'Cobra Kai' star Courtney Henggeler quits Hollywood: 'We were living off crumbs'

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After more than 20 years, Cobra Kai star Courtney Henggeler is walking away from her acting career.

According to her IMDB page, Henggeler landed her first job more than 20 years ago in 2003’s The Bog Creatures. She went on to land bit parts in series like House, Criminal Minds, The Big Bang Theory, Mom, Fuller House, Jane the Virgin, Bones, Melissa & Joey, Happy Endings and others.

She finally achieved fame as Amanda LaRusso in Netflix’s Karate Kid spinoff Cobra Kai back in 2018. But after the show ended its six-season run earlier this year, Henggeler, 46, decided now was the best time to reevaluate her profession.

“After 20-plus years of fighting the good fight in the acting business, I hung up my gloves on Friday. I called my agents and told them I was tapping out. I no longer wanted to be a cog in the wheel of the machine,” Henggeler wrote in a lengthy message shared to her Substack account and her official Instagram page.

Although she found a role that was more than just a guest appearance in Cobra Kai, Henggeler said the “grind” weighed on her.

“All I’ve ever known in my professional life was acting. But not even the art or craft of acting. All I’ve truly ever knew was the hustle. The hustle, the grind, sprinkled occasionally with the odd acting job. Perhaps a line or two to TV’s Dr. House – ‘Sorry’ (that’s it. That was my line. Genius). Nailed it. Or a recurring guest-star that never seemed to recur….Whatever the opposite of nailing it is,” she said.

Henggeler admitted that those early years of struggle scarred her.

“When all was said and done (or mimed. Sometimes, you gotta mime) it was back to the grind. Back to the wheel. Back to the machine,” she wrote. “We survived off the crumbs. We filled our cup with the possibility; our mugs with delusion. Our plates were empty, but a golden goose hung over our heads. Today might be the day. Today might be the day I reach the golden goose.“

Henggeler, who played the wife of Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) on the series, went on to call herself “one of the lucky ones.”

“I was on a series. A successful series. I made money. My face was on the billboards I longed for 20 plus years. I was directed by George Clooney (2023’s The Boys in the Boat) for God’s sakes. This by all definitions is the golden goose,” she said.

In a 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Henggeler said that being a part of a show with such an enthusiastic fan base was new to her.

“The only other show I have ever done with such vigilant fans would be The Big Bang Theory, but I was only a small part of that, so I didn’t understand the scope,” she told the outlet.  “Cobra Kai has brought it to a new level. They are delightfully enthusiastic and passionate!”

But after finally getting the success she had longed for, Henggeler wants to find a new purpose in life.

She ended her post with a series of questions, saying that she’s comfortable stepping away from a career that she pursued so relentlessly.

“For years I silenced the voice in my head, begging me to walk away. The voice, the constant gnawing. Not because of the acting itself. But because of the gauntlet I had to run to reach the acting. What once felt necessary, something I willingly participated, even celebrated, became stifling,” she said. “We sign up for the gauntlets … What if we never needed to run the gauntlet? What if we are the gauntlet?”

mdaniell@postmedia.com