William Zabka Legitimately Injured Ralph Macchio While Filming The Karate Kid

In the instant classic film The Karate Kid Daniel LaRusso, played by Ralph Macchio was constantly harassed and bullied by Johnny Lawrence, played by William Zabka.

One of the biggest instances of this was during the night of the Halloween dance, Lawrence almost knocked out LaRusso by kicking him in the head and throat. However, it seems Zabka actually hurt Macchio with the move.

While speaking to Men’s Journal in 2018 Macchio revealed that Zabka’s foot hit his face while filming the scene. 

“Basically, I got kicked in the face.

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Zabka then explained what exactly happened.

“I can explain: In the scene, I am supposed to be hitting Ralph with a front roundhouse kick. I had it pretty dialled in, so I was keeping a good amount of distance from his face in the rehearsals. They decided to move the camera at some point, so the blocking was a little different, but I didn’t adjust my planted foot. I didn’t realize until too late, and coming through the kick, it didn’t stop until it connected

Macchio stated that while he got off with a minor injury, it could have been far worse for him.

We can laugh about it now, but the day of it was a pretty serious deal. Luckily, it landed on my jaw, and not my nose or the teeth, because I could have broken something. That would have probably shut down production. In this case, it only meant I had to put some makeup on, and eat all of my food through a straw for a bit.

The two also star in Neflix’s Cobra Kai, where much-awaited fourth season is already underway. We will have to see when the season will finally make its way onto the streaming service.