The Villain of 'The Karate Kid' is Accused of Going Full John Kreese on His 'Cobra Kai' Co-Star, and Biting Her on the Arm at a ComicCon
You don't have to have lived through the Golden Age of American pop culture that was the 1980s to appreciate how significant it was. A magical time in which the entertainment industry dedicated itself to the noble pursuit of actually entertaining their paying customers. A novel approach in these dark times; but then it was common. And it created a Renaissance the likes of which the world has not seen since.
And like any great period of art, the '80s gave birth to some of the most memorable villains of all time. You can't have heroes without antiheroes. It was the decade where Darth Vader reached his pinnacle. Where Hans Gruber perfected the archetype of the brilliant, cunning, criminal mastermind. Where Rocky Balboa not only took on a freak of nature and unnatural science, but his country's greatest geopolitical rival and changed the course of history.
And it was in the best of the the many derivative Rocky-adjacent movies, The Karate Kid, that the world was introduced to John Kreese. A supremely malevolent cocktail of testosterone, adrenaline, sadism and martial arts, with a shot of bullying and served in a glass shaped like actor Martin Kove.
Well one thing the 2020s has done right is bring Kreese back in The Karate Kid spinoff series, Cobra Kai. It's a show that should not have worked. You might even say it had no business being good. But it was great. In the caring hands of executive producers and stars Ralph Macchio and William Zabka (who was THE go-to teenage villain of the era), it was a triumph. The show reintroduced the characters to new generations. Made stars out of new cast members. And rebooted the careers of people like Kove.
Which, as it turns out, has not necessarily been a good thing. Like John Kreese himself, it seems Kove is the product of another time in this world. I guess like song says, he's still preoccupied with 1985.
Source - Martin Kove got the boot from the Washington State fan convention over the weekend after he allegedly assaulted a fellow "Cobra Kai" female cast member ... and police had to get involved.
According to a report from the Puyallup Police Department obtained by TMZ ... Alicia Hannah-Kim accused the "Karate Kid" icon of biting her so hard on her arm, he damn near drew blood ... and then allegedly kissed her arm when she yelled out in pain.
Alicia, who starred alongside Martin in Netflix's "Cobra Kai," told a police officer working the VIP section of the Summer Con event that Martin allegedly completely unprovoked, grabbed her arm and chomped down after she passed by and said hello.
Both the actress and her husband, who witnessed the alleged incident, claim they told Martin immediately after what he did was completely unacceptable ... and he allegedly "was furious and outraged and visibly angry when I told him calmly not to bite me ... he insisted he bit me for fun." ...
Ultimately, Alicia chose not to press charges of simple assault ... Pictures were also taken for the record of what police called a "very noticeable bite mark on her arm that was already turning blue and bruising."
Listen, Method Acting gets a bad rap in a lot of circles. Lawrence Olivier famously told Dustin Hoffman to just act, for heaven's sake, instead of running around doing all his psychological bullshit. Meryl Streep tried "staying in charcter" for the first time in her career while playing the evil boss in The Devil Wears Prada, was miserable the whole time, and never did it again. I mean, imagine a guy with Spielberg's filmography being forced to call Daniel Day-Lewis "Mr. President" all day so he doesn't forget his Lincoln voice. It's absurd.
And this proves it. Was Kove doing a pretty reasonable Kreese impression here? No doubt. And (fictional) man who'd order a (fictional) teenager to "Sweep the leg" of wounded (fictional) teenager to win a valley karate tournament would positively bite a woman's arm. That's the essence of "Strike first. Strike hard. No mercy." But that doesn't make it right. That Method nonsense needs to stay back in the studio. It has no place in the sanctity of a ComicCon, in front of virgins who pay hundreds of dollars and wait in long lines just to get a D-list actor's autograph. As David Letterman put it when Marv Albert came back to his show, "We don't want our Marv going around biting women." That goes for everyone. Even the greatest 1980s movie villains.