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Topics: Film and TV
Callum Jones
The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai star Ralph Macchio has hit back at comments The Karate Kid had 'a very white cast'.
The 60-year-old Daniel LaRusso actor stared in the 1984 classic alongside Noriyuki 'Pat' Morita as Mr. Miyagi.
In an interview in this week's issue of Stellar Magazine, Macchio said that the film was progressive for its era.
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He said: "People have said it’s a very white cast.. that it didn’t dive into the Asian story.
"But I always say this: the film was ahead of its time because it was a popcorn movie that talked about Japanese internment camps during World War 2."
"Pat always said the scene [in which it’s revealed Mr. Miyagi lost his wife and child in the camps] earned him his Oscar nomination."
"Pat himself spent two years in the camps. So it had double meaning and some depth."
Macchio used the interview to promote his new his memoir, Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me, which was released on Tuesday (18 October), where he revealed the scene only just made it in the cut.
He said: "They [movie execs] felt it took too long.
"The studio’s main concern was that with the movie running over two hours, they would lose a daily screening time, and essentially, money in the process."
However, Macchio revealed director John Avildsen said once it was screened to an audience 'they all shut up'.
Elsewhere in his memoir, Maccio opened about two major projects linked to with the Karate Kid franchise, 1994's The Next Karate Kid and the 2010 remake The Karate Kid.
The American actor who appeared in three of the franchises' films - 1984's The Karate Kid, 1986's The Karate Kid Part II and 1989's The Karate Kid Part III.
Despite playing such a huge role in the franchise, Macchio learnt about the 1994 film The Next Karate Kid by reading a newspaper.
"That is how I learned [the film] was being made... I saw it in the newspaper," Macchio said. "They went with a different writer, a different director and a different actor for the protagonist."
Macchio says he was ousted for that film as producer Jerry Weintraub said he was too old to play the role.
Hilary Swank was cast in the leading role of Julie Pierce, with the late Pat Morita reprising his role of Mr. Miyagi.
To this day, Macchio admits "for whatever reason, I have not viewed that movie curtain-to-curtain".