Despite being very young, Mary Mouser has been acting for a long time. She was a child actor and voiceover actress, so by the time she had the possibility of joining the Cobra Kai cast, she already had quite an impressive resume. She has been blowing everyone away with her amazing portrayal of Samantha LaRusso, and it's heartwarming to see her play Ralph Macchio's daughter.The role is not an easy one, though, so it wasn't as if she could dive into it without any preparations. She had to go through a lot, both physically and emotionally, to make sure she would portray Samantha as she deserved to be portrayed. Needless to say, all that hard work paid off.
8 What Her Audition Was Like
Mary Mouser has been acting since she was a kid, so she was no strange to the audition process. She has been in important projects such as Tarzan II and Frienemies, and has guest-starred in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Nonetheless, she was still daunted in the face of having to audition for Cobra Kai. Especially because, in the last stage of the process, she had to meet Ralph Macchio.
"My last audition step was a screen test and I got to meet Ralph there," she said. "I ran lines with him there for the first time and that was incredibly scary and nerve-wracking, but really fun too."
7 How She Learned About The Karate Kid Movies
Mary was obviously very excited to have the opportunity to play Samantha LaRusso, but she had a small problem: she had never seen the Karate Kid movies before. Because she knew how important they were, she wanted to give them her undivided attention and have at least a whole day to binge them. Unfortunately, she couldn't find the time, and she had to show up to the audition without not having seen them. When she started passing the different stages of her auditions, she decided not to watch them until she was sure she had gotten the part so she wouldn't jinx it. After that, she immersed herself in the Karate Kid world.
6 Her Training
Of course, for such a demanding role, Mary needed specific training, especially considering she knew nothing about Karate.
"I know how to throw a punch but I don’t really know any of the intricacies of karate. It’s a learning curve but it’s a lot of fun," she said about it. She also said she didn't have such an intense training routine as her other castmates, but she did have a lot to learn.
"I didn’t really have any crazy training schedule, it was more like whenever something was coming around we would work maybe like a week out before it. Hiro Koda who was the stunt coordinator would go over it once or twice and then practice it as much as possible and then figure out the rest on the day. It was a lot of fun though, I love to train."
5 She Had Trouble With A Specific Technique
Like with everything, there were things about her training that were easier for Mary, and things that were harder. Specifically, the "tornado kick" was very tough for her. She got very frustrated and upset, but the crew was very understanding and kind, and she eventually managed to get it right.
"For some reason, my body does not want to do a tornado kick," she said. "I messed up probably 20 takes. I literally just walked out of the room for a minute because I was about to cry tears of frustration. The stunt coordinator was like, 'Look, you got this. We're all here for you, however much time you need. And lo and behold, the next take, I did get it."
4 She Had To Learn To Handle Certain Props
Not only was it important to learn the basic Karate moves and positions, but she also had to learn to handle special weapons for certain scenes. That was a whole different challenge, but once again, Mary rose to the occasion. At one point, she was given a bo staff, a traditional weapon that looks like a baton, and she joked saying that everybody seemed to know what to do except her. She said that many of her castmates had been baton twirlers or something similar during high school, while she had no idea what she was doing. With the right help and training, though, she was able to do it.
3 Her Bond With Ralph Macchio Helped Her Portray Her Character Better
The chemistry between Ralph Macchio and Mary Mouser is not only due to the fact that they are both amazing actors, they are actually very close in real life. Despite only being her daughter on screen, Ralph has become a father figure in Mary's life, and that helped make their bond more believable.
"It’s funny because we feel like we’ve gotten to establish a little bit of that realistic like father-daughter relationship and I feel like it’s helped us in those types of scenes. There are moments where we genuinely get choked up for or genuinely get fired up when we see one another’s character get messed with it’s like, 'hey wait a minute that’s my family don’t you dare,'" Mary shared.
2 She Trained In-Between Seasons
The key to staying in shape and not lose all the progress she had made during her training on set was for Mary to keep training in her time off. She wanted to make sure that, by the time she had to go back to filming Cobra Kai, she was ready to go. So, she made an effort and took some Muay Thai kickboxing classes at a gym. It wasn't something she particularly wanted to do, since she wasn't that much into fitness before the show, but she knew it was the right choice.
1 She Had To Learn To Balance On The Pond
Every Cobra Kai fan will remember the difficult feat of having to balance on a wooden pad on a pond that the characters so bravely managed. Surprisingly, they had to learn to do that in real life. And it wasn't easy.
"That was the first thing that we learned," Mary said. "Tanner Buchanan, who plays Robbie, he and I got into training when we first got to Georgia. We did all the training that everybody else was doing and then right away, Hiro Koda who was our stunt coordinator and Jahnel Curfman who was our other stunt coordinator, they started practicing with us. They were like, "Here's part one. Here's part two." Tanner and I actually got together a couple times on our own and we drilled it and drilled it and drilled it. We would have all these techniques we would use like this certain breathing that we would do extra loud so that the two of us could stay in sync with all the motions and things like that."
