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Tanner Buchanan kicks up a storm on Netflix’s Cobra Kai, but the lad from Ohio is about to bust out of the Dojo.
Photography by Dean Podmore
Styled by Keala Naihe
Written by Lukas Houben
At 22-years old, actor Tanner Buchanan is an overnight success—10 years in the making. The Ohio native is currently shooting season 4 of Netflix’s Karate Kid expansion series, Cobra Kai. With a lauded season 3 kicking off 2021, Tanner has been rocket-strapped with the show’s success into representation with ICM Partners, a forthcoming lead in He’s All That (an updated remake of the 1999 teen romp She’s All That) and most upsettingly, the envy of those who still cling to their new years fitness resolution.
While the actor soars towards the mesosphere today, it wasn’t always rising stars and (restoring) classic cars. Starting at 12 years old, credits like ‘Kid#2’ or the more esteemed ‘Cynical Kid’ (Modern Family, The Real St. Nick) helped galvanize Buchanan to punch and kick his way up from a white belt extra in tv shows to an ass kicking Robby Keene on one of Netflix’s most popular programs. I had the pleasure of asking the man what the view is like on the way up.
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Lukas Houben:
You’re notoriously early to arrive on set. How early is too early?
Tanner Buchanan:
Too early is… so here’s the thing, I grew up in Ohio. And if you’re on time, you’re late, right? We’re now three seasons in [to Cobra Kai] and I have a lot of respect for the PAs. They’re the first ones on set, and the last ones to leave. They have an even harder job than we do, so on season three I made it a priority to show up when the first person showed up, and leave when the last person left, just out of respect.
LH:
That’s a great attitude. I’ve done some PA gigs in the past, and you know how hard you’re working, but you feel like nobody else sees it.
TB:
One hundred percent. My friend’s dad is a director and when I was sixteen I thought it would be good experience to PA. It was only a three-day shoot but we were working 20-hour days. At one point, there was a prize-winning horse on set. Worth like $100K. This horse was not allowed to be on concrete, so they had special mats it had to stand on. Any time the horse would pee the mats would need to be flipped because they couldn’t have a sheen on it. Every 30 minutes, all day long this horse would pee. Of course, it was a hot day, so I had shorts and a T-shirt. We don’t have gloves. We don’t have anything. So we’re flipping these mats which weigh 100 pounds each, just marinating in horse pee all day long.
LH:
It’s in the name there. Pee-A.
TB:
[Laughs] Yeah. Exactly.
LH:
These days it’s you on set with people swapping your mats out. Any time you have to pee they’re like, “Damn, we’ve got the change Tanner’s mats again.”
TB:
Yeah. “Bring in the fresh mats!” Exactly.
LH:
You dressed up, disguised yourself as a PA to prank the cast, right?
TB:
Yes. I planned for a month and a half, I got the hair and makeup team to give me this fake beard. I showed up with all the other PAs. It was an hour drive to get there so I woke up at like 1:30 or 2 in the morning to apply this beard and put my wig on and get dressed, but it was so worth it. I got the craziest looks all day long, people were like, “Who is this guy? Why is he here?” I was trying to be busy, but I did absolutely nothing except stand around and act like I knew what was going on, what jobs to do. Everyone was confused, it was great.
LH:
You’re asking around; “So where’s the horse?”
TB:
Yeah, exactly.
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LH:
You’re in tremendous shape. How has training for Cobra Kai informed your approach to fitness?
TB:
We focus a lot on karate training being a martial arts show, but given where season three ended, Robby’s lost everything. Through personal experience, and I think a lot of people would agree, when you lose everything, people tend to throw themselves into things. To me, Robby would have thrown himself into fitness. It was a character choice for me. I got a trainer and we trained for three-and-a-half months. I’m on a meal plan. I’ve made it a priority to go through a complete change, because I think that’s where Robby’s mindset is. I’ve transformed my body and it’s been extremely hard. And at some points I definitely wanted to be like… I just want to eat a pizza. I don’t want to eat chicken breast and rice and broccoli anymore.
LH:
Well, it’s paying dividends because you look fucking shredded.
TB:
Thanks.
LH:
You’ve said the Cobra Kai cast is becoming like an extended family at this point. Who would you say is the weird uncle of the family? Or maybe the black sheep, unless that’s you?
TB:
The weird uncle? That’s a good… I don’t know. If there’s a black sheep, it’s probably me. I’m a homebody. Everyone will hang out off set, and I’ll go out every once in a while. But usually I’m like, “No, I’m good. I’m just going to stay in the house.” I’ll work on lines or watch TV. And everyone else is like, “Come out.” And I’m like, “Ah, I’m good.” I like staying in. It’s kind of fun.
LH:
There are scenes from the show where you carve it up on the ol’ roller skates, and I’ve heard you’re a great tap dancer. You used to play soccer. You’ve got skilled karate feet. You seem really coordinated overall. Is there anything you’re incredibly uncoordinated at?
TB:
Golf. I cannot play golf to save my life. I’m absolutely terrible at golf. I wish to love it, it’s something I’ve tried. I’ve even taken lessons, and I cannot play. I am a terrible golfer.
LH:
I tap out at putt-putt so you’re ahead of me.
TB:
Hey, I’ll do putt-putt all day. But when I start swinging the club, it is not pretty.
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LH:
You just wrapped playing the lead in ‘He’s All That’, a remake of the 90’s teenage touchstone ‘She’s All That’. The director Mark Waters also directed Mean Girls which is like the Citizen Kane of my generation, did you ever throw out random ‘Mean Girls’ lines to Mark between scenes?
TB:
We were throwing different lines throughout the production yeah [laughs]. Everybody was. He’s been a part of iconic movies that so many people still quote today. The shoot ran incredibly smooth. He was like, “There’s something special about this.” Hopefully, this becomes another one of those movies that he’s a part of that can become iconic, and everyone will be quoting for many years to come.
LH:
I heard you were in a prog. death metal band?
TB:
Yeah.
LH:
What was the name of this band, and who would you want to tour with, living or dead, if you could be their opener?
TB:
My friend in the band says “I have a good name, Acidosis!” So the band was Acidosis. We played a lot of Gojira covers which I’m super excited about because Cobra Kai posted the show playlists on Instagram. Now my all-time favorite band is Pantera. But my second all-time is Gojira, a French-prog metal band. They ended up following me on Instagram and I had a freak-out moment. I had been listening to them since I was 12. We knew all their songs. Played all their songs. And they followed me on Instagram. I had this out-of-body experience like, “Gojira, they know who I am. They know who I am!” This is my childhood right here.
LH:
I have the same fan girl phenomenon with pro wrestlers. I’ve worked with celebrities and it’s always cool, but whenever I see a pro wrestler in the wild, I’m like “OMG it’s Hardcore Holly!”
TB:
I know. For me, it’s musicians I get giddy about. I just want to be Dave Grohl’s best friend because he’s such an awesome guy. Same thing with Corey Taylor, Slipknot. He’s another guy I would just super freak out about if I ever got to meet.
LH:
The whole Slipknot gimmick is so well done. I still worry if they’re ok when I look at them, in the best way.
TB:
Oh, yeah. The Slipknot set up is very interesting. Him going from Stone Sour to then Slipknot, it was definitely a change in pace. A band of four or five to a band of, what, nine or ten? And they’re all wearing masks. You’re like, what is going on? But I do enjoy the music. I just like Corey Taylor a lot. Corey Taylor’s my guy.
LH:
They have this one percussionist who’s specialty is just smacking a beer keg with a baseball bat.
TB:
Yes. Oh, God, I love metal so much.
LH:
Every band needs one of them.
TB:
Yes I know. You know what? That’s probably why our band didn’t ever go anywhere. We were missing our baseball bat-keg guy.
LH:
Well, if you ever start back up again, I have a baseball bat under my bed.
TB:
You’ll be my first call.
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LH:
Superb. Going back to Robby on Cobra Kai, how much creative license do they give you? I’m sure there’s a character bio and background, but do they allow you to make wardrobe decisions or anything in that regard?
TB:
One thing I love about working on Cobra Kai is they’re very collaborative. The writers after the first season were like, “We wrote your character, but you know your character better than we do. It’s kind of up to you. This is your person,” which has been super, super nice. There are occasions where I say, “I don’t feel Robby would say this. Can we talk about this? Can we change this?” All of them are like, “Yeah, absolutely. What do you think he would say? Let’s talk about it. Let’s do this. Let’s do that.”
LH:
That’s really cool of them. At this point, nobody else would’ve spent as much time thinking about or imbuing the character as you would. It’s smart on their part to default to you.
TB:
Absolutely.
LH:
Everyone loves a good ‘80s montage, and that’s synonymous with the Karate Kid films and movies from that era. What’s something that you would ‘80s montage’ in your own life?
TB:
Something that I would montage, that’s interesting. I’ll go with the Karate Kid thing of working on cars. I’m super into cars. My dad has restored cars his entire life, I’ve helped him and learned a lot. I’m currently restoring a ‘69 Chevelle, so I’d montage that. It’s probably one of the things people don’t know about me but I would like them to know because it’s a big part of my life. It’s always been a big part of my life.
LH:
Is there a dream car you’ve always had your eye on to restore?
TB:
The original Ford GT. That’s a big one for me. Another which I couldn’t imagine spending the money on but would love, is the original James Dean car. The 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder.
LH:
So you’re a bit of a gear head. How do you feel about Teslas? Electric?
TB:
I like the idea of them, especially helping out the planet, but there’s an excitement behind turning the key and hearing the engine start up. Getting the rumble that you’re not going to get with an electric car.
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LH:
Yeah. That raw feedback. Even the gearstick, you can feel it rattling a bit. It’s alive!
TB:
Exactly, my Chevelle is stick. I have another car that’s stick. I grew up driving manual cars. I like being able to control that machine… It’s just a lot of fun. And then you can go and be like, “what can I change? What can I fix?” That’s what’s fun, being able to take something apart, make it better and then put it back together.
LH:
It’s like a rolling project, pun intended.
TB:
Yeah. Yes, exactly.
LH:
Alright. The big finale. What’s your walk out song before a fight?
TB:
I’m going back to metal. I’m not going to pick Gojira, I’m sorry. You know what? I’m gonna do it. My favorite all-time song by Pantera is Domination, so I’ll pick Domination by Pantera.
LH:
Siri, play Domination by Pantera.
