Monday Update

Fame on, Fame off

Ralph Macchio reflects on films that made him famous

By Douglas HydeSpecial to CNN.com
Special Monday Update extended commentary in super blue text
Tuesday, February 8, 2005 Posted: 11:36 AM EST (1636 GMT)

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- For Ralph Macchio, there's just no escaping "The Karate Kid."

Particularly a certain phrase.

" 'Wax on, wax off' -- [it] comes every day. Well, maybe not every day, but every week," says Macchio. "And everyone yells out the phrase as if they'd just come up with the idea, thinking, 'Whoa, isn't that genius? Hey Ralph, wax on, wax off!' "

If you ever see Ralph on the street, don’t be a schlub. Say something original. “Hey Ralph, good to see you—I bet a friend of mine $5 you were dead! What have you been up to for these past 21 years?”

Still, Macchio has gotten used to nostalgic Gen-X'ers quoting lines from the 1984 coming-of-age classic. Now, to his surprise, another generation is picking up on the film.

I remember seeing Karate Kid and being so pumped up! I felt like I could do anything. Of course, it was all a cock-a-doody lie. It turns out I couldn’t do “anything.” It was all so much falderal. What I *could* do was develop a pretty heavy chemical dependency problem, drop out of community college, and play X Box a lot. Remembering the deception of my childhood tortures my soul. Thank you Daniel-san.

"I go into Blockbuster now and I bump into the sales person or the person behind the desk and they say the film is always out, [that] parents say, 'Oh, this is a good one. I want to share this with my kids.' "

Look Mr. Macchio, we’ve talked about this before. If you don’t stop trying to autograph the rental movies I’m going to have to call the police again. Remember last time? Now please, just go back to your car and sleep it off.

Those parents (and kids) can now get a new edition of the film. A special edition DVD, loaded with extras, arrived last week as part of a four-disc "Karate Kid Collection" box set.

“Loaded with extras.” Translation: There’s some limited scene selection capability (movie 1st half or 2nd half), the theatrical trailer for Starship Troopers, and you can turn on Spanish subtitles. Disks 2, 3 and 4 are blank recordable DVD-Rs.

Macchio has watched it with his own kids and was surprised to discover he identified not with his teenage character, Daniel LaRusso (or "Daniel-san"), but with a certain sage handyman/karate master.

You are going to sit there and watch my movies and eat your popcorn, damnit. I don’t care what your friends are doing. They should be watching this too. This is classic—look, this is the part where I stand there like a wounded chicken. Hey, missy—you cut that out right now or I’ll GIVE you something to cry about…

"It was interesting to watch the film with them, and for the first time I was relating to the Miyagi character, as the mentor, as the one trying to guide the misguided youth," he says of the teacher played by Noriyuki "Pat" Morita. "And I kept saying this Daniel character is just a little arrogant in making these mistakes."

Pat stopped returning my calls about 14 years ago. He said he was going “off the grid” and I wouldn’t be able to reach him probably. But then I heard he was dating Calista Flockhart for a while. I think he just doesn’t have a new permanent number yet. It’s hard when you’re all famous like us. I’m sure he’s going to call me soon. I’m going to sit over her by the phone, just in case.

'You learn to appreciate it'

The "Karate Kid" DVD box set includes all four films: "The Karate Kid" (1984), "The Karate Kid Part II" (1986), "The Karate Kid Part III" (1989) and "The Next Karate Kid" (1994), the latter starring a then-unknown actress named Hilary Swank.

Of course, it’s funny because now Hilary Swank is such a household name. Just say “Hilary” and people immediately respond “Swank.” It’s like playing Marco Polo for Generation X people. They love it.

Macchio admits some of the films are better than others.

Mainly the ones that are Macchio-free tend to be better. Casablanca is great, and I’ve always thought Rear Window was one of Hitch’s best.

"The first film was by far my favorite. I think the second was a very worthy sequel and it explores a whole other culture. It takes you to a whole different place and you explore more of Miyagi's past and his life," he says. "I think the third one was because the second one made a lot of money, and that happens a lot. It's not, it's certainly not my favorite of the three.

In retrospect, I probably should have saved some of the money. But I was on such a roll it seemed like it would never end. Then, the whole franchise went all Hollywood and everything and stopped being about the bittersweet relationship between a boy and his karate mentor and went in this whole other direction. Of course, I begged for even a cameo part--but the director said he just couldn’t let me compromise my vision and artistic integrity by putting me in the movie...at all.

"And then Hilary Swank -- whatever happened to her?" -- he adds jokingly --"she's on the verge of winning her second Oscar or close to it, did a fourth one. That was a different director, a different writer, but it's the same Miyagi."

With the exception of his supporting role in 1992's "My Cousin Vinny," Macchio hasn't been in a high-profile movie since the "Karate Kid" era. Daniel LaRusso continues to be the role he's most closely identified with.

I’ve been doing this landscaping thing for a few years now. It’s pretty lucrative. It was called Karate Kid Garden Services at first but the studio owns the rights to the name--and so now it’s just “Ralph’s Lawn and Sprinkler.” I have my own pickup truck and a trailer where the mowers and weed whips go. I had a couple of kids who helped out in the summer, but that didn’t really work out. Sometimes I sleep in the extended cab.

It's something he's finally at peace with.

"There was a bit of time where it was overwhelming, but as time goes by, as you age you get smarter and wiser with these things and you learn to appreciate it," he says. "When you consider how few times the magic can work, you begin to realize that it's a privilege and you're quite fortunate to have had the opportunity."

I think I have a pretty good shot at “Circus of the Stars” this year. David Hasselhoff’s elbow has been acting up, which means there might be an opening on the *trapeze of doom* that I’d be perfect for.

One can almost hear an old teacher saying, "Very wise, Daniel-san. Miyagi have hope for you."

Doug Ganley also contributed to this report.

Mr. Hyde, I’m all through checking the verb tense, do you want any punctuation in here—some commas or something?