Decades before Cobra Kai actor Martin Kove became ensnared in a personal brand crisis of his own making by biting a fellow actor, he displayed some rude and downright cruel behavior with a not-yet-famous actor, who described the moment as “a weird mind fuck.” Now that Kove’s actions are being scrutinized, the strange tale has now resurfaced.
On Sunday, Kove was escorted out of a convention in Washington state after he admitted he bit his former co-star Alicia Hannah-Kim’s hand and then exploded at her and her husband when confronted about the assault, according to a report from local police.
Now its being noted online and by The New York Post that Barry star Bill Hader had a weird day with Kove. Hader was 20 when he first got to Los Angeles and took a job driving cast members to production sets, as the now-Emmy-winning actor told Marc Maron on his WTF podcast during an interview in 2013. One day his passenger was none other than The Karate Kid star Kove, who Hader claimed intentionally got him lost on the way to work — in a ploy to buy some time to catch up on the project’s still-unread script, Hader claimed.
“I’m driving him around in my shitty car, and he got me lost on purpose,” Hader told Maron. “It was a terrible day.”
Once he arrived with the actor late to the set, Hader said, he was read the riot act by his boss, who Hader said screamed at him over his tardiness. The comic recalled that he was tasked with driving Kove back home from the set that night and explained on the podcast that while the two men were on the freeway, Kove turned to him.
“He was like, ‘Bill, are you mad at me?” the former Saturday Night Live player recalled.
It was decided that to make up for causing his driver for the day landing in hot water with his boss that morning, Kove would buy him some dessert at the nearest McDonald’s — a cookie and a milkshake, specifically. Only said cookie and milkshake never reached Hader’s hands. Though both items did enter the car with Kove upon his return from inside the restaurant.
“He comes back out eating the chocolate cookie and the milkshake,” Hader said. “And he just sits in the back and goes, ‘Come on, let’s go.’ It was the biggest fuck you. … It was a weird mind fuck of, like, ‘I’m gonna get you this thing,’ and then he ate it in front of me. And then I just drove home in silence.”
For Hader, the nasty and uncomfortable behaviour from Kove took the honor of his first “welcome to Hollywood, kid” moment.
“I didn’t talk to him after that,” Hader said of the few more days of driving Kove. “I just kind of stared straight ahead.”
While its unclear if Hader ever received an apology for this dark behavior, he told Maron on the podcast that he has forgiven Kove for that nasty denial of a milkshake 27 years ago.
“I heard he was going through a divorce, or something was happening with him,” Hader noted. “He might be a really nice guy, but I just … rubbed him the wrong way. I don’t know what was going on.”
On Tuesday, Kove issued an official apology to Hannah-Kim for the assault at the convention.
“I deeply regret and apologize for my actions regarding the incident with Alicia (Hannah-Kim), a genuinely kind and wonderful person who didn’t deserve to be put in this position,” Kove said in a statement to TMZ, sent from Jaffe & Co. Crisis Management. “I’ve always respected her and considered her a highly professional and talented co-worker on Cobra Kai. I was being playful in the moment but went too far and there is absolutely no excuse for my behavior. I regret my actions for which I take full responsibility for what I did, and again I apologize to her and her husband. I’m committed to learning from this and it will never happen again.”
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Jaffe & Co. Crisis Management on Thursday morning to seek comment on this incident from Kove and will update this story if a reply is received.
