Melissa Block: From NPR News, this is All Things Considered. I'm Melissa Block.
Robert Siegel: And I'm Robert Siegel. You may not recognize their names, but you probably remember their roles: the principal from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the head of the Cobra Kai in The Karate Kid, and the EPA bureaucrat who shuts down the power grid and unleashes a torrent of ghosts on Manhattan in Ghostbusters.
These are all characters that have been described, perhaps a bit colorfully, as douchebags--characters that audiences love to hate and cheer when they get their just desserts, usually in the form of a humbling defeat or a humiliating dress down from a superior. But as Yuki Noguchi reports, the actors who play these parts are nothing like the douchebag characters they portray. And an unusual support group in Hollywood is helping them understand that they're not alone.
Yuki Noguchi (voiceover): Listen to two audio clips from The Karate Kid featuring two different pairs of actors:
AUDIO CLIP 1
Ralph Machio as Daniel LaRusso: You're the best friend I've ever had.
Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi: You . . . pretty OK, too.
YN (voice over): OK, and now, the second.
AUDIO CLIP 2
Martin Kove as John Kreese: Sweep the leg . . . Do you have a problem with that?
William Zabka as Johnny Lawrence: No, sensei.
Martin Kove as John Kreese: No mercy.
YN (voice over): Which set of actors would you be more likely to avoid if you saw them at a party? If you're like most people, you probably said the actors in the second clip, William Zabka playing the rich preppie bully Johnny Lawrence, and Martin Kove, playing the sadistic sensei of the Cobra Kai dojo, John Kreese.
Throughout their lengthy careers, both Zabka and Kove have had to deal with a lot of dirty looks, negativity, and downright hostility from strangers that they say stems solely from people's apparent belief that they possess the same contemptible attributes possessed by the characters they portray. Or as Zabka more bluntly puts it . . .
William Zabka: (laughing) People look at the characters we play and just assume we're douchebags in real life, too.
YN (voice over): Think back to some of the more memorable movie, um, d-bags from the past 25 years: Paul Gleason as the incompetent and hot-headed principal from The Breakfast Club and then later as the incompetent and hot-headed commanding officer in Die Hard; Jefferey Jones as the bumbling, incompetent principal from Ferris Bueller's Day Off; William Atherton as the smug, middling EPA bureaucrat in Ghostbusters and then later as the smug, middling reporter in Die Hard. One thing they all have in common is movie audiences' overall negative feelings for them, which range from eye rolling dismissal to sneering contempt--feelings, the actors say, that don't stop after the closing credits roll.
Martin Kove played the Cobra Kai sensei in all three Karate Kid movies.
Martin Kove: Oh sure, especially when the first one came out, yeah, I used to get dirty looks all the time. Hell, a few people even tried to pick fights with me. My wife would always tell me I should take it as a compliment, you know, like my performance was so convincing all these people must have thought I was really like that guy (laughs). But it's like, how do I tell these people that John Kreese and the Cobra Kai are make believe without coming across as totally condescending? But that's the corner they back you into: You're either a douchebag or a condescending jerk.
YN (voice over): It was instances like those described by Kove that prompted him, together with William Zabka, to found AWARD, a support and advocacy group for actors who have had similar experiences with casual fans assuming that in real life they are jerks like the characters they play. Although Kove himself is the first to admit it sounds like something out of a movie, AWARD actually stands for Actors Who Aren't Really Douchebags. And it has helped countless actors cope with the negativity that can come with a convincing portrayal of characters with, shall we say, douchebag tendencies. Thomas Wilson played Biff Tannen, the bully from the Back to the Future movies.
Thomas Wilson: AWARD came along at a time when I really needed it. Playing an iconic douchebag like Biff is really a double-edged sword. Sure it got me a lot of parts and recognition, but it also led to a lot of negative notoriety. It got to the point where I couldn't leave my house without some comedian getting in my face, knocking on my head, and saying, "Hello, McFly!" and feeling like he could do so with impunity because obviously if I played such a character in the movies I must be a bad guy in real life too, right?
And then there you are. You let it go and you feel like a jerk. You say something about it, and the guy feels completely justified. You can't win. But AWARD really helped. Just knowing there were other actors out there going through the same thing really made a difference.
WZ: The whole impetus behind AWARD was to help similarly misidentified actors understand that their situation wasn't unique. There were loads of other actors out there that people made fallacious assumptions of douchebag-dom--if that's even a word--about, based only on the parts they played.
YN (voice over): Over the years, a veritable who's who of character actors who have dabbled in douchebaggery have attended at least a few of AWARD's monthly meetings. Gary Cole, the smarmy manager from Office Space; James Spader, the slimy villainous frenemy of Andrew McCarthy in both Pretty in Pink and Less Than Zero; Billy Zane circa Titanic; the list goes on and on.
What they find at AWARD is a sense of community and mutual support, and a chance to remind themselves and others that they are more than the parts they play.
MK: What you have to remember about a Billy Zabka is that he's been acting for more than 25 years. And for people to just assume he's a douchebag in person because he so convincingly played one on a number of occasions in the 80s is not fair. Billy's one of the nicest guys in Hollywood. Ask anyone.
YN (voice over): I did, and Kove's claim was backed up by virtually everyone I talked to--just as Zabka's was about how Kove is also a kind and generous individual, the complete opposite of the character he played in the Karate Kid movies. In fact, the more people I talked to about AWARD members, the more a pattern emerged. In just about every case, it turned out that the actors playing these characters were almost universally well regarded and respected by their peers, perhaps even more so than non-AWARD members. And I'll contritely admit to being a little surprised by this. As Martin Kove's wife said, it's a testament to their talents that I assumed the worst about them. Here's Thomas Wilson again.
TW: The whole point of AWARD is to help actors through these issues and to try to get Hollywood to cast us as something other than douchebags. But more than that, we want to show the world that we're not who we play in these movies. And the first step in that process is feeling good about who we are. AWARD helps us do that.
YN to WZ: You've been in movies for more than 25 years.
WZ: Yes.
YN: And something most moviegoers may not know about you is that you were nominated for an Academy Award for a short film you directed.
WZ: That's right.
YN: And yet, the role that most people will remember you for is . . .
WZ: Johnny from The Karate Kid (laughs).
YN: How does that make you feel?
WZ: Well, certainly it would be great to be recognized for something other than the archetypal blond 80s preppie douchebag, but I suppose it's better than not being recognized at all. You just gotta keep on doing the best work you can do, and eventually people will see you in a more positive light.
YN (voice over): Words of wisdom from an AWARD winning actor. For All Things Considered, I'm Yuki Noguchi.
(Outro music: You're the Best Around by Joe Esposito)
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