 The Karate Kid opened in theaters in 1984 and inspired a generation of youth to join the martial arts. Now more than 30 years later, Lightning strikes again with the Cobra Kai series, taking the saga into deeper, funnier, and honestly more insightful directions. Now while the story and characters may be based on fiction, there are some cast members who train in the martial arts in real life, and that's what we're here to talk about today. Today we have special guest Owen Morgan who plays Bert on the hit show. Now while Bert does often play a role in the comic relief, it's interesting to know that in real life, he's one of the few cast members that actually holds a black belt and has been training his whole life. Today he's here with us to talk about what it's like being a real karate kid and playing one on TV. So welcome Owen to the show. We're really appreciate you being on the show with us today to talk about your experience in the martial arts. I guess the first question to start off with is how did you actually get involved in the martial arts and how old were you? Let's see it's been over 10 years since I first got into karate. I started as a little kid I just I don't remember exactly why I wanted to I probably had some friends doing it at the time but I mean yeah I've just been I've been doing karate for a very very long time just as long as I can really remember. Now can you tell us a little bit about your school now it's actually your family that runs the schools is correct? Yes and it's also all star karate? All star karate yes about 30 minutes outside of Atlanta yeah it's a big like kind of fusion martial arts thing where we put a bunch of different kind of karate styles together so it's mostly karate and taekwondo but we take from a little bit of everything take the best parts out of all the different styles and kind of discard what we don't need and uh yeah it's just that's that's our that's our thing that's what we do. I'd like that you mention that it's a fusion because I was looking at your family's website and it's it's interesting because there's a lot of schools that say you know we teach this program we teach this program but I'm very intrigued with fusion programs where you take specific elements and you make a curriculum out of it. Now in your school is it one general curriculum or is it broken down into different categories? Generally it's all it's all one curriculum um we just kind of yeah it's it's all just one big thing it's not usually uh if there is a good separation I don't know it's not something that um is really made a big point out of it's just something where it's like you get taught a certain curriculum and it just it gets more advanced as you go along because it's just a little bit of everything. Now that like because this is you're kind of in a unique position because a lot of people that we have on the show and a lot of people who watch our show they come from you know their background is this particular martial art that may spend 10 20 years in and they cross train and they see a big contrast between arts. I like the fact that you're starting off in a mixture so it's kind of unique that you're not really seeing that separation at the beginning so what does that mean in terms to you when you hear people talk about which style is better or do you have a preference of what you like in training versus other parts of training I kind of like the fact that you're kind of starting or you started off at this as a clean slate without those political lines drawn what is your favorite part of training and what is your message to people who try to say that one art is better than another? Well yeah I wouldn't say necessarily one is better than the other I mean I think that they all have uh benefits right they they can all work in their own way just depending on how you use it yeah personally I don't have a favorite or anything like that. What is it like being a martial artist in real life you know going to your school every day you've got your family that runs the school and then so you've got this experience behind you and then you go and you go on the cv show where you're playing a character learning for the first time how hard is it how hard is it to separate that mentality of pretending to be a beginner after all the experience that you grew up with? It was weird at first I'll say that because you know you start doing all these very basic forms and stuff when like you know you can you have the ability to do a lot more but over time as the years have gone on it's just become more natural and also I've been able to do less basic stuff as I've gone along the show so it's it's gotten yeah it's gotten a lot more natural and easy for me. Yeah you can tell you can tell from looking at season one to season five to the progression of martial arts in the show everyone seems to be stepping up their game so what was um what is your training arrangement like on set as I do understand sometimes instructors come in they guide the cast a little bit like how can you describe the experience from season one to season five in terms of the choreography in the training? Yeah so we have a stunt team amazing stunt team love them they're very hands-on with us and they yeah they they're very great at training especially the people that come into the show not already knowing karate they're really good at teaching them like they'll they'll make them into like really great fighters out of nowhere um but uh yeah usually I don't I don't seem unless we have specific choreography that needs to be done um but you know when that happens I mean they're they're always right there with us making sure we got everything down that we need to know and they're like running through it with us until we pretty much yeah we got it down. Did you have any prior experience or familiarity with the karate kid before you started filming Cobra Kai? A bit not much I'm gonna be honest I knew of it and there's a chance I'd seen the the first one like once ever but I barely remembered it um so I pretty much went into the whole thing blind. Which is interesting because that adds to the character because the character of Bert is going into the whole situation blind. Yeah yeah I hadn't thought of it that way. So what's it like having your school actually because for those viewers who I'm not sure aren't aware um your school is actually featured in the show is that correct? Yes yes twice now. Where can we find them? Um let's see in the uh last couple episodes of season one and the last couple episodes of season four um in the All Valley sequences. And they actually go by the name All Star Karate that's the name of your school. Yes they do yes. So what was it like being on set with your peers your acting peers but now you've got your actual school here what was that that um I guess collision of worlds like for you on set? Yeah it was it was it was pretty funny I didn't uh generally when we were on set we weren't too close to the other schools um especially All Star they were on like the other side of the room compared to me so uh it wasn't it wasn't too strange because I didn't see them that often but um it was it was very funny well a person I never had to fight anyone from that team um as far as I'm aware well no one from my actual school I might have had to fight someone that was supposed to be from All Star um it wasn't something I ever thought too much about but um it's I just I yeah I really uh like that that that was just able to be an opportunity it's it's very interesting that happened at all it's it's very nice getting to see my school up there getting the representation I think it deserves. So Bert is often seen as the comic really fun the show um what is something that you would like people to know about the character of Bert that might not necessarily come across like in your in your mind in the back Bert's background what is something that people are that you wish people would know about Bert? I don't think it's shown quite enough but um he I like to think that he he values his his friends over everything else more than the rivalry there was a good bit of time where he he got caught up in all this craziness and he wasn't really like thinking about it he was just getting thrown from dojo to dojo but when it comes down to it he's he's he's very loyal to specifically his friends not not the dojo not like the karate but like his friends the people that he knows and uh yeah I'd really like to see that get explored a little bit more in the future so people can see that. The one thing I like about the show which I think kind of echoes what you were talking about earlier is Cobra Kai when the first movies came out it was very very clearly you know there's good karate bad karate that's kind of the dynamic they had right as Cobra Kai went on we start to see more of a dynamic evolving especially with Samantha's character and a lot of Johnny Branshnoff and Johnny Deano that we're starting to show that it's not just who's karate is the best but the characters are starting to learn how to take mixtures of everything and cross train and how you can learn from over here and it's not really necessarily about the art but about the person and and and the the material you're learning and how you apply it so a lot like your beginning in the fusion martial arts how do you think the message in Cobra Kai carries over into your life in terms of mixing influences together? Yeah I mean I think it yeah it's it's well explained like that that it it comes down to yeah being able to find your own style that that can carry into both karate and just general life you can take from a little bit of everything honestly you know you don't necessarily have to stay rooted in one place you know just just staying very like where you are just never moving but I think it's better to learn from your experiences around you and being able to evolve yourself in how you do things it's a big thing about loyalty and knowing who to trust and you know forgiveness and you shouldn't be holding too much onto grudges and stuff yeah I think yeah just overall the biggest thing is just yeah just knowing who you are and being comfortable with yourself. Now can you tell us anything about your rivalry with Nate in the show how like you guys started off at the beginning being like the mortal enemies how does that relationship progress throughout the seasons because by the time you get to season five you guys a little bit more on the same page? Yeah it's really it was so much fun to be able to work with him he is he is awesome he's he's amazing um yeah obviously we start we started off as just these bitter rivals from out of nowhere there was never any build up to it we were just like bitter enemies uh and I think that was that was a big appeal of it is the fact that like no one knows what the context is we just hate each other um and then yeah more recently and later seasons we've we've grown to be uh allies and then essentially inseparable best friends once again no context as to why we just are and I love that so much it's one of those things where we just we have no idea what's going on but we just depending on where we're at we're just either going to be at each other's throats or completely inseparable and I love it um what is Stingray like to work with he's amazing I I love Paul Walterhauser so much he is he is amazingly funny he's so nice he's he's great to work with and he's just he's always like doing improv so he's he'll like switch up lines or add little things in and scenes that like no one will ever see coming and he'll have everyone on the crew just dying of laughter every single time and it's awesome and I can't wait to work with him again in the future awesome so when it comes to the cast when someone like Ralph Machos on the show like in this generation when he started like that movie The Crotty Kid it started a big boom in martial arts and youth at that time um does that influence carry over at all when he's on set do you feel that history with him and you feel that Cobra Kai is kind of going down the same path of trying to inspire another generation of youth to join the martial arts and I yeah I think absolutely I've seen it myself that this show has been inspiring so many people to try out karate and try to get into uh into it themselves they've been taking on his stuff away and when I'm working with Ralph um like especially early on I was uh it was an honor to even be in this presence right um because he's the karate kid nowadays he's uh it's a lot it's a lot more chill we we've gotten to know each other and fairly well um so he's just kind of Ralph these days but um yeah it's it's it is it is fun funny to just think about how much influence he's had uh just in general on film because of how iconic this franchise is so I have to ask kind of curiosity so you you grew up with your family running the school in Dojo how did you make that transition into acting like did you it was acting something that you wanted to pursue or is that something you just kind of fell into like how did that come about I absolutely fell into it um I think I think maybe we knew somebody at the karate school who knew that there was some kind of karate show happening so we decided to be uh to sign up to be extras for because we were like you know we were on a karate school this would be a fun little thing to do um and then yeah I just I got hired for it and the the longer I spent on set the more realistic that was just what I wanted to keep doing for a while and who knew what that that some karate show would end up turned out to be right yeah we heard rumors that it might be karate kid related but we had no idea so do you have any aspirations to continue acting past Cobra Kai I really do um I I want to keep doing it for a long time uh I have I have no intentions of stopping anytime soon I I love acting not just on the show but just in general it's just so much fun and it's just it's just something that I just I love doing so so much and I just I want to keep doing it for as long as I possibly can why would you like to thank you for your time today I really appreciate you coming on the show um the show has been a wonderful experience I'm from the generation when karate kid came out and Cobra Kai has just kind of relived that fire for me and it's it's it's really a very special experience to be able to revisit the world I grew up with but there's so much more color there's so much new material there's so many new characters that go forward with this new show and I thank you for being a part of it and I thank you for being on here and we really appreciate your work and we cannot wait to see what happens in season six yeah thank you so much for on me on this was amazing I had a really great time we'd like to thank Owen Morgan for taking time with us today and sharing his experience from the martial arts in real life and what it was like on the show now we look forward to seeing Bert again in the highly anticipated conclusion to Cobra Kai with the upcoming season six it's always fascinating to talk to cast members who are lifelong martial artists so if you'd like to hear more I highly recommend our interviews with Daryl Vidal fellow compoist and inventor of the crane kick and William Christopher Ford Sean Ryu sensei and Dennis from the cry-to-kid part three and please be sure to sweep subscribe no mercy