‘Sorry to ask such a personal question,” I say to Ralph Macchio, who at 63 we can no longer call The Karate Kid. Let’s go with karate man. He’s in the basement of his house in Los Angeles. “My daughter’s working upstairs, my son’s working, I’ve been relegated to the dungeon,” he says. I continue: “So exactly how good are you at karate?”
Forty-one years since he first became Daniel LaRusso, Macchio is back in the role for Karate Kid: Legends. In this fictive universe, it’s three years since the end of Netflix series Cobra Kai and LaRusso has settled into his gardening gloves and embraced the spirit of his own mentor, Mr Miyagi, whose graceful, defensive karate style, Miyagi-Do, was all about never looking for a fight. Jackie Chan (reprising the role of Mr Han from the 2010 reboot The Karate Kid) comes to beg of him one more job.
