Every season,Cobra Kaifans know it’s coming the epic finale fight scene.
From there, the battle to the (almost) death was on.
With the Okinawan style, they used sais over swords; it’s a defensive weapon.
Thomas Ian Griffith and Yuji Okumoto in ‘Cobra Kai’.Netflix
A true Okinawa martial artist would use a sai.'
The Big Three loved it!"
Don Lee, he’s a master in the sai.
Thomas Ian Griffith on the set of ‘Cobra Kai’.Netflix
[Laughs] Yeah, he’s going to be modest and say he has “some training.”
That man has such a good base when it comes to swords.
His background was either fencing or stage combat with swords.
Yuji Okumoto and Thomas Ian Griffith on the set of ‘Cobra Kai’.Netflix
And Thomas was ferocious with wanting to train all the time.
Just like what we did with Yuji, we did with Thomas.
They knew this great fight was coming down, and they wanted to ensure that it was great.
Thomas Ian Griffith on the set of ‘Cobra Kai’.Netflix
It’s so incredible to work with guys that want to work like that.
What experience, if any, did you have working with these types of weapons?
That would be my first, to be so specific with sword work versus sai work.
I don’t know when you’ve ever seen that.
I’ve done some sword work and then I’ve done some work with other traditional weapons.
Like, “Well, if you did this, I would do that.”
And, “If you did that, I would do this.”
There was a strategic element from both of them.
What was the story you were trying to tell here?
I would say this story would be vengeance, from Chozen’s side of it.
Now you’re not just messing with Daniel, you’ve got to go through me."
Thomas also said he and Yuji trained with real weapons, sword and sai, whenever possible.
How do you decide when to train with real versus prop weapons?
They had no [sharp edges], they were always blunt, but it was the correct weight.
We didn’t want it to feel flimsy, we didn’t want it to feel faster or lighter.
I would say we probably had 30, 35 prop swords just for that fight.
We probably had five or six sets of the sai, which are sturdier.
They’re blunt, but they’re heavy.
He’s run this line with this same stunt guy for the past three months.
And we’d do the same thing with Thomas.
Okay, so just to clarify, are they ever holding actual sharp weapons?
No, we would never have the sharp weapon on set.
Kudos to the prop team for making those weapons look so realistic and good.
We had real weighted weapons, but they were all blunted so there was no sharp edge.
you’re able to still absolutely get hurt.
There’s always that .1 percent that something could happen, and that’s just out of our hands.
When we do the hand-to-hand fights, that’s going to change on the day a little bit.
This has to be exactly what we need it to be.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good.
Let’s keep going.”
I love seeing actors who are wanting to perfect their craft.
With that fight, it’s outside, and it was dead cold outside.
It’s late November, early December it’s really cold outside, like 30 or 35 degrees.
And then you want to put them in water.
The water element alone, now you just amp everything up another 10 times.
So, it’s really a testament to how much preparation Yuji and Thomas did for that scene.
A prop weapon can hurt really bad if someone doesn’t know what they’re doing.
I didn’t realize how cold it was when you shot that.
And the poor actors are in the water!
We have to verify that when we put them in the water, the clock started.
And we sized their shoes down, so they weren’t sliding in the water and all that stuff.
There are a bunch of elements to it.
We gotta pull ‘em out, warm ‘em back up, and then get ‘em back in.
We had to be really strategic with how they worked.
How long did it take then to shoot that sequence in the pool?
That whole pool sequence took us about six hours.
There’s a lot that goes into it.
It’s a fast sequence, but it takes a village when it comes to that world.
Wereyou able to rehearse it there at the location prior to the shoot day or just on that day?
We got one day to go walk it there [before shooting].
We like to let the actors walk it in the space.
I don’t want them to really rehearse it outside in that space.
Was it always the plan to have those fights overlap like that?
That was definitely always the plan.
When we were putting it all together, we were calling it the “Billy badass moment.”
That was Johnny’s “Billy badass moment.”
He’s earned it, though.
Billy’s earned it.
I’ve been asking the Big Three that, and they just keep saying, “Don’t worry.
We’ll one-up it.”
I don’t know how they’re going to, but I honestly can’t wait.
All seasons ofCobra Kaiare streaming now on Netflix.
