Why So Blu?

Austin Comic Con 2013: One-On-One With Ralph Macchio

As a child of the 70’s, what youngsters did not grow up with Ralph Macchio and The Karate Kid? Is that the true definition of a rhetorical question or what? I know firsthand that flick had a profound impact in my life. It gave me the much needed strength and confidence to stand up to bullies in school and also got my a$$ involved in martial arts, fighting competitions and even the donning Chuck Norris inspired Century uniforms. So as you can see, I was clearly a karate nut growing up and I owe it all to one skinny kid (well I guess he really wasn’t a kid when filming these) who took on and did the impossible in The Karate Kid. Brilliant stuff! And now after all these years I’m finally face-to-face here in the front row with the man responsible for all my fighting fervor…Mr. Ralph Macchio ladies and gentlemen.

So while I sat back and took in this spectacle I did manage to capture the following factoids that were thrown down by the man here in Ballroom F, Saturday at Austin Comic Con. And here we go!

Ralph talked about his favorite times in Austin, TX, which included alcohol…surprise, surprise…lol.

How did you learn karate? He jokingly said he faked a lot of it, but seriously was choreography. He said Pat Johnson trained him a lot.

Ralph is sad did not bring Crossroads shots for autographs. In the movie Crossroads, Ralph played the best air guitar ever. The score was pre-recorded, but he was trained where to place his hands on the neck of the guitar and got to keep the telecaster. Yeah!

Marty Cove who played the Darth Vader character in the original film (lol) was separated from Ralph during the filming, but it was not by design.

Ralph keeps in contact with others from The Outsiders. He read the book when he was twelve years old. He was happy that he got to play the part he wanted too. He said its a tight knit group and he recounted how often he sees his former cast. He says he sees Diane Lane as often as he can. Haha.

The Karate Kid Part II was shot outside of Los Angeles and an island in Hawaii to pretend it was overseas in Okinawa. The first film, however, is Ralph’s favorite film of he series. He loves the magical story arc and the main character who is relatable to all of us. He says the second one was a worthy sequel, but doesn’t hold the third one in high esteem. He said the check still cleared for it. Lol.

He thought the first Karate Kid film was a little corny when filming it. But he did say that he had a very strong connection with Pat Morita and it was silver screen magic to him. He then went onto joke about how wax on, wax off is in the dictionary now. He said that’s the cake and eating it too. Haha.

He was initially down on the general concept of the Karate Kid remake. He then told story about how Will Smith called him to have Jaden speak with him. He said he was offered to be part of it, but felt it was better to stay away to let them make it their own. He says the remake lacked the heart and soul of the original though.

And the last question dealt with his involvement in Entourage. He joked about filming in the Playboy mansion. Wife encouraged him to go and get back to work when he asked if it was okay. Lol. I wish my work was like that. Dammit! It’s like Rod Stewart always said, some guys have all the luck.