Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me - Hardcover

Macchio, Ralph

 
9780593185834: Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0593185838 ISBN 13: 9780593185834
Verlag: Dutton, 2022

Inhaltsangabe

An instant New York Times Bestseller! 

Since The Karate Kid first crane-kicked its way into the pop culture stratosphere in June 1984, there hasn’t been a week Ralph Macchio hasn’t heard friendly shouts of “Wax on, wax off” or “Sweep the leg!” Now, with Macchio reprising his role as Daniel LaRusso in the #1 ranked Netflix show Cobra Kai, he is finally ready to look back and cele-brate the legacy of The Karate Kid in cinema, pop culture, and his own life.

The result, Waxing On, is a comprehensive look at the film that shaped Macchio as much as it influenced the world. He shares an insider’s perspective of the untold story behind the scenes—the innocence of the early days; the audition process; his experiences working with Pat Morita, Elisabeth Shue, and William Zabka; and so much more. He also takes readers through the birth of some of the film’s most iconic moments, including the creation of the famous crane kick and the touching scenes that revealed Mr. Miyagi’s intriguing backstory.

Ultimately, the book centers on Ralph’s indelible connection to the film itself, focusing on the reason that the characters and themes have endured in such a powerful way, and how these personal experiences have impacted Macchio’s life as well. It brings readers back to the day they met Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi for the first time, but also provides a fascinating lens into how our pasts shape all of us, and how they can come back to enrich our lives in surprising and wonderful ways.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

An actor, producer, director with an extensive list of credits, Ralph Macchio is best known for his celebrated performance as Johnny in Frances Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders; the hit film My Cousin Vinny; and most notably for the title role in the popular classic The Karate Kid and its successors. Expanding further on the Karate Kid Universe, Ralph continues to reprise his iconic role of Daniel LaRusso in the hit Netflix series Cobra Kai. He lives on Long Island with his family.

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Since The Karate Kid first crane-kicked its way into the pop culture stratosphere in June 1984, there hasn’t been a week Ralph Macchio hasn’t heard friendly shouts of “Wax on, wax off” or “Sweep the leg!” Now, with Macchio reprising his role as Daniel LaRusso in the #1 ranked Netflix show Cobra Kai, he is finally ready to look back at this classic movie and give the fans something they’ve long craved.

The book will be Ralph Macchio’s celebratory reflection on the legacy of The Karate Kid in film, pop culture, and his own life. It will be a comprehensive look at a film that shaped him as much as it influenced the world. Macchio will share an insider's perspective of the untold story behind his starring role―the innocence of the early days, the audition process, and the filmmaking experience--as well as take readers through the birth of some of the film’s most iconic moments.

Ultimately, the book centers on the film itself, focusing on the reason that the characters and themes have endured in such a powerful way and how these personal experiences have impacted Macchio's life. It will bring readers back to the day they met Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi for the first time, but will also provide a fascinating lens into how our pasts shape all of us and how the past can come back to enrich one's life in surprising and wonderful ways.

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Chapter One

Becoming the Kid

It was late spring 1983. The Outsiders, my first major film, based on the classic S. E. Hinton novel, was finishing up a fairly successful run at movie theaters, and the notices for my performance as Johnny Cade were pretty solid. Still, to this day, it's one of my favorite roles on film. It was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and featured a cast that rivals any as far as launching big careers, including those of Cruise, Swayze, Lane, Lowe, and Dillon, to name a few. So, I was feeling pretty confident that things might be lining up in a good way for me as well. I was back home in New York on Long Island in the house where I grew up. My beloved New York Islanders were poised to win their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup championship, I was listening to Springsteen's The River album on a loop, and summer was right around the corner. I wondered what would be next.

It had been a few years since I was back in my old room full-time. A poster of Scorsese's Raging Bull still lived above my bed. A framed collage of Gene Kelly was a focal point too. I wanted to be as cool and smooth as him when I was a little kid-an early influence from watching MGM movie musicals with my mom. I even took tap-dance lessons for a while in between Little League baseball games and working with my dad on Saturdays. My mom and I would often watch the four-thirty movie on WPIX, channel 11, after I got home from school. I was probably around six or seven years old when my love affair with movies and storytelling was born. My younger brother had taken more organically to the family laundromat and pump-truck businesses at that time. My mind was elsewhere, inside my imagination. In my early teens, between school plays and dance recitals, I would audition for commercials here and there. By the time I graduated high school I had landed two Bubble Yum spots and my first film role, in a movie titled Up the Academy. From there, I wanted to emulate my acting heroes. Brando, Pacino, De Niro, and a few New York Mets bobbleheads still peppered the bookshelves of my room. Springsteen and Billy Joel albums finished off the dŽcor over yesteryear's shag carpet, which still covered the hardwood floor. This was where I had grown up. This was where I had daydreamed that I could "make it."

After Up the Academy, I lived in Los Angeles for two years coming off my one-season stint on ABC's Eight Is Enough. I was nineteen at that point. I stayed in California for the second year to further my craft, focusing on acting classes and auditions in between teen magazine shoots, before Coppola awarded me a role as one of the "greasers" in his newest film. This was a huge break for me. A big win and step up in Hollywood street cred. And so, it was on that day that I made the decision to move back to New York after filming of The Outsiders was complete. I missed the East Coast energy and was eager to experience The Outsiders' release from home. Plus, New York City was only a train ride away, and this proved to be the right move for what was about to happen.

So there I was, sitting in my room on a faux-leather beanbag chair, probably with Martha Quinn in the background introducing a music video on my nineteen-inch Panasonic television, when the phone rang. I excitedly received the information about an upcoming audition for the starring role in a new Columbia Pictures movie. Okay, that's cool.

I found out they were making a film based on a newspaper article about a kid who was picked on and how martial arts helped him confront his bullies. Sounds intriguing.

It was being directed by the guy who made Rocky. First the Godfather director and now the Rocky director. This is feeling really good now!

The character's name was Danny Webber. Hmmm, okay, I guess I could be a Webber.

And the title of the script they were sending me was:

The-Karate-Kid

What? Seriously? Was this a cartoon? An after-school special? All I kept thinking was, What a silly, lame-ass title. It must be a placeholder. Gotta be a working title, right? Okay, one thing at a time. They were sending the script my way, and I would read it with an open mind over the weekend in preparation for my audition.

Here's what I remember about my first reading of Robert Mark Kamen's now classic screenplay. I recall connecting to the father-and-son elements and heart in the story right off the bat, even though I knew virtually nothing about Japanese culture. I didn't know what a bonsai tree was either, so that part was confusing. I found some of the high school story line characters a bit corny and stereotyped. As far as the fight scenes, it's always very difficult to grasp action sequences on the page, but I did feel they were unique and that the underdog dynamic was just so perfect in the hands of John G. Avildsen. Rocky was such an influential movie in my childhood. Perhaps the title was just a play on what they should have been calling it, The Ka-Rocky Kid. Actually, that is what Avildsen jokingly said the film could arguably be branded. Personally, I could not get past the fact that this major motion picture script would have such a ridiculous title. I mean, can you imagine? If I ever did get this part and the movie hit, I would have to carry this label for the rest of my life!!

Three days later, the sound of a train whistle blared as a westbounder entered the Babylon station. It was audition day, and there I was in my white Tom Petty concert shirt and my black Members Only-type jacket, stepping onto a Long Island Rail Road train to New York City. For some reason that I cannot explain today, that was my choice of wardrobe for this character. As the train made its way to Penn Station, I had the usual butterflies as I went over my audition scene. For reference, it was the scene that directly follows Mr. Miyagi's saving Daniel from the skeleton beatdown. The scene where Daniel discovers that Miyagi is a karate master. (The actual footage from that day lives on YouTube. Avildsen uploaded my first reading of the character years after the movie came out-it is intercut with Pat Morita's first-ever reading of Mr. Miyagi. It's really worth a look.)

Now, when you first go in to audition for a role, it's most often only with the casting director. What was unique about this scenario was that I was on my way to the director's home, an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where I would meet with the Oscar-winning filmmaker John Avildsen one-on-one. As I rode uptown in my cab from Penn Station to Eighty-something Street, I wondered if, maybe, word of my performance in The Outsiders had gotten me past the first round. That had to be it, right? Not so fast. (Insert record scratch here.) When I arrived, I found a hallway packed with teenagers of all shapes and sizes. I reset my ego, took a deep breath, and made my way toward the apartment door at the end of the hall.

I distinctly remember hearing a few actors mocking the title as I navigated the crowded hallway, making fun of it as they snickered. It's interesting; in that moment I felt very validated on one level, but after spending the weekend with the script and preparing, I was now compelled to defend it. Sort of like sticking up for your brother. "Hey, I can make fun of him, but you can't." I was oddly offended by their negative comments about the title. How about that? Looking back, perhaps that was the first sign that I had a personal connection to this role, that it was somehow "destined" for me.

Finally, after a significant wait, during which I tried to remain loose and not give in to my pre-audition nerves, I heard my name called. It was my turn. I walked through John's apartment toward a back office, passing framed movie posters for Save the Tiger, The Formula, and Rocky. Something shiny and gold caught my eye on a shelf; I believe I was probably half...

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Verlag
Dutton
Erscheinungsdatum
2022
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0593185838
ISBN 13 
9780593185834
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Auflage
1
Anzahl der Seiten
256
Kontakt zum Hersteller
preigu GmbH & Co. KG
mail@preigu.de

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