(ew.com April 14, 2025)
Cobra Kai star Courtney Henggeler is throwing in the towel on acting.
"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 post on her Substack account that she shared on her official Instagram.
Though she didn't specify what her next steps would be, she did share that she told her agents, "I want to be the machine" instead. She continued, "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."
Though she is best known for playing Amanda LaRusso in all six seasons of Cobra Kai, prior to that, Henggeler had small roles in Jane the Virgin, Working Class, Bones, Henry Danger, Royal Pains, Mom, NCIS, Criminal Minds, and The Big Bang Theory. On the film side, she also appeared in Friends with Benefits, Nobody's Fool, and Feed.
But, ultimately, after each job, Henggeler found it was "back to the grind," which left her feeling hungry. "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," she wrote.
Henggeler's announcement came on the heels of Netflix's decision to end Cobra Kai with its sixth and final season, which debuted on the streamer in February.
With the success and consistent work coming from Cobra Kai, Henggeler knew she was finally considered "one of the lucky ones," but she still found herself "famished" by it all. "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 for godsakes. This by all definitions is the golden goose," she shared.
Henggeler continued, "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 concluded her post with a series of rhetorical questions that suggested she's found peace with her decision to step away from acting: "What if we choose to believe we have the power? What if we had it all along? ... What if we never needed to run the gauntlet? What if we are the gauntlet?"
https://ew.com/cobra-kai-star-courtney-henggeler-quits-acting-after-20-years-11715244