Following Biting Incident, Bill Hader’s Wild Story About Martin Kove Goes Viral
Karate Kid and Cobra Kai star Martin Kove has recently been accused of engaging in shocking behavior by co-star Alicia Hannah-Kim, who alleged that Kove bit her during a VIP meet and greet event at a fan convention last weekend — but as it turns out, that’s not the first time Kove has acted strangely around a fellow actor.
In a 2013 interview on the podcast WTF with Marc Maron, SNL and Barry star Bill Hader revealed that soon after arriving in Hollywood, around age 20, he took a job as a driver who ferried actors to set — and at one point was tasked with driving Kove to a film shoot.
But the ride did not go well. “He got me lost on purpose because he hadn’t read the script yet,” Hader recalled, remembering how Kove gave him conflicting directions which made him late to set and led Hader’s boss to scream at him.
“It was a terrible day,” Hader said of that moment — but the terrible day was about to get worse.
When Hader drove Kove home at the end of the day, the actor began to ask Hader, “‘Bill, you mad at me? … you want a milkshake?’ I go, ‘what are you talking about?’ [Kove says] ‘you want a cookie, you want a milkshake?'”
Despite Hader turning him down, Kove persisted, saying, “‘There’s a McDonald’s right over there, pull over, we’ll get you a cookie, we’ll get you a milkshake.'” Finally giving in, Hader pulled in to the McDonald’s parking lot; Kove entered the restaurant, promising to get Hader a chocolate milkshake and a chocolate chip cookie.
But when Kove exited, “he comes back out, eating the chocolate chip cookie and drinking the milkshake. And then he just sits in the back and goes, ‘C’mon, let’s go.’ It was the biggest ‘f*** you.’ It was a weird mind f*** … and I just drove home in silence … that was my first ‘welcome to Hollywood, kid’ moment.”
The awkward milkshake interaction wasn’t the end of their relationship — Hader still had to drive Kove to work for several more days, although he stopped making small talk with the actor.
Looking back, Hader gives Kove the benefit of the doubt: “I heard he was going through a divorce, or something was happening with him … he might be a really nice guy, but I just … rubbed him the wrong way.”
Listen to the full clip below:
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