Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me

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Zabka responded, " Bruce Lee was smaller than Kareem Abdul Jabbar, but he beat him" in reference to Game of Death, to which Avildsen confirmed it. Consisting of thirteen episodes, [60] the series abandoned the karate tournament motif and followed Daniel and Miyagi, voiced by Joey Dedio and Robert Ito, respectively, in an adventure/quest setting. Beginning in October 2008, he appeared in several episodes of the ABC Network television series Ugly Betty as Archie Rodriguez, a local politician who is Hilda's love interest. For every juicy bit of behind-the-scenes lore — the origin story of the famous crane kick, for example — there’s a subtle, touching reflection on what this character and these performers have meant to Macchio over the years. I didn’t have a real read on whether this was effective in the moment, but, still, I attempted to enunciate and slow down my speech cadence.

After all, it was at Pat's funeral where you saw Billy Zabka for the first time in 20 years, and he waved and smiled at you, and you saw him in a different light. However, he believes that if he quits, his tormentors will have gotten the best of him, so he convinces Miyagi to use a pain suppression technique to help him continue. It was not a reading audition, meaning I didn’t have to perform a scene, even though the script for Back to the Future had been sent to me before I sat down with Mr. I certainly did when I saw Billy that day at Pat's memorial because I hadn't seen him in a long time.

The wonderful irony to all of this is that the all-American, apple-pie role of Marty McFly was eventually awarded to the perfectly cast, but Canadian, Michael J. Having gained newfound respect for his nemesis, Johnny presents the trophy to Daniel himself, as an enthusiastic crowd carries Daniel while Miyagi looks on proudly.

The film spawned a franchise of related items and memorabilia such as action figures, headbands, posters, T-shirts, and a video game. I remember both Emilio’s agent and my agent securing us each appointment times to audition for John Hughes for his new Universal Pictures coming-of-age movie Sixteen Candles. There was an accident during the filming of the Halloween fight that ended with Macchio being knocked out cold. In the excerpt below (which has been slightly edited from the book version), Macchio muses on the decade that birthed the first three Karate Kid movies and changed everything for him. Especially with everything that’s happening with Cobra Kai and this groundswell of attention and fame and obviously making a nice salary, to say the least, it almost seems like I planned it perfectly.The short was lauded by TV Guide's Bruce Fretts, who referred to the video as "sidesplitting" and "comic gold". Then, when we had our kids, I got to spend all that time with them when I wasn’t working so much, especially when they were young.