The popular Netflix original series Cobra Kai has officially wrapped principal photography on its upcoming fourth season, with reports indicating the show will return on the premium streaming service with new episodes by the end of the year. Returning for Season 4 is longtime cast member Gianni DeCenzo, portraying the fan-favorite character Demetri, who has grown from a nerdy, sarcastic high schooler to a martial arts student in his own right.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, DeCenzo reflects on Demetri's character arc over the course of the series, teased big things to come in Season 4 and shared his experience filming Season 4 under special health precautions for the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
You got to be in a video game with the Cobra Kai video game last year. How cool was it to voice Demetri in that medium?
Gianni DeCenzo: That was crazy! Prior to that, I had done a few radio commercials but nothing voice-over-wise, so getting to do a video game like that was absolutely insane. I voiced all my lines for about three hours -- it took a while, and I did everything in one day -- and after that, they showed me all the behind-the-scenes stuff. They showed me how the characters would work. They showed me one thing that kind of terrified me: It was my skin flat; they had the skin rendered that they were going to put around my character [model]. They showed me that and it was kind of terrifying but luckily they put it on alright.
Demetri has quietly had one of the biggest character arcs over the course of the series. How much of his evolution did you know first going in to audition?
DeCenzo: Honestly, I knew nothing going into it because they had been looking for Demetri for a while, but they couldn't find anyone and the filming date was getting closer and closer. When I auditioned, we were literally shooting [the first season] next week, so I had auditioned and that weekend they told me I was going to fly out to Georgia. All the information that I had was on the page. We did the cafeteria scene where we first meet Demetri -- that's honestly my all-time favorite scene, it's near-and-dear to my heart -- and I just knew it was a continuation of The Karate Kid thirty years later.
I had no idea what it would be later on. I was surprised to see how big it could get! But looking back, it makes sense. It's The Karate Kid. Everyone loves it. I also didn't know the scrutiny that I would be under when it first came out of people going, "I thought this was going to be terrible because remakes can be terrible," and I'm glad I found out about the scrutiny we were under after [audiences] like it because otherwise, I'd be panicking. [Laughs] But the writers are just amazing!
Since the series begun, we've seen Demetri learn martial arts, get in fights and get his arm broken, get a love interest and mix it up with Johnny Lawrence and John Kreese. How has that journey been?
DeCenzo: Yeah, I didn't know any of this was going to be happening, especially from the first audition. It's just been crazy to see Demetri's progression, and the cool thing is when you're on a show like this that has run for a few years, [the character] kind of becomes its own person. So you almost don't really need to act, it just kind of becomes itself. Seeing the progression of Demetri going from this nerdy, sarcastic kid with no real friends to being a badass karate fighter -- most of the time, sometimes it doesn't work out like when we saw his arm getting broken -- and having the girl of his dreams, it's just really cool to have my character grow.
The other cool thing is, when we do karate on the show, we have almost two weeks of pure karate training. And then once we get filming, we have on-and-off because the people who teach us are the stunt coordinators so, as the season gets going, they can't teach us as much because they're literally doing the stunts. In the earlier seasons, I saw them training and would want to do that because, even though I had some stuff like tae kwon do and krav maga, it was nothing like the kicks that they were throwing. So to be able to get that was a dream come true.
When we started talking, you were saying the house fight at the end of Season 3 was the craziest thing you had done so far. Season 2 had ended with the oner and you end with an even bigger one in Season 3. How was it being in the middle of that fight?
DeCenzo: That was absolutely insane! Daniel's house is a set within our warehouse studio, and we went in there and rehearsed it a few days prior, and then we just had to go because we had all sorts of breakaway stuff, like Hawk smashes a vase into someone's head. The amount of moving parts on that thing was absolutely crazy and, yeah, we had the oner in Season 2 with the school fight but this was like an oner on steroids; it was huge, so many more people fighting. And you have to remember it's not only the people fighting that we can see but also people in the background fighting. We had to coordinate and time that.
There's actually one part where I'm kicked down a chair watching things unfold: When the camera pans away from me to show everything else, I'm actually moving the chair out of the way so the camera person, with this giant rig, doesn't just topple over. So I'm literally chasing a guy with a chair and, before he turns around, put back in the same place and be back in the world fighting.
With that cafeteria scene being your personal favorite, was there a line there that helped you figure how you were going to approach your performance?
DeCenzo: I think I knew the character when he said, "Oh yeah! We hang out all the time. We give each other handjobs." That's not me, I'm not as sarcastic and raunchy as him, but I think just in that little speech right there, I knew who Demetri was. But that cafeteria is my all-time favorite because I'm so nostalgic about how it all began; it was a couple of years ago now, so it's awesome.
How cool is it getting to work with Ralph Macchio, Billy Zabka and Martin Kove?
DeCenzo: It's really cool! When I first started out, I was so nervous to meet them because these are the actual people, and we're all trying to create their world. They're just super down-to-earth guys, and when I was working with Billy in the first scene that we have together when I'm trying to join Cobra Kai when he flips me, he was actually teaching people in between takes how to do karate and stuff like that. Later on, I got to work with Ralph Macchio, and I hadn't worked with him in the past and when I get to be in Miyagi-Do, I just got to know him more and more. He's just a really cool dude, and they just make the scene and set super fun and enjoyable. Because, really, what's the point of acting if there's no fun involved? That's why we do it, it's because we love to do it. If you're on a set where people are toxic and not really getting along, it's not as fun.
In talking about scrutiny, you guys are on Netflix now and the show's doing Super Bowl numbers. How's the fan response been since moving to Netflix?
DeCenzo: I would say it's night and day because, as soon as we got put on Netflix, we did a whole bunch of promotional stuff, the numbers were crazy. On my Instagram, when we were just on YouTube, I had just gotten to 10,000 followers, and I didn't know even know 10,000 people wanted to see my face. Since then, it has gone up a lot and the support has just been really amazing. We just have a really great fanbase, and we wouldn't have a show without them. They keep us afloat. Thank you, everyone!
Is there anything you can tease about Season 4?
DeCenzo: I can't really say anything. All I can say is...you how we were saying we don't know how they manage to top it each year? Well, they did it again, so that's something to look forward to. There's a lot more growth for Demetri, and I can't give anything away but there's so much good stuff. You're really going to look forward to it. I think this is going to be a really fun season. There are a lot more characters, a lot more character growth... we always manage to top it each year; the writers are just amazing!
It had been a minute since you were in production because of COVID. How was it coming back and was it easy coming back?
DeCenzo: I was pretty nervous going back into it because not only was I not doing Cobra Kai but everything shut down, so I was just staying at home taking acting classes, improv classes and whatever classes I could do to stay sane. When I found out we were going back into it, I was super excited, but I was also kind of nervous because I hadn't been on a set in a while, let alone a COVID-regulated set where everyone is wearing masks and staying six feet apart. But when it got a few weeks in, it was just like riding a bike. I just kind of got back into the groove of things and had a great time.
One thing about COVID-regulated sets is that we work two weeks in advance doing karate. We still wear masks during that whole thing! It was just hard. We had the doors and windows open all the time so, whenever we needed to, we could step outside and take a breath of air. I was doing that every five minutes [Laughs].
How was it been to be able to be a part of The Karate Kid franchise and bring your own voice to it?
DeCenzo: It's really rewarding to get to be able to be part of something already so amazing and add my own little piece into it. The younger cast, we love to mess around and do stuff like that, so it's just really fun to be able to part of something so great like this: The nerdy kid turned badass in this Cobra Kai/Miyagi-Do world. It's just really a lot of fun!
Cobra Kai stars William Zabka, Ralph Macchio, Courtney Henggeler, Xolo Maridueña, Mary Mouser, Tanner Buchanan, Jacob Bertrand, Gianni DeCenzo, Peyton List and Martin Kove. Seasons 1, 2 and 3 are currently available to stream on Netflix. Season 4 does not currently have a premiere date.