Cinema Shorthand Society Wrote:Q: "What was the casting like for "The Karate Kid" (1984)? Did they put out a call sheet for “blonde @ssholes”?"

William Zabka: "[Laughs] No, but there was sure a lot of them in the waiting room. I was actually with a commercial agent, and I was just starting out. I said, 'I want to be in movies, maybe I can do some movies.' And they started sending me out on these auditions. One of them was at Columbia [Pictures] at the time—I forget the movie, but it was being cast by Pennie DuPont, who was one of the casting directors of 'The Karate Kid'. I didn’t get that film, but I got a call that they wanted me to come in and read for a movie called 'The Karate Kid.' I remember talking to my manager—I was actually at the gym, working out in my rainbow headband and tank top—and I said, 'I don’t know karate.' He said, 'Well, they still want to see you.' So I went down and I met with [casting directors] Caro Jones and Pennie DuPont, and we talked for a minute and they said, 'You’re perfect for this.' They handed me a script—which was the first time I ever had a script. I went home and I read it, and then I really felt like I’m never going to be able to do this. I was like, 'This guy’s like a champion martial artist. I don’t know any karate.'

But I connected with Johnny, that’s the for-sure thing. It was the first script I ever read where I thought, 'Well, this is kind of easy. I don’t even have to act this.' Not that I’m a jerk, but I just get the guy. I went to the interview and pulled up in my dad’s 1971 red Volvo station wagon with Def Leppard playing in the car. I walked into the room, and there was a whole world of blonde-haired, blue-eyed Johnnies, and everybody seemed to be in character. I came from the commercial acting world, and that’s a little different, where everybody’s friendly. This was the more serious 'thespian' world, so everybody was in character. I thought, 'I’m just going to go sit in the car because nobody’s talking to me.'

And then they pulled me into the room and I read for John. I think I grabbed the guy’s shirt and then I left, and I didn’t expect to get a callback. Then a few weeks later I was back in there. I think the final audition for me was actually about three weeks into the martial arts training. They brought all the studio heads and [producer] Jerry Weintraub, and all the producers came into the karate room where I was training for me to do a flying sidekick—the one I do at the fence fight in the skeleton outfit. They wanted to see how my martial arts [training] was coming along. But in the meantime, they had five or six replacement Johnnies sitting on the floor.

Now, either they were going to replace me or they were going to double me, I don’t know what, but it felt like my last audition. So I was a little nervous, and I remember throwing this flying sidekick. Pat Johnson [a martial arts choreographer who played the film’s referee] had this big pad up next to Ralph Macchio’s head, and it was a really sloppy kick. The air went out of the room. Pat looked at me and said, 'Focus. You can do this.' I went back and did another flying sidekick, and this one was perfect somehow. My heel actually went through the pad and punctured a hole in the drywall, so all the drywall kind of came down, and there was all this dust from behind the pad. Pat removed the pad, and there was a hole in the wall—it was almost like it was planned that way. Before the drywall cleared, everybody was out of the room. I guess I proved myself or something. That was the moment when I thought, 'I’m actually going to get to play this character.'" (AV Club)

Happy Birthday, William Zabka!

(11-05-2021, 10:07 PM)Drunk Monk Wrote: I want to see Moon come back into play.