If you’ve been watching Cobra Kai and judging by the overwhelming response to the show you may have been, get ready for a twist worthy of an M. Night Shyamalan film.
During season 3 of the Netflix series Cobra Kai, the show takes a deep dive into the past of Cobra Kai Sensei John Kreese played by Martin Kove. This is an amazing decision by the writers to clue in the audience as to why John Kreese is so evil!
What happens next is a series of flashbacks to Kreese’s past that includes some high school trauma and some epic, feature-film-like, Vietnam scenes that go way past the usual television emotions. I could quite literally write a whole article just on the Vietnam flashback scenes.
Which I may wind up doing at some point.
The twist I speak of however, isn’t in the script. It’s real life. During one of the high school flashback scenes a young Kreese is working as a busboy in a diner. His main antagonist is the Varsity Captain, David. David goes out of his way to bully young Kreese and takes every opportunity to try and embarrass him. He trips him, belittles him and eventually a fight scene between the two ensues when David and his girlfriend Betsy are out back behind the diner and young Kreese witnesses David getting physical with her.
David is played by Martin Kove’s real life son, Jesse Kove. So in a complete mind-grind, Jesse is fighting with a younger version of his father’s iconic character, John Kreese. It sets up the next phase of John Kreese’s life brilliantly.
I had the chance to catch up with Jesse to talk about the series, his father and his busy schedule as an actor that sees his list of credits expanding all the time.
I asked Jesse how his landing the role of his Dad’s bully all came about. Kove says, “It was a total surprise. I’d gone on set before and seen everybody and knew all of the writers. I was just so ecstatic to be friendly with everybody and know the journey and experiences with my Dad. We talked about what it would be like if I was somehow able to join the (Karate Kid) universe. I never expected this and I just always thought, yeah of course it would be a cool thing, ya know?”
Kove continues, “My manager called and said “we’ve got this great audition that came in for you and the guys want to see you for this role”. The guys meaning the producers. I said, great, what’s it for? He said, “I don’t really know, I think it’s something to do with Kreese.” I said, huh.. ok. He thought, “Maybe you’re playing Kreese or something like that”. And I though, oh great, cool! Which I think they had already cast, played by Barrett Carnahan, who’s a great actor and he’s also just a dear friend. He and I chat all the time, love him to death, he’s just a great dude.”
Kove explains further and breaks down the audition. He says, “I finally got the sides, I read it and I went into the room and started asking questions and later I realized that this is the bully. Because they wrote it as if he was Kreese and you think he’s Kreese in the very beginning. So when I come into the diner sequence, I’m Kreese at that moment because that’s what they wanted, to throw off the audience. So, I did the audition and I gave them this character they wanted and they loved it and they gave me this quick note and I asked them, how much of an asshole to you want him to be? They were like, “We just want people to hate him.” And I was like – Got it!
Jesse absolutely owns that role and they did a great job casting both roles of David and young Kreese. Coincidentally, I almost had myself convinced while watching season 3 for the first time that Barrett had to be related to Martin Kove. They really do favor one other.
Jesse has been a busy actor and has several projects in various stages of production. One of the things that you can hear him beam with pride the most is the work he has been able to do with his Father, Martin. They’ve worked on multiple project together and honestly you couldn’t have written the script any better. Stay tuned.
You can hear my entire conversation with Jesse Kove by clicking in the link to your favorite place to listen to podcasts.
-Tommy Marz
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