While The Karate Kid franchise has always been defined by its hard-hitting rivalries, one of the most intense feuds in the continuation series Cobra Kai is between Daniel LaRusso's teenage daughter Samantha and her own high school nemesis Tory Nichols. Played by Mary Mouser and Peyton List, respectively, the two girls immediately developed a strong hatred for each other in the show, which was fueled by training under rival martial arts masters and a mutual romantic interest in classmate Miguel Diaz. This led to an intense fight in the halls of their high school, leaving the students battered and traumatized, with the feud more personal than ever moving into Cobra Kai Season 3.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, spoke about developing their characters' rivalry, what it's like to have Ralph Macchio portray as an on-screen dad and hinted what to expect between Samantha and Daniel in Cobra Kai Season 3.
All due respect to William Zabka and Ralph Macchio but your characters have the most intense rivalry in the series. How was it developing that trust and rapport to play off each other, both in dialogue and fight scenes?
Mary Mouser: I didn't know we had the craziest rivalry until people have started to respond, especially [in regards to] where Season 3 takes us.
Peyton List: I think it's been just learning the fight sequences together and training together and even hanging out outside of set and building a friendship, which normally wouldn't be the move, especially having to hate each other and everything else. But with fighting, it is a dance and you do have to move with each other, and I don't even know how [the rivalry] got to where it is! [Laughs]
I was talking to Ralph earlier, and he said you and him sat down to develop your dynamic as on-screen father and daughter right before you started filming this season.
Mouser: I think that was really important to me, and it was really important to Ralph, which is exciting. It's like, "Oh my god, you know my name!" He definitely knows my name at this point, and that's just crazy to me. But it's always bizarre when I get a birthday text from Ralph [...]. I'm always like, "This is the most weird experience! This is so cool!" So to have him be like "Let's dive into this" is so exciting.
It was really important to both of us that Samantha's pain and Daniel's pain made sense for each of them and that there was that connection. In Season 1, there's that cute, little moment where they do the fist pound, and it's like, "Aw, they're father/daughter and maybe they used to be the bestest buddies at one point and now she's all grown up." But then in Season 2, he becomes her sensei, so it's almost like a dual layer to their mentor-mentee relationship, and it's cool now in Season 3, now that all that blew up in both of their faces. For Samantha, how does she trust him as a sensei or a father now that the direction she was led was so wrong and confusing and caused so much pain, and I'm sure [it's] vice versa on his end.
So there's a lot of confusion and pain on both sides, and there was a really cool moment in Season 3 that we got to shoot actually on Ralph's birthday. And it was really important day for me, and I'm excited for people to see that because I think it really reflects where their relationship is now versus where it started.
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, 2021.