Most often I don’t [use a stunt double]. I really try to do all the stuff. Certainly it was easier back in the day. Yeah, I’ve hurt myself a few times. You know, I’ve never broken anything. That’s just made the biggest mistake ever saying that out loud.”

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Cobra Kai season 5 just wrapped up on Netflix. There is no confirmed release date but given the high demand for the show, season 6 is definitely in the works.

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