Kick your legs up high if you were obsessed with the Karate Kid growing up? Well step forward Netflix with the TV series sequel we have long waited for. 34 years since the infamous All Valley Karate Tournament, a down-and-out Johnny Lawrence seeks redemption by reopening the infamous Cobra Kai karate school and reignites his rivalry with a now successful Daniel LaRusso in the latest Netflix TV smash, Cobra Kai.
At high kicking centre of this new Karate Kid sequel is Tanner Buchanan who plays Robby Keene, the son of Johnny Lawrence and Shannon Keane, who becomes the first discipline of new generation of the Miyagi-Do Karate led by Daniel LaRusso. But the drama isn’t just in the karate matches, it infiltrates every aspect of his troubled home life.
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Here, Tanner, zooming me from his California home – where he’s been “non-stop watching Gilmore Girls” (he is a bit of us!) – talks manifesting, finding peace, his hopes for Cobra Kai season three and male body image. And what a refreshing leading man in Hollywood he is…
Cobra Kai has blown up and become the number one show on Netflix worldwide! How has it been adjusting to that success whilst we are still so locked up?
We’ve been doing the show for three years on YouTube and with it being released in a way that makes it feel brand new to so many people is just amazing. I’ve had a couple people say, “Have you been recognised or anything?” I’m like, “If I go out, I have a mask on, I usually wear a hat too. There’s no way of knowing it’s me!”
What do you think you’ve learned about yourself through playing this character?
That’s a really good question. I guess, what I’ve learned about myself is just how much work and the research that I am capable of putting into a character. I don’t relate to Robby’s home life very well. Just in the sense of, I’ve had a fantastic home life. My mom and dad are still married. I wanted to act when I was young and they just said, “Follow your dream – Let’s go!” I am just really grateful, and I’ve been super, super lucky. So, for Robby, I really had to do a lot of research and find out how a person who’s in this situation feels, how their life ends up, or what avenues they take. It’s just the ability to maybe try to connect to a character that you may not even really personally connect to that well and in season three, I’d say there’s many more surprises that I have to learn to connect to that I’ve maybe never experienced as well. It was definitely a challenge, but it was a fun challenge. I really got to dig deep into everything that everyone will experience.
Martial arts is obviously a central part of Cobra Kai. What do you think it’s taught you about inner and outer strength?
It’s just the inner strength of just finding that peace. A lot of people maybe don’t have that peace in the world. But through this quarantine as well, I’ve been actually been really getting to manifestation, meditating and taking the time to relax. So, it’s actually moved into my real life now, finding that inner peace. Of course, there’s good days and bad days – you can’t be happy all the time. I’m in tune with my Miyagi-Do side. However, on the physical side, I feel like all it is showing me is that I’m not working out enough constantly. I feel like I’m constantly gasping for air when I’m doing the fights. I feel like everybody else is fine, but my cardio is nowhere near where it needs to be!
Does playing such a physical role give you a more positive relationship with your body image?
I would maybe say yes and maybe say no. For me when I work out, I’m just doing it to stay healthy. I just want to stay healthy. That’s it. As long as I’m healthy, I don’t care. But body image-wise it’s really hard to be in this industry because I have caught myself a few times looking at other actors and thinking, “Whoa, they’re jacked. They feel like they’re so big. They got all these muscles that I definitely don’t have.” But I feel like, over the years, I’ve just switched my mind to really just be like, “Look, if you’re working out consistently and you’re staying healthy, that’s all you need to do.” That’s what drives me rather than trying to look like Channing Tatum or Chris Hemsworth as Thor, because I guarantee you, I’m not six foot four, weighing 250 pounds. I’m much smaller than that!
What have you taken away from manifesting?
I keep my manifestations personal. I feel like it helps, because I have a journal and I write stuff out and actually some of the stuff has come true already, which is great. I think the big part of it for me, is doing the meditation and really taking the time before I get anxious or stressed out to really just sit back in a quiet room, put my headphones in, listen to the meditation, and really go to that place of nothingness, which is the only way I can explain it. It’s nothingness, and your mind’s not working. I don’t know if this is good or not, I caught myself a couple of weeks ago where I actually had to catch my breath because I think I forgot to breathe, which was just fine. I was really relaxed after, but it freaked me out for a second.
The whole manifestation thing has been super, super great. It’s been an adjustment too as well because like I said, you can’t always be in a happy mood as life happens sometimes and there’s unexpected things that can happen. So that’s also been something to adjust to as well, going, “Why am I in a bad mood? Why can’t I fix this?” I’ve gotten over that a sense of, “It’s life, you’re not going to be happy 100% of the time, it’s just not possible, because you’re a human being.” Which I think actually has helped even more, made me happier and helped the manifestations go even better.
Manifestation and meditation are so linked to that much lauded term, self-discovery. What have been some turning points in your own journey of self-discovery?
That’s interesting. Obviously, there’s the big things like booking Cobra Kai, which was a major turning point because you think, “Okay, now I’m working consistently. It’s more of a regular, I get to go to work every day, I get to do this. I have more responsibilities, doing that.” I actually recently bought a condo last year – that was a big turning point in my life. I felt super proud of myself. But then also came the responsibilities of realising, “Oh wait, I have to put a down payment down.” And then go into the bank and going, “Oh my God, I have to give them this much money right now. Why do I have to do this?” And then the remembering the bills every month, “Oh, I got to pay my electric. I got to pay my water. I have to pay my gas.” I may have flipped a couple of times and realised that, “Oh yeah, I have a bill this month. I got to do that.”
There’s been a lot of things in the past couple of years that have really hit for me, as I’m really growing. I guess it’s just a really good feeling to know I’m going down the right path and it feels great. Even this quarantine has been, obviously, this is going to be everybody’s big moment in their life that’s going to be life-changing. I guess this comes with manifesting, but it shows what really important, what’s not, what you really want, what you really need out of friends and family or relationships. It’s just been a really big learning period. Maybe more internally for me, with a lot of things.
What is your hope for the character, going forward into Cobra Kai season three?
I’d love to see Robby and Johnny to mend their relationship and really truly connect. Robby and Johnny are both trying to figure out who they are and they kind of have the same goals. They want to do something right. They want to get back to normal. They want to try to do something bigger with their life, and get out of the gutter, and be successful. Why can’t they just talk about that and be like, “Sh*t, we get along great”? I’d love to see my mom obviously get major help, so maybe the family can somewhat get along. I would like to see Robby succeed. I know he’s in some trouble right now, obviously, with kicking Miguel off the banister but he really is trying to get his life on track. It’s a vicious cycle for him so I’d just like to see that consistency in the character to continue to do extremely well.
Well, let’s hope Johnny takes a leaf out of Tanner’s book and starts manifesting to gets his sh*t together! Cobra Kai is available on Netflix now.