In 2010, Ralph Macchio starred in a hilariously self-aware video for Funny or Die called “Wax On, F–k Off,” parodying his good-guy image. In it, his family and friends stage an intervention, trying to get the former child star to misbehave so he can become relevant.
Staying scandal-free and being married for 28 years has now paid off for the “Karate Kid” in the form of a new off-Broadway play, “A Room of My Own.” It features a writer (Macchio) reminiscing about his life growing up in a tiny Greenwich Village studio, and Macchio was cast because playwright-director Charles Messina wanted someone who was “grounded.”
The Huntington, LI, native, now 54, and father of two grown children dishes on his life.
Warning: graphic content
What was it like growing up on Long Island?
Long Island is home. It still is. I have a house in mid-Long Island and a house out on the East End. I call it “the house that the ’80s built.”
How do people treat you when you’re out on the streets? I picture a lot of, ‘Do the crane kick!’
I get that, yeah. In New York, it’s a little more embracing, because they know I’m a New Yorker. I get, “Stay gold, Ponyboy” [from “The Outsiders”]. People will say, “Wax on, wax off,” like they’re the first one to come up with it. But you know, you smile. It’s good stuff. For people to be talking about a film you did 30 years ago and for it to still be relevant is nice.
You do look young. Do you have a secret?
No, I wish. That product, I would be on QVC selling it. I’d never have to work another day in my life. I blame my parents. It’s genes.
When was the last time you got carded?
That doesn’t happen anymore. The last time was probably in my late 20s.
When did you first show your children ‘The Karate Kid’?
I think my daughter was 5 years old. I was doing [a tour of] “How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” We’d do press at Planet Hollywood, and there would be memorabilia from movies. My daughter saw a headband or something from the film and asked, “What is this?” Finally I showed her the film, and I laugh now, because she ran out of the room when I got beat up. When she was a teenager though, she took great pleasure in watching them beat the s - - t out of me.
The film’s producer, the late Jerry Weintraub, was a character.
Jerry was the last of a breed — the Hollywood mogul with a cigar sitting in the big chair. I remember seeing “The Karate Kid” for the first time at a sneak preview at the Coronet Theater. Everyone was doing the crane kick, from 5-year-olds to 65-year-olds. Jerry leaned over to me and said, “Get ready. We’re going to be doing a couple of these.”
When you’re a young actor, you want to be Brando or De Niro, and I remember him telling me, “Sometimes you do something for [a mainstream audience], sometimes you do something for yourself. I just saw the biggest piece of s–t I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s called ‘Grease.’ I wish I produced it.”
Ralph Macchio stars in a “A Room of My Own,” playing through March 13 at the June Havoc Theatre (312 W. 36th St.).