Television actress Courtney Henggeler quits the industry after 20 years in sad open letter
This TV star, who most recently had a lead role in a popular Netflix reboot, has revealed the sad reason she’s quitting acting after two decades.
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Courtney Henggeler is closing the curtains on her acting career.
The Cobra Kai star, 46, published a Substack post to her ‘Notes from the Guest Cottage’ newsletter, in which she opened up about her decision to leave the industry, per Decider.
“After 20 plus years of fighting the good fight in the acting business, I hung up my gloves on Friday,” she began.
“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.”
Per IMDb, Henggeler earned her first on-screen credit in 2003’s The Bog Creatures. She went on to land TV cameos in shows like House, Working Class, Faking It, Mom, The Big Bang Theory, and Fuller House.
Cobra Kai was her longest work on a TV series. She appeared in 65 episodes as Daniel LaRusso’s (Ralph Macchio) wife, Amanda LaRusso.
The final instalment of the Karate Kid sequel series was released on Netflix in February. However, Karate Kid: Legends, a movie featuring Macchio and Jackie Chan, heads to cinemas later this year.
Henggeler wrote in her post, “When prompted to know what I did want to do, I simply replied ‘I want to be the machine.’
“All I’ve ever known in my professional life was acting,” she continued. “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).”
Henggeler continued musing about “a recurring guest-star that never seemed to recur,” explaining that when all was said and done, “it was back to the grind.”
“Back to the wheel. Back to the machine,” she added. “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. 20 plus years of this. I’m hungry.”
She acknowledged that she is “considered one of the lucky ones,” citing her work on “a successful series” like Cobra Kai and being “directed by George Clooney” in his 2023 sports drama The Boys in the Boat. Though she noted that “this by all definitions is the golden goose,” she conceded that she is “famished.”
“For years I silenced the voice in my head, begging me to walk away,” she wrote. “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.”
Henggeler then asked, “What if we choose to believe we have the power? What if we had it all along? What if we have been handing our power away because we have been told that this is how it is done. We lose perspective on our own machine, because we are convinced we need another.”
She further pondered, “We wait for power to be bestowed upon us. We sign up for the gauntlets. We run the gauntlet, to prove our worth. To earn our place. To be crowned the power. What if we never needed to run the gauntlet? What if we are the gauntlet?”
This story originally appeared on Decider and was reproduced with permission
Originally published as Television actress Courtney Henggeler quits the industry after 20 years in sad open letter
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