Roma, widely known as Gypsies, don't usually allow outsiders into their community.
But when former Karate Kid star Ralph Macchio asked a Roma family in New York to star in the new doc-series American Gypsies, they agreed, saying it may help preserve and dispel misperceptions about their culture.
They even invited the ever-youthful '80s teen heartthrob, who's now 50 but looks much younger, to a Roma wedding.
"It was like this secretive thing to be invited to this wedding as a GAJE, which is what they call the outsiders," Macchio said in a recent telephone interview, laughing at the unintended reference to his 1983 teen gang film The Outsiders.
"Once I got in there I looked like all of them, because I'm sort of dark, ethnic, Italian-Greek. I think the Johns family (featured in the series) is Greek in their ancestry, so I fit in like one of the regulars.
"I was pretty popular at this wedding. It was like 1985 all over again."
Macchio produces American Gypsies, which debuts Monday on National Geographic Channel in Canada.
The rollicking Johns are one of the most prominent Roma families in New York City and owner/operator of a psychic-healing shop empire.
Ailing godfather-like patriarch Bob Sr. wants his family to stick to Roma traditions, including arranged marriages between teenagers in the community, and home-schooling.
But not everyone in the clan agrees, and the elders worry their culture will eventually be lost in a North American society.
In the series première, a dispute also arises between the Johns and another fam-ily that has broken Roma law by opening up a psychic business close to theirs.
There's even a Roma court that deals with such issues.
"It's an interesting world," said Macchio, whose other famed credits include the film My Cousin Vinny and the TV series Eight Is Enough.
"A lot of people say the show is like The Sopranos meets Jersey Shore without the murder - or at least we hope," he continued, laughing.
"But it does have that element, it has those big personalities. They're very strong-minded people."
American Gypsies also has graphics explaining the language and history of the culture, and notes the term " 'gypsy' is often considered offensive and inaccurate."
Macchio grew up in Long Island, New York, but didn't know Roma lived in the region until he saw footage of the Johns shot by two young film students - one of whom is his friend's son - as part of a graduate project.
While he was fascinated with the culture, he also related to their belief that family comes first.
"No matter what their differences are, they have each other's back, and I sort of related to that from my Italian-Greek upbringing - although not quite as loud as the Johns family, and as boisterous," he said.
The Johns allowed cameras into their homes because "it is a way for them to break those stereotypes, that we all think of Gypsies as toothless fortune tellers and moving town to town and a nomadic people - as opposed to an actual family trying to exist, a minority group," said Macchio.
It took at least three networks and 4 1 /2 years of development to get the show up and running.
Coincidentally, it comes at the same time as TLC's series, My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.
"It's funny, everyone is looking for the next big idea but then when someone finds one then it seems like everybody's got the same idea," said Macchio. "It's a very different show than that.
"This is more familybased; it's about disputes, it's about carrying on traditions yet how those traditions are waning and the different opinions within the family of how to carry on the culture but yet not lose the opportunity of what the American dream might be.
"They're at a crossroads of their history and culture."
Ah, another unintentional allusion to one of Macchio's films, in this case 1986's Crossroads.
"I'm listing my movies as I give this interview," he said, laughing. "It was not completely intentional but I'm laughing at it now, now that I'm listening to myself."
Macchio has already seen one of his cherished films, The Karate Kid, remade for the big screen. But he can't see the same thing happening with The Outsiders, noting the story was suited to its time.
"I never thought they'd remake The Karate Kid in my lifetime, either, and that was done, so anything can happen," said Macchio, who competed on last year's Dancing With the Stars and plays Psycho screenwriter Joe Stefano in the upcoming film Hitchcock.
"But I'd be surprised if they come up with a cast as stellar as the original Outsiders cast, and when you look at everyone's careers after that movie it's pretty amazing."
