JACOB BERTRAND ON COBRA KAI’S ELI, BULLYING, AND THE HOBBIT

BY IRVIN RIVERA

Cobra Kai’s Jacob Bertrand continues to play his role as Eli a.k.a. Hawk in the highly acclaimed series from The Karate Kid films by Robert Mark Kamen. The show’s fourth season further explores Eli’s character arc with more action, excitement and drama.

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He’s obviously young but Bertrand has been building his acting resume for a while now. His passion and love for the craft started early and he attributed this success to his mom who continuously supports him in his career. 

Aside from Cobra Kai and acting, Jacob is also co-hosting the Lone Lobos podcast with his friend and Cobra Kai fellow actor Xolo Maridueña. The podcast is about their unapologetic takes on their experiences, life and the world. 

In this exclusive interview, Jacob Bertrand further spoke about his Cobra Kai character, the highs and the lows of being on set, his acting journey, his inspirations, his desire to do a project about an anesthesiologist, his deep sense of adventure, and more.

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How have you been since our last shoot? 

I'm pretty good. We just wrapped season five. So I'm a little tired. The end was very hectic, but it was really fun.

That's amazing. Congrats on this season of Cobra Kai. How excited were you that it’s finally out?

I'm so stoked. We've been filming it for so long. We've already filmed season five. So we've been doing all this press and my mind is in season five mood... So I can't even say about season five now that season four is out. But Season Four is really fun. It's one of my favorite seasons so far, and I can't wait for people to see it.

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So what could people expect from this season? 

Well, I mean, it's all Valley. It's the next big tournament. In terms of my character, season three burned a lot of bridges. You know, a lot of relationships were kind of broken and messed up. So the season is going to be a lot about rebuilding those relationships back.

Well, that's good to hear. Eli has really evolved throughout the seasons of the show. So how would you characterize his evolution throughout all the seasons so far?

What's funny is like, people always talk about like, oh, like you did a flip and like... And I feel like a lot of people view it in the sense of like, oh, he started one way and ended up another but I feel like it's kind of like a race where he was not doing super great in the race and then got a super burst of speed but tripped over a lot of things and fell down in the mud. I don't know. He's very much continually learning that person. And he's battling a lot of demons. And he's got a lot to overcome. And his arc this season, you definitely get to see some Eli, you get to see some hawks. So I'm excited for that.

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That's cool. I mean, what do you think is the best part about playing his character?

I will say this, I love that the writers can give me a really cool arc every season. And I'm super appreciative of that. And that's probably one of the things I really like. I just like the way the characters progressed. 

Yes.

It felt decently natural, and I got to punch people in the face. Kick people in the face. I don't know, it's one of my favorite part. Kind of beat people up.

How did you train for that? For the physical stuff, the martial arts?

Yes. Some coordinators set up training. First of all, in season four, we trained a ton, which, when I say training, it is a ton of stretching. That's mainly what I'd say. But yes, we trained so much for all the fights and it's a lot of boxing, a lot of Muay Thai. It's mostly conditioning ,I would say, but it's fun. That's something that I love doing. I wasn't really heavily into martial arts or anything like that. So getting into it now is really, really fun.

That's so cool. Learning new skills is always awesome. Now, let’s talk about the challenges and the highs that you experience throughout this whole thing.

I'd say some of the challenges were that some of the fights have been pretty difficult. The Coyote Creek fight in season two was really, really hard and was really, really, really freezing and it was crazy muddy on the floor so that was definitely a difficult one. For the highs, I honestly feel that I made a lot of friends through this show. Like a lot of the crew guys. Xolo is like a brother to me now. Peyton, Johnny, we've all gotten really, really close. I'm super grateful for my friends that I've made on the show and I tell them. I'd say some of the highs are just like when we wrap and everyone comes over to our house and we just hang out. We play Jack box and just little stuff, you know.

 You know, at the very end of the season, we're all freaking out. And I was just really happy to have been there and gotten to experience that. That was really, really fun.

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What is the proudest moment of your career so far?

Honestly, this is the one that I can first think of and this is what I felt the most proud of recently. Xolo and I have a podcast together and it's called Lone Lobos. And we just started. And it's been super fun. And we're making episodes, and I never really knew how many people listened to, or, you know, how successful it was going. And I heard that it was going really well but I didn't know the exact numbers. I guess, most of our episodes get anywhere from like, I don't know, four to, like 6000 downloads or something like that. And then the past couple of episodes have been doing really, really well and got like 60,000 downloads. So, that was really cool to see it do a big spike and I felt really proud of that. Because that's something that me and him have put a lot of time and effort into making and like that's, we have all the creative control on it. And it really is sort of our baby. So that was a really cool moment to... You know, we just started... I honestly don't even know if those are big numbers or not, but it's big for us and I was really proud of that.

Congratulations, guys. I was searching for it online earlier. And I saw some outlets just writing about the podcast episodes, which is kind of cool. 

Oh, wow. That's crazy. 

Yes, they're talking about stuff that you guys are talking about. It's awesome. You made an impact.

Wow. That is so cool.

Who and what inspires you?  

Honestly, my mom is really inspiring to me. As cliché as that probably is. She and my dad. My dad works a lot. Growing up, my mom had to take care of three kids and it was obviously not easy to say the least. And she would drive me to LA every day, we lived like an hour and a half outside of LA. She drives me to all my auditions. Sometimes I have two a day, four a day, or more every other day, but she really gave me the opportunity to have a career, and she also was a fantastic mom to two other kids. And I feel like her time was always spread so thin but she always had time for each one of us and every little thing we're going through. 

I guess I want to be like that where even if I'm super busy or there's a lot going on, I still carve time out to be a good person. Because there's a lot of people who get stressed and get anxious and there's a lot that's going on and they can sort of unravel and not be the best person to be around. But my mom does seem to have that part figured out where even if the world was burning, she could somehow still smile and that's like a quality of a really loving, loving mom.

That's really great and really inspiring because you’re honoring your mom in interviews and it’s also great when people hear about it. 

Thanks man. I love my mom.

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This is for your mom. 

Yes. 

What scares you?

Honestly, old age. I don't want to have to... I'm so active and I love, like a big part of life is for me is skiing and snowboarding, going rock climbing and hiking and I'm so scared to get to that point where, you know, I can't do those things. That's something that honestly kind of freaks me out. I don't know. 

What are you right now, 20?

I'm 21

Twenty-one. It's still going to be a while before you reach that point. Don't worry about it.

I mean, you asked me if I'm scared of anything. And I honestly feel like I'm not super scared of anything. But that is something that I know in the distance, I know I will sort of be a little bit afraid of.

Okay. I'm pretty sure along the way you'll find a solution to that. You will.

I'm sure I'll have some good friends and a cool ass wife. 

What's your dream project?

Oh... Honestly, so my dad is an anesthesiologist and I've always wanted to do a movie about an anesthesiologist just because I feel like the stories he has are really, really interesting. But there's not really any anesthesiologist movies. It's always about surgeons, or, you know, the doctor is killing everybody here. I really like that slice of life in movies. I think it would be cool to do a movie like that. But I don't know. Since doing Cobra Kai, I would love to do a Bourne Identity type movie that would be super, super cool. And now I'm really into action because we're doing so many fights and stuff. I think now it'd be super cool, you know, a bunch of action stuff.

That'd be dope. A lot of more stunts. 

 Yes, that'd be sick.

Out of all the roles that you've played so far, is there any character that resonated with you the most and why?

This is a good question. I would say, at a point in my life, Eli, I was bullied a lot when I was a kid. And I was a pretty emotional kid that I hid a lot from a lot of people. But I feel like on the inside, I definitely felt like Eli, I felt really small, couldn't really communicate with myself or talk about my emotions. Anytime I did, it was like a little outburst, like sometimes what Eli does. 

Yes, at this time in my life I would definitely say Eli. Like, I've definitely felt like that before. Unfortunately bullying sucks, don't do it.

And then you grow and you evolve like Eli as well.

Exactly. That's a part of the journey, you know. But it's not an easy journey. You know, there are some bumps along the road..

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What are you most excited about the upcoming year? I know the past years have been crazy, but what are you excited about in the near future?

I don't know, I kind of set a goal, a life goal for myself a couple years ago that I really want to go to Sundance, whether it's you know, having to write something, direct something and go or if I'm just in a movie that goes from there. So something I'm looking forward to is just, trying to look for really cool projects to do in the next year and writing a bunch and just kind of looking to the grindstone. 

Sundance is fun. It's really fun out there. Especially that you love snowboarding.  

Oh yes, yes. I'm a big skier.

You're going to love Sundance.

Final question for you. If you're a book, what book would you be and why?

Oh Lord. I think it would be the Lord of the Rings series. Just because of the sense of adventure. I'll narrow it down, I'd probably be the hobbit for the sense of adventure. 

I feel a little bit like an underdog like Bilbo and I don't know. Yes, I just freaking love that book. I love that series.