Amidst all the teenage drama and hard-hitting martial arts fights in Cobra Kai, the core of the show remains Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence, with Ralph Macchio and William Zabka reprising their respective classic Karate Kid roles. Season 3 opens with the two old rivals at their lowest point, blaming themselves for the fallout from the explosive Season 2 finale, as they grapple with raising and inspiring a new generation of martial artists in their respective dojos.

In an exclusive interview with CBR, Macchio and Zabka spoke about how being fathers helped inspire their performances in the Netflix series and the hard work that comes with doing their own stunts for their kinetic fight scenes.

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Fatherhood is a major theme in this series right from the beginning and you both are fathers yourselves. How has that helped shape your performance and work with Mary Mouser, Xolo Maridueña and Tanner Buchanan?

Ralph Macchio: Listen, it's great because I get to draw from -- my kids are in their 20s, so I've sort of been through those years -- every parental situation is different and there's no manual. It's navigating life. But being able to draw from certain experiences, even with Season 3, I remember sitting down with Mary before we did some of our scenes -- the heart and soul of Episode 7 of Season 3 -- I spoke about some of these experiences I had with my daughter, and we spoke those through. And it's kind of nice to have that. And the fatherhood theme is a theme from The Karate Kid: A fatherless teen and a surrogate father and human Yoda in Mister Miyagi, a single parenting thing; it all carries through.

William Zabka: I think so too. I have younger kids -- an 11 and 7-year-old -- but sure, you have a parental heart when you have kids that puts a new piece of your heart in there. You definitely apply that in the work and with these actors and one of my favorite scenes I did with Xolo in the burger joint not being able to be there for Robbie. I know what it was like to see my son be born and to miss that helped inform that scene. I couldn't imagine not being there for his first day. And also, I have a godson who I raised who's older -- 28 -- and he didn't have a dad at all, so I stepped in and kind of became his father over this time.

And my relationship with him is similar more to Miguel, but there's elements of Robbie in there. So it all works. You pull from your life, but definitely having a father's heart and knowing what it's like to have kids when you're dealing with young actors that you're trying to help mold through this character. It's definitely an essential part of the character-building, for sure.

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Just as the kids are stepping up their game in the action sequences, so are you guys and you do a lot of your own stunts! How has been developing your fight scenes with stunt coordinator Hiro Koda?

Macchio: He's been great and, with our schedule, him and [stunt coordinator] Jahnel Curfman really have their work cut out for them, and it's a machine with every script they get -- and our scripts don't come in too early, certainly as the season gets on -- they're really balancing a ton of fight coordinating and stunt coordinating and they really do an exceptional job and the actors do as well. The stunt guys, the doubles are spectacular, but our first team really, really works hard. They want to be in all that stuff, and it's really down to a dance. It's a little tougher being older, but it's rewarding.

Zabka: Hiro and Jahnel, they're a factory of ideas too, you know. It's amazing the number of fights we have and the number of fights they have come up in script and to come up with individual moves based on every single character and keep it innovative and fresh and not copy and repeat things. They have an endless well of moves and knowledge. And they've added so much to martial arts part of this because The Karate Kid was kind of two traditional martial arts, basically, and this is a lot of it. There's Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do and Tang Soo Do and different mix. But their bag of tricks is unbelievable and working with them, they're the best.

Macchio: They were nominated twice [for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Stunt Coordination in a Comedy Series] but this year, they've got to give them the trophy.

Zabka: That's right!

Cobra Kai stars William Zabka, Ralph Macchio, Courtney Henggeler, Xolo Maridueña, Mary Mouser, Tanner Buchanan, Jacob Bertrand, Gianni Decenzo, Peyton List and Martin Kove. Season 3 arrives on Netflix Jan. 1.

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