“Cobra Kai” stunt coordinator Ken Barefield estimated that the Netflix series’ sixth and final season included “4,150 beats of choreography” over its 15 episodes. He clarified what a beat is in the world of stunt work: “A punch or a kick or some type of move counts one piece of choreography. So punch, punch, kick—that’s 1-2 3.”
In the “Karate Kid” spinoff, in which adversaries Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) face bullies whose misconduct goes far beyond the 1984 film’s high school high jinks, these beats must be taught to a large ensemble that ranges from teenagers to septuagenarians, all working on a TV production with a fraction of a large movie’s budget.
“The most daunting thing for the actors and my stunt team to figure out is one, how to keep it all safe, but two, how to keep it fresh, because we were worried about the fight fatigue that was happening with viewers,” Barefield said. “We had to make sure that the kick that we threw in Episode 1, we didn’t throw the same one in Episodes 9 and 10. So it was a fun challenge.”
The stunt coordinator, who has earned two consecutive Emmy nominations for his work on the series, insisted that every actor you see fighting in the series is 100% doing the moves themselves. Sometimes, he added, the players are so all in on the experience, he’s required to talk them out of something potentially dangerous.
“[A few seasons ago], Mary Mouser [who plays Samantha, LaRusso’s daughter] had a scene where she jumps roof to roof, and she absolutely wanted to do that,” said Barefield. “I obviously couldn’t let her do that to the capacity that she wanted to. I always had to tone the actors down, which is a good thing for a stunt coordinator, because you always want your actors to be game. The beauty of what I got to see from Season 1 to Season 6 is their competitiveness from the start to where we ended.”
One of the factors that makes Barefield such a sought-out stunt coordinator is his athletic background. He is a former linebacker and sprinter, and he used those skills while training his ensembles for both “Cobra Kai” and the recently wrapped CBS drama “FBI: International.” On both series, he also worked as a second-unit director and doubled in scenes, even appearing in a small role in a “Cobra Kai” flashback with a young version of Kreese, one of the big bads of the original film and the series, getting beaten up. (Jesse Kove, the son of Martin Kove, aka the adult Kreese, plays one of his bully attackers in a fun meta bit.)
”What I learned from football is the head coach on the football team isn’t running plays, right?” said Barefield, whose Alabama high school team was actually featured in MTV’s 2000s docuseries “Two-A-Days.” “If one of us wins, we all
win. If one of us loses, we all lose. And being a stunt coordinator, you have to rely on your team, and I don’t just mean mine. Hair, makeup, wardrobe—we all have a pivotal role.”
The stunt world earned a much-needed boost in confidence with the recent announcement that an Oscar category recognizing stunt work will be introduced for the movies of 2027. (The Emmys and Screen Actors Guild Awards
already have this category.) Barefield thinks this will elevate the role of stunt coordinators and emphasize their necessity.
“We need a lot more Tom Cruises,” he said, highlighting the appeal of filmmakers he looks up to, like Chad Stahelski (the “John Wick” series) and David Leitch (“The Fall Guy”), both major directors who have a stunt background. “I just hope that scripts that are coming down the line will allow it,” he said. “I think you’ll see a resurgence of new action movies that are on par with “Mission: Impossible.”
This story first ran in the Comedy issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.
