from that earliest age i would anytime i
would see a movie i would come home and
i would
you know act out my version of it yes i
pretended to be rocky balboa
okay uh it's ironic i was in the karate
kid made by the same filmmaker oh i
wanted to be
michael corleone and but a nice michael
corleone
not a criminal so i think it's always
been in my bones to
to perform to create in that way
hi this is ralph montreal and this is
the timeline of my career
okay here's what you gotta do witch
academy is coming over here for the big
dance
a pipehead head is gonna take a lot of
preparation so pay attention
this was 1979 and there was this film
called up the academy that was casting
and i had done a few commercials but a
couple of bubble young commercials at
the time
and this was one of the first movie
auditions and i went in
to new york city and i met with the
director whose name was robert downey
senior
when i did my audition just kept giving
me more improvisational
f-bombs to drop i think he liked my sort
of new york
kind of young energy and the fact that
i was 17 at the time i probably looked
12
and i guess the repetitive f-bombs
coming out of my mouth just had him
laughing louder and louder so i
i pretty much got the audition saying a
lot of f-bombs and being a tough new
yorker
no it was a crazy time because
you know 70s cinema and those directors
um in that time there was a decent
amount of drugs
in the in the world and on the sets and
uh up the academy had its share of that
in the behind the scenes moments and i
had no
clue what was going on i was as green as
they come
i squeaked when i walked that's how
clean i was
they sure are pretty aren't they here
they are
i'm really glad i came oh yeah me too
sorry the party's such a drag it's just
the bradford's know a lot of old people
i don't mind abc was doing a talent
search
in new york i guess looking for young
faces
to plug into their established series
and i got lucky enough to be
one that was chosen and plucked from new
york and plugged into
eight is enough at the time apparently
didn't think eight was enough
but i fortunately i got to do 21
episodes
that season it was the final season so i
always say i might have been nine was
too many
it was a great training ground for me to
week in and week out be part of this
ensemble and learn from all these
experienced actors and sort of be out on
my own in los angeles at the time
i mean i got the parts before i kind of
knew what i was doing
i mean i think i got to give myself
enough credit that i
knew enough of what i was doing so i i
dove deeper into the craft and studied
acting
after eight is enough and right before
the outsiders
[Music]
things go a lot better so she's staying
on the south side of town
now why don't you worry about that
johnny because we're going to have it
out with them sooner or later
the outsiders was a book i read in
seventh grade when i was 12 years old
it was the first book i ever read
without my parents or teacher
telling me to read i always
had a great affinity for johnny cade
maybe because his description
was close to how i looked and maybe
because he was the sort of runt
of the group and i was kind of the
smallest guy in my class
so when i heard they were making the
film now i was you know i got to get in
i have to have the opportunity so on the
day that i did
get the opportunity to audition for
francis ford coppola
who directed that film who directed you
know the godfather in apocalypse films
that i've seen
25 to 40 times before then this was all
beyond the dream come true opportunity
for me
and i remember we were francis
would mix and match actors all in one
room together
as he was looking for the chemistry and
the ensemble
and anytime he picked me to read
anything but johnny i was like oh man
this is a disaster
i have to get that part i was so
specifically
driven to get that part and uh as luck
would have it or a fate or destiny or
whatever
i um i got to play the role a dream come
true role for me
in a film that is um you know has a
pretty good cast
a couple of guys i run into these guys
over the years and we have
whether it's matt dylan roblox or
emilio or see thomas howell
when we see each other as a kindred
spirit there's you know we all kind of
started
at the same in the same place so
everyone wanted to be in that movie
it was you know the cool movie to get
and
we were all blessed to have that
opportunity and for me
it's like your first kiss it's your
first
girlfriend you know you never forget
that and that's the outsiders for me it
holds a very special place
[Applause]
[Music]
the karate kid came to me as an audition
for john g
avelson the director who had directed
rocky
among other great films and i remember
hearing the title
saying the karate kid this is just this
is a terrible title
and i read the script not that i wasn't
going to pursue it the outsiders was
just hitting at the time so
things were starting to build uh as far
as my recognition
it was the beginning of of being taken
seriously but
i went to john avelson's apartment on
the upper
west side and the hallway was all full
of
other people who kind of look remotely
like me or in that age range
and waited my turn to go in and i read
with him one-on-one
and what's so interesting about that is
that video you could see on youtube
of the first time i ever read for daniel
russo
and it's interesting when i watched that
because that character was happening
there
even before i knew he was being
developed i was cast early on
and then it was all about who was going
to play mr miyagi
they were talking about teshiro mafune
the great japanese
actor who didn't speak any english so
that would have been a challenge but
all of a sudden arnold from happy days
shows up on videotape
and pat merida and the studio did not
want him
the producer did not want him i was like
arnold from happy days
um you know but john adelson was like i
read him and he said i've read you and
i'm putting you guys in a room together
and we pat marie and i got in a room
together and
just grabbed the pages started reading
and it was
effortless that magic that happened on
the screen happened the first day we
picked up
the pages he had miyagi in his skin and
his mind and his
consciousness and i for whatever the
reason
had the end to that yang the balance
literally the balance did i say
balance that was sort of this the
beginning of the magic the cinema magic
that resonate to this day
and the filming of of the karate kid was
a lot of work i mean i was in every
scene of the thing and i didn't know how
that's ever gonna work i mean it's me
you know you have to reference
that the filmmakers knew exactly what
they were doing but
outside of that there still needs to be
some lightning in a bottle some
moons in proper alignment for something
to stand the test of time
like like the karate kid has in in
cinema and also in pop culture
looking back i weathered i weathered
this storm
it was a good storm and it still is it
still is it's 36 years in
in climbing
what do you expect me to do all right
so the point that we had an idea we were
going to be making a karate kid part 2
happened pretty early we came out of
seeing a sneak preview
of the karate kid and everybody
out on this sidewalk and the parking lot
was doing the crane stance they all were
doing their version whether a 10 year
old kid or a 60 year old
man or you know it was um everybody was
doing their version
and the producer jerry weintraub put his
arm around my shoulder goes
we're gonna be making a couple of these
that was before the movie ever came out
in theaters
it's really amazing it wasn't until it
actually
took off in the box office and it became
a
a sleeper hit of that summer that we did
get the
option call that we're making a part two
it was
such a smart idea to take the okinawan
culture japanese american culture
and take mr miyagi back to his
homeland and then bring the kid bring
larusso there to experience
that world padmarita and i i always
describe
our are on camera off camera as well but
our on camera work
as having a soulful magic to it there
was a great amount of mutual respect for
each other
our relationship wasn't necessarily
mentor student
off-camera you know because he taught me
how to eat sushi but i taught him how to
make pasta you know what i'm talking
about
it was a friendship he's certainly
missed but lucky for us we have the
legacy of that that great performance
always and forever
[Music]
ben you graduated from law school six
years ago what have you been doing since
studying for the bar
six years right before my cousin vinnie
well
a bit before that i was on broadway with
uh robert de niro in a play called cuba
and his teddy bear
and uh joe pesci i had met him uh
because he came to see the play
with scorsese and all those good was
just awesome for me as a young
young actor in new york on broadway and
uh so then when my cousin vinnie came up
with joe pesci starring um and
goodfellas was out at the time i think
or
just ending its run um and i'd seen
raging bull
probably 70 times in the theater
yes i'm that guy but uh vinnie came up
and i was not
you know okay they need a guy an italian
guy college age to
italian-american from the east coast to
play joe pesci's cousin
the studio wasn't that into it i think
that at that point i had sort of fallen
off the i don't know if we want to call
it an a-list but i was not
in the top five of what they were
thinking
so it was a challenge to get that part
being a part of my cousin vinnie
uh that's another one that has stood the
test of time it really
is kind of always there people reference
it
the two utes you know i'm one of the two
utes and i did not shoot the clerk
and it's it was funny on the page and
even funnier on the screen
a great script um and uh
i call it the late for dinner movie
because if it's on
you're gonna be late for dinner because
you just have to wait for that next
scene
it's uh another one that i'm super proud
to to be a part of
this is uh bobby hey bobby how are you
hey how you doing okay
bobby it's in retrospect that i had that
sort of dry time where i wasn't working
as much in front of the camera
i think um it wasn't completely by
design but
as it's worked out it couldn't have
worked out better
i had so much time as a dad a husband
and a father
and so when i look at ugly betty that
was
like after the intermission if you will
and it sort of came up
um i auditioned it was i think only
supposed to be
a two episode arc with a possibility of
developing into a love interest for the
uh hilda characters on ortiz played that
role
um and i auditioned i got it it was in
new york
so it was easy it was uh it sort of got
me back into it
and uh and i really uh appreciated that
opportunity
and i i remember sending a note to the
showrunners of that show
after i did my first episode saying that
i believe
there's room for this character to grow
and i would love the opportunity and
and so coming in having a two episode
art turned into 11 episodes so it was uh
really cool of them and uh and gave me
the opportunity to uh
to play that sort of young romantic lead
or maybe not so young
romantically
what the is this nobody told us
jesus christ you got to be
kidding me
the deuce i knew that the pilot was shot
and that they were doing
the series and i knew who the cast was
this was early 70s which i
lived through i lived through times
square i remember the smell the look
the taste new york in the 70s in times
square and that time was a tough
tough area then it was a small role uh a
small
corrupt cop that you know was kind of a
dick
and uh kind of a you know a self-serving
person who would take anyone to throw
him under the bus to
to keep himself moving forward and up
the ranks and how
he somehow never gets his comeuppance
was a great opportunity but i did not
know that was the opportunity when i got
the part when i got the part
it was a one-off maybe two to three
episodes not unlike ugly betty
but um you know fortunately for me david
simon and george pelicanos and
the creative team and hbo let this guy
stick around
for 17 of the 25 episodes i love that
show i love
being a part of it you've still got
those golden locks eh
god this is crazy hi how you been great
man thanks i've been great that's great
it's hey anush come here cobra kai came
to me
via the creators john josh and hayden uh
john and hayden had written the harold
kumar franchise and and josh written the
hot tub time machine franchise and i
heard that these guys wanted to meet
on a karate kid concept they are the
three biggest karate kid fans you will
ever find so that was number one
number two is they found an angle into
the universe
from a different perspective and they
wanted to dive into the gray areas
of these characters and that's what the
big hook was for me
karate kid is very black and white good
over evil
danielson good johnny lawrence bad
miyagi good
crease bad cobra kai each
episode your allegiance may change on
who you're rooting for and why
diving into those areas and then
um always paying homage to
the film the nostalgia of what the
karate kid has become
in pop culture and in cinema was super
important
but no less important than making the
story fresh
for this generation and that's what
these guys
convinced me uh we could do
unfortunately you know karate kid is
just one of those
that was blessed back in 1984 and here
we are
it's blessed all over again it's
fan service but it's
relevant uh storytelling and that's
that's
pretty spectacular
[Music]
i still enjoy learning because you when
you say you've you know it all
you're lying to yourself but i enjoy the
character and
building a character from the foundation
up
you know how he walks how he talks how
he reacts
and the specialties of whether it's
playing guitar in a film or
or martial arts you know you get to
experience a life through another
person a piece of you and that's really
uh
quite incredible