Ralph Macchio has a secret talent – tap dancing.
During a Friday, May 30 episode of Live with Kelly and Mark, the Karate Kid actor opened up about his childhood, revealing a unique skill that helped secure his iconic role.
“I wanted to be Gene Kelly,” Macchio told hosts Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos about taking tap dancing classes as a child. “My dad had me working at the laundromat learning the value of a dollar. And my mom and I used to watch the old movie musicals when I was a little kid. That’s where I was sort of bit with the bug of wanting to perform.”
Macchio added that the choreography skills learned from tap dancing translated into karate moves.
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“It’s choreography, right? One you point your toes, the other you flex, I guess,” he added.
Ripa then asked the actor, “Do you still tap?”
Macchio hesitantly replied, “A little bit.”
He then stood up to show the audience a few tap moves, warning viewers that his performance would be “really cold” and there was “no preparation” involved. Ripa called the performance “very impressive” and both hosts, along with the audience, gave Macchio a round of applause.
Macchio joked that the impromptu performance was “not in the notes” and Ripa chimed in, saying, “once in a while, really good things happen.”
After recently wrapping the final season of Netflix’s Karate Kid spinoff series Cobra Kai, Macchio reprised his role as Daniel LaRusso for the latest installment of the Karate Kid franchise, Karate Kid: Legends, released in theaters on Friday.
“The reason I’m in this movie is to pay that legacy forward,” Macchio told People Magazine. “It’s never the wrong thing to do in Daniel LaRusso’s eyes and in Ralph Macchio’s eyes.”
