The first Karate Kid was when I was 22, and I’m still playing that character. Sometimes it has been great, and sometimes it has been confining. But I take pride in paying the legacy forward.

I took dance as a kid. I wanted to be Gene Kelly from the moment I first saw those MGM musicals.

I’d been in Eight Is Enough, then got this part in The Outsiders, an amazing movie with an amazing cast. I thought I was beyond the teen-heartthrob thing, answering questions like, “What’s your favorite color?” for magazines. But when I went to see [Outsiders director Francis Ford] Coppola, he had a bunch of teen magazines on his desk because he was figuring out who kids wanted to see. So here’s my note to a young person: Be careful what you think you might know at a young age.

I got to work with beautiful dynamic actresses like Elisabeth Shue and Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny) so people are like, well who was the one? And I know this is lame, but my girlfriend-wife was the one. We met at like 15, 16—and I wasn’t looking anyplace else.

I was a Long Island kid, and I still live in the ’burbs. My parents are there—they’ll be the first ones grabbing this article, I’m sure. We all get AARP The Magazine now!

In the ’80s, I was like, “Are we done shooting?” Getting kicked is not fun. But in the past seven or eight years—since I went back to playing my Karate Kid character on Cobra Kai—I’ve gotten into martial arts. But no, I don’t start the day kicking and punching. Screaming, maybe, but not kicking and punching.

Will I be playing this role in my walker? Maybe, if there’s genuine honesty and it feels fresh. I’ve learned to never say never. —As told to Judith Newman