The Karate Kid, Ralph Macchio (11/16)

to be on guys. Thanks so much. Man, it's funny. Hey a Long Island native, Ralph grew up in Ning Ten, New York. Of course, that's Strong Island, Long Island, Strong Island. Can you describe your Jets fandom? Uh coming up as a youngster, Oh yeah, I mean listen, I early day remembrance is probably I would say some of the earliest sports memories. Well, it was a big year sixty nine with the New York Mets on the baseball side, but

the New York Jets on on the football side. I mean, you know, I had my It's it's recently past Halloween, and I I was Joe name. It would like at eight years old, you know, with the big shoulder pads, and there's just ninety eight probably probably sixty five pound weekling at the time, maybe fifty two pound weekling at

the time. Um dressed up his name it is and had all the all the posters of Emerson Boozer and all those uh, all those guys back in the I'm dating myself, but back in the heyday of of that that amazing time, and then through the through the seasons, uh, you know, until you know, back in when I used to freeze my butt off at at Chase Stadium. Uh, just freezing handful of games back in the I would the seventies eighties, then into the you know, into the

sack exchange years, and so I'm always there. What was that connection? Why was it in Long Island that Hey, listen, you're growing up and you're about Ralph Macchio's age, you're probably picking the Jets, the Mets and the Islanders and vice versa. If you're going old school, you probably are picking the Giants, the New York Rangers hockey wise, and of course the New York Yankees, Right, I think I don't know. For me, I think it was, first of all.

I mean when I was you know, I was in grade school, you know, early grade school, those were the teams that were good. Uh the Islanders, not yet they hadn't Islanders and seventy two, but as a long Islander that was our own team, I mean, as our backyard, suburban major sports teams. So that's why I hoped into the Islanders. And it didn't take long for them to win a Stanley Cup in within uh, you know, within

eight years. But as far as the Jets, you know, it's mentioned nine six nine around that time, and the Mets as well. Those were those those at the back page and front page of all the newspapers. So I think that probably lend itself to me going to that direction at a young age. I hope you're aware of this, because I wasn't until rather recently that you have your own bobble head in an Islander's uniform. Yes, I do. That one's off the bucket list. Yeah. They were very cool.

You know. Listen, I go all in as a fan, as anyone in the Jets organization could say. I've always you know, any time I could get out to the games and I'm and any time I go watch them and and follow the team. I I really I'm a big sports fan. And with the Islanders, they they at this promotion last year and it really was a big success and it was a lot of fun. Um to sort of pay homage to, uh, to the Daniel Russo character, but to keep him a hockey player. Um. And it's

a lot of fun. And even with the Jets, I did the j T S Jets Jets Jets chant a couple of years ago at the center of the you know, of of the gridiron, and uh, it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. I share in office with our senior director of commerce, that's Chris Pierce, and maybe I can work on getting you a Jets boblehead. I listen, I'm I'm all. I would love to have my three favorite teams. Uh, you know at the head

of the desk. You know, we're just I'm all. I'm all in for for participating and bringing attention to the teams that I've always was for, despite sometimes complaining about each organization for some reason. As the fan, Uh, could you always want to be better all the time? That's just passion. You're you're in your fifties now, but I consider yourself a youngster just like me, but you are a dad. Have you passed on your Jets fandom to

your children? Yes, certainly, certainly. They all they're they're and my daughter is she's twenty five now, believe that or not. My son is twenty two, just recently. It's crazy, but it is true. Uh as and as I don't understand it since I'm only in my mid thirties, or at least in my mind. Uh So, yeah, it's great to share all that stuff. I mean, they share the frustrations

as well, and uh, it's it's all good. It's all good fun in the crazy world we uh we live in to just you know, rally around something that's that's uh, that's fun that you could all do together. That's what I love about sports. And you know what sports could do with a city like Houston, what they've just been through.

It's nice to see people able to come together in something that's uh, you know, in the backdrop of such tragedy to a city, that a city can rally like that, and you know, that's one of the great things that sports does. If you could work with any current and former Jet who would it be and why I could see you working with bart Scott bart Scott, Yeah, if I could get in one word edge y, but I would say, you know, I was a big Freeman McNeil

fan back in that mid section the time. For some reason, I used to really enjoy Oh another thing, that's funny. I never forget I had a um I guess it was Sean Green when we beat the Patriots. He put the Patriots to bed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I love that was like my me and my son both had that ring tone of that that play call I gotta tell, I Gotta tell white shoes when she wasn't about that. I'll love that. Yeah, we had that for a little while.

And then we also even my my I believe my my daughter, who's not the biggest football fan, at one point they can't wait, uh you know at the bart Scotts can't wait. You know, anybody can be you know. I love the Sol interview. It's just that's a that's a that's a YouTube sensation. Yeah, you're certainly right about that. So, Ralph, what projects are you currently working on right now? What? What can you tell me about The Deuce season two? And then, uh, well, go with that first and then

we'll get to the other show later. Yeah, the other show is happening right now. Is big news. The Deuce has been. The Deuce has been, uh, just a great experience. Where Season two starts up, I believe in February production wise, so it'll be a solid year before before that that comes out. But it is such a critical success and so such a well done uh drama that David Simon and George Pelicanos those guys that didn't wire and they're

just phenomenal writer is and its top shelf creatively. It's early seventies it uh, it's really the authenticity of that time in that era because like as were mentioning, you know, the Jets back in the late sixties, early seventies. I remember that time as a kid, and I remember that area of New York City Times Square, and it wasn't it wasn't um you know, the Lion King and Aladdin like she is now. It was a different at different times.

I've played his vice cop on the show always, and this was when the police department was certainly uh crooked and on the take as everyone else was, and and uh and and making money off of you know, not quite honorable things. Um, but The Deuce is a great project to be involved with. I don't I bet it's a you know, not a big role in it, but I got to be in five of the eight episodes and I'm proud to be part of it. And I didn't kill me off yet, So we'll see what happens there.

And then the other a show, which is the biggest news going on right now for me, is you mentioned the Karate Kid earlier and Daniel L. Russo and that the legacy of that character in that film and the pop culture that it has become over more than three decades. Now. Um, we are shooting a show called Cobra Kai and uh and that will be out on YouTube read, which is a premium service. Everything is streaming television now being Nets, Legs, Amazon, Hulu and now YouTube um um and it's uh, it's

thirty years uh plus later. Um. Johnny Lawrence, the lay

by williams. Zapka, who is the blonde haired bully who was kicked in the face with the infamous crane kick, the one move that I had in my arsenal and uh we crossed paths thirty years later and it's he opens He's go heading to open the Cobra Kai Do show, but a very successful Daniel Russo will not let that happen on his watch and uh and great great stories and sue, Um, it's it's and it also we also infuse a whole new high school generation for two thousand

and eighteen, UM on the relevance of what what it life is like at that age and with through martial arts, and also what bullying is in today's day and age versus what it was in Um, it's much more complicated now and so but it is got a lot of comedic elements to it, a lot of heart and soul and nostalgia. But you know, whether you're a fan of the movie or not, this show should be very entertaining

for everyone. But if you are a fan of the movie, it will get your geek on as far as a fan because we will pepper in little pieces of great callbacks to what created that franchise. And it was just the right time and the it's the right time to

do it. I've said no for thirty years the right here's who created this concept, um really have a handle on it and uh, and it was fresh and original and it's the perfect time for it, and the ground swell of attention it's been getting just from people in anticipation, it's it's exciting. So the scripts are good and it'll be out. It looks like this spring ten episodes and that's hopefully season one of many. Well we shall see. Well we're wishing your lock in that production. But hey,

where is most of that being shot right now? It's being shot in Atlanta and some Los Angeles. Um it takes plates in Los Angeles. Um as is the case the business, it's show business, not always show art. And the tax incentives the shooting Atlanta, uh and then around Georgia or or why there are forty productions in Atlanta right now, including ant Man and the Avengers and the Stranger Things in the Walking deads and it's just become like Hollywood South and for us, we're gonna go to

Los Angeles and shoot the larger exterior pieces. Um. So you could tie in the two together. When you finished up that movie, how old were you and at that time, Ralph, were you thinking, Uh, yeah, this is gonna be a pretty big deal. Um No, none of us, none of us knew. We didn't have a clue to the director has Gona recorded say saying that, and myself as well. We didn't. We thought, you know, it was going well.

We felt I certainly felt that my scenes with with Pat, the late great Pat Marito were had a special quality to them. But as far as I mean, you cannot. You know, if you could sign up and create this all the time you did, there'd be a lot more hits out there. You know. This is just one of those that just hit at the right time, the right cast, the right filmmakers, to right scripts. And uh, I was

twenty one turned two at the time. Um, you know, on the Macheo curve, you always have to pull eight years of my I played sixteen for thirty seven years, is always my joke. Um, But so I was the perennial sixteen year old for for a very long time. And uh, it's just we didn't know. We did not know, I will say this much. When we saw the film for the first time in a packed house, the producer

said a story I told many times. The producer Jerry Weinschov, leaned over to me and when we walked outside and saw people doing the crane pose in the street and on there you know, on park benches, and whether they were ten years old or fifty years old, he said, we're going to be making a couple of these, And so you kind of knew when you walked out of the theater. Yeah, there was. It's just like when you sing in the lead song of a great musical. That's how you know you have a hit. So but who

knew to get him a body back? The leg and wax on wax off would be like an the dictionary. Now, hey, the people still stop you at the airport when you're flying between Atlanta and New York in l A. It's say, hey, man, there's the karate kid. Yeah, it's you know, it's it's something. Uh, it's something that I that I carry proudly on my shoulder. Um, it's you know, and listen, it's a good He's a great character. He was the every kid next door back

in the day. And I think that's one of the reasons it has worked and continues to hold up because he represented a piece of all of us. He had no business winning anything. So the fact that he succeeded and overcame those obstacles sounds like the Jackson nineteen Yeah, exactly, exact if you get sports analogies, I use him every day. Hey, every day. My thing about you is, you're sitting here now fifty five years old. You played so many different

roles over the years. How challenging was it post karate kid for a while to be cast in a new role and ultimately by this time you're obviously way beyond that. Now now you're playing cops who are on the take in New York City in the seventies. But what about

the challenge of that moving on from it? It's it's listen, they're always you know, uh, scenarios where you're on the stereotype or pigeonholeding casting and you're constantly needing to reinvent yourself, um creatively and also in the minds of of of the audience and the studios end or networks as the people the buyers, if you will, you know, they categorized.

I mean, it was just it's it is challenging. As I always tell the story with my cousin and Vinny, which was a film that I really had to go in and and I didn't have to win over the director and producer, but the studio was just a blanket nag you don't want him. He was you know that you were fantastic, thank you very much and mean and and it was but that's was That's the story. That is the classic story is I just I just came off sort of the arc of of a big success

and had a little bit of that lull time. As always ebbs and flows and and so on. The list for whatever reason to play in Italian from New York as Joe Pesci's cousin didn't make casting sense, which is kind of hideous. Um and uh, but you know, yeah, and so I had to get in there and I had, you know, it was a fight. And then but as soon as I went in audition for the his director who was in English from England, and he says, I don't understand what the problem is. This is the perfect

eye for the part. What did you like as about that role, about my cousin, Minnie? The role is because I felt I felt like I knew that guy. I I never took the cross country trip from uh from you know, as as they were doing, and I never got taught stealing tune in Beecham County, Alabama. But but then I never shot the clerk. But I I felt like I I connected to that guy. I knew Joe

Pesci from running into him. I was working on Broadway with Robert de Niro in a play called Koban His Teddy Bear, and Joe him to see the play a few times, and that's how I got to know him. So I felt a little all in the family there. The best part of being involved with that, that film is one it has become. It's one of those films

that I call it the late for dinner movie. Anytime it's on, you're gonna be late for dinner because you just can't watch one scene only and uh and then and then the birth of Marissa Tomay and that's that spectacular performance. It's just anytime you could be in something. And I look at The Outsiders, another film home that that has sort of stood that at the time I got I got lucky on a couple of them back

in the day, and they still resonate somewhat. So you deal with the typecast the best you can and uh, and just try to continue doing good work. And you can't control at all. All you could control is the amount of focus, energy, passion you put into anything you do. I have I've been a victim of the Late for Dinner movie because of my cousin Vinny multiple times. I really like that analogy. I'm gonna start using that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because it's one of those wands. Listen, you turn it

on and like you said, Ralph, like this movie. It's great. This is a classic part. Don't move no, Okay, we're supposed to eat at seven, we end up eating at nine. That's right, because it's the payoffs. They they they the setups all payoff and lead into the next and it and the hurdles get bigger and bigger for the for

the protagonists, for the Joe Pesci charriage. Karate Kid has that too, where you just you know, everything that's set up at the the chores on the waxing the car and sending the tech and painting pay off, and Mike cousin video you know, interestingly has those parallels, but in a comedic way. All right, listen, you have an open invitation, as you should know, and I hope you do know by now, to Carmere, to the facility anytime you want. You're gonna come to the game. I know you're a

busy man. We're gonna be checking out The Deuce season two, and that's on HBO where you're playing a cap um and also Cobra Kay is coming out in the spring. You're working hard on that someone. We know obviously you got a demanding schedule, but you are a passionate Jets fan, so you are welcome home anytime you want. And my last question for you at Ralph Machio on Twitter is what are the secrets to looking so young, so youthful

at your young age? Yeah? Know, and I have a birthday around the corner and literally within the next couple of days. Uh, it's I blame my parents. It's their fault, you know. I mean, I would love to have the magic potion. Um, a decently clean lifestyle. Decently I enjoy that. I enjoyed that adult average when I you should have and I do, and certainly on a football Sunday it's so he's the sweeter. But for the most part, try to lead a clean, healthy life best I can. And uh,

but it's good jeans. I mean, I just, um, you know, my parents are in pushing eighty and they look like they're in their mid sixties, you know, and so uh so I got I got cursed with that blessing. Let's put it that way, all right, with that curse, keep on living clean, Ralph. But when you come up here, I'll buy you a couple of pops because you deserve. I look forward to that. I wish I wish I

had more week to get up to this year. I love getting out to the games and being there for the warm up on the field, and I brought my family out a few times and we have some great memories from that, and we will do more of that when I'm when I'm back up there. Thanks so much. Great catching up with you, all right, guys, enjoy man you will all right there. You have it. Make sure

to stay tuned. As he said, we got inside the Jets every Monday, we got the game preview later in the week, and then of course now we got the celebrity section here recover all your bases on the Official Jets podcast. That's all we got for Eric Allen, Ralph Maccio, anything Greenberg,