Tulsa King star and executive producer Sylvester Stallone has broken his social media silence since allegations he and one of the show’s directors had disparaged some background actors who were working on the Paramount+ drama.
Sylvester Stallone in the Paramount+ original series ‘Tulsa King’Frank Ockenfels/Paramount+
Stallone, however, did not address the accusations. In an Instagram post on Monday, he wrote, “Ringing the bell on location for Tulsa King part two” next to a photo of him dressed in character as mafia capo Dwight ‘The General’ Mandfredi.
On April 1, prior to the emergence of allegations of a “toxic” set, Stallone appeared in a Paramount+ Instagram video which announced that production for Tulsa King season 2 had begun. That post featured Stallone saying, “You have no idea what’s coming. Trust me.”
As Deadline reported on April 9, Atlanta-based casting company Rose Locke Casting, which had been hired to find actors ages 18 and over for the second season of the Taylor Sheridan series, left the show in the wake of the allegations.
Apparently the working conditions on Tulsa King had become fodder on a private Facebook page for Atlanta-based background actors; Stallone and an unnamed director were accused of calling some of the extras “ugly,” “tub of lard” and “fat guy with cane.”
An extra later told Deadline that he never heard Stallone or the director utter disparaging words about background actors, but was convinced some of the comments were directed at him personally after he read about them on the private Facebook page.
Locke told her clients that she left the series because of disparaging language allegedly used by Stallone to describe the extras — an accusation that director Craig Zisk denied to TMZ after Deadline broke the story.
Zisk told the outlet that Locke failed to do her job by not recruiting extras in the 20s and 30s range for a scene involving a hip bar. Stallone has yet to comment on the accusations.
Tulsa King follows New York mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi just after he is released from prison after 25 years and is unceremoniously exiled by his boss to set up shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Realizing that his mob family may not have his best interests in mind, Dwight slowly builds a crew from a group of unlikely characters to help him establish a new criminal empire in a place that to him might as well be another planet.
Sheridan is the creator/executive producer. The series also is executive produced by Zisk, who serves as producing director for Season 2, Terence Winter, Stallone, David C. Glasser, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari, David Hutkin, Braden Aftergood and Keith Cox. Tulsa King is produced by MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios.
