When Ralph Macchio read the script for The Karate Kid, the 1984 blockbuster that turned him into a household name, he had one thought: “I remember hearing the title, saying, ‘The Karate Kid? This is a terrible title.’”
But as Macchio told Vanity Fair, despite trepidation about its name, he was more than happy to audition for The Karate Kid. “It was the beginning of being taken seriously,” the actor said of that time in his career, just after he landed a key role in Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of The Outsiders opposite future stars like Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, and Patrick Swayze.
Directed by John G. Avildsen, The Karate Kid starred Macchio as Daniel LaRusso, a New Jersey teen who moves to California and learns karate with the help of a handyman turned sensei, Mr. Miyaga (Pat Morita).
“I was cast early on, and then it was all about who was going to play Mr. Miyagi. They were talking about Toshiro Mifune, the great Japanese actor, who didn’t speak any English, so that would have been a challenge,” Macchio recalled. It was Avildsen, he said, who suggested Morita for the role. “The studio did not want him, the producer did not want him. I was like, ‘Arnold from Happy Days?’” Macchio said.
Any doubt, however was alleviated after their dual audition. “Pat Morita and I got in a room together, just grabbed the pages and started reading. It was effortless,” Macchio said. “The magic that happened on the screen happened that first day when we picked up the pages.”
Released in the summer of 1984, The Karate Kid became a sleeper hit and one of the highest-grossing movies of the year, finishing fourth overall behind Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Gremlins. A sequel, which reunited Macchio and Morita, followed in 1986—not that anyone involved with the first film was surprised by its success.
“We came out of seeing a sneak preview of The Karate Kid, and everybody out on the sidewalk and in the parking lot was doing the crane stance,” Macchio said of his famous pose. “They all were doing their version, whether they were a 10-year-old kid or a 60-year-old man. The producer, Jerry Weintraub, put his arm around me and said, ‘We’re going to be making a couple of these.’”