Jacob Bertrand – Cobra Kai

By starrymag | June 5, 2019

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) Were you familiar with The Karate Kid franchise before starring in “Cobra Kai?

A) Yes! I watched the first two movies when I was eight years old.

 

Q) How was your character Hawk originally described to you?

A) I didn’t know that there was a Hawk when I first auditioned for the role. I only knew about Eli. In the audition room it was explained to me who Hawk was. Basically, he was described to me was a shy, bullied kid unleashes all of his anger and frustration.

 

Q) What was your audition process like?

A) I first auditioned for the role of Dimitri and was then offered to audition for the role of Eli. I went into one producer session and then got a call in the car three hours later that I booked it. Then, the next week I was on a plane to Atlanta to shoot.

 

Q) What kind of training did you have to do for this season compared to last season?

A) This season we trained in LA before we flew out to Atlanta and we had a designated room where we would train. There were a lot more fights this season so we needed to do a lot more training.

 

Q) Talk about working with Ralph Macchio and Billy Zabka.

A) Ralph and Billy are so nice. They teach all of us younger actors a lot throughout the course of each season. They’re both so humble and down-to-earth. I love working with them.

 

Q) What can you tease is in store for Season 2?

A) Hawk dies. No, I’m just kidding. [laughs] There’s a lot more fights this season and a lot of characters come in and maybe a few come back.

 

Q) Was there someone this season you were hoping to share a scene with that you hadn’t worked with in Season 1?

A) I was hoping for scenes with Marty [Kove] who plays Sensei Kreese this season and I definitely got a lot of those so I was very happy with that. I really wanted to work more with Tanner [Buchanan] who plays Robby because he’s really fun to work with and I would love to see more Hawk and Robby action.

 

Q) What can you share were some of your favorite behind the scenes moments from filming?

A) I’d say all of the training beforehand was so much fun. It was a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun working with our stunt coordinators.

 

Q) What do you think it is about the show “Cobra Kai” that’s made it such a fan favorite series?

A) It still retains all of the awesomeness of the Karate Kid. I love how he thrusts the Cobra Kai ideology into modern times.

 

Q) You are a part of social media. Do you enjoy the instant feedback you receive to the projects you do?

A) I like social media in the aspect of connection. I think it’s really awesome that you can instantly connect with millions of people around the world. That’s not something that my mom and dad had access to when they were my age so I think it’s cool that we have made a lot of technological advancements. I will say that social media can become a very quick time suck and it’s very easy to fall into a comparison trap. I do like interacting with fans and I love hearing from fans but there are a lot of aspects of social media that bug me.

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

A) From the bottom of my heart thank you. I wouldn’t be able to do anything in this industry without the help and support of fans and I really appreciate that other people support me so I can live my dream.