In Paramamount+’s latest crime-drama series Tulsa King, Sylvester Stallone stars as Dwight “The General” Manfredi, a mafia capo who was recently released from 25 years in prison. After a quarter of a century behind bars, the world has changed, and Manfredi finds himself not only dealing with the difficulties of re-acclimating to society, but his family has also relocated him from the bustling territories of New York to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Looking to stake claim in the south, Stallone’s business is only made that much more problematic when ATF agent Stacy Beale (played by Andrea Savage) is sent on his trail. Like the crime boss, Beale finds herself in a fish-out-of-water situation, far from the New York Bureau and its Anti-Terror Squad, in favor of sniffing out Tulsa’s local militia groups.
In her interview with Collider’s Editor-in-Chief Steve Weintraub, Savage discussed how working with creator Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone) and writer Terence Winter (The Sopranos) differs from her own truTV comedy series I’m Sorry. She also shares how she learned her character’s arc as the story progressed, the Yellowstone and Tulsa King prequel jokes on set, and working with “the best people.” For more on Tulsa King, check out Collider's review by Nate Richard.
COLLIDER: I want to start with congrats on the first two episodes. This is going to be a big hit, no doubt, and one of the reasons is Taylor Sheridan. Everything he touches just turns to gold. What do you think it is about his writing and the way he makes shows that resonates with so many people?
ANDREA SAVAGE: Well, I think he really thinks about transitions in people's lives, and when you're trying to figure out who you are, and that being a person is complicated, and that's nuanced. In a lot of his shows, it's older people now looking back on their lives in certain ways and navigating through that. This show's a little different because Taylor had the initial idea, but handed the show off to Terrence Winter. So Terry wrote the show and I've actually never met Taylor Sheridan. So this is a different situation for Taylor as well.
Did anyone on set while you were filming joke about what season will the crossover go with Yellowstone?
SAVAGE: I believe there were definitely jokes along that way, or what's the prequel? What's the prequel to the prequel of this? You know what I mean? There'd be some very small character on the show and I'll be like, "You know what? Season 4, it's a whole new series based on that barista," stuff like that.
How much did you actually get told about the arc of your character? Because you play an important part in the first two episodes. How much were you told when you signed on, "This is what we're thinking," you know what I mean? Or is it sort of like, "It's Stallone, I want to do this."
SAVAGE: I just knew the first two episodes, and they were still writing as we were going along, so it was still forming. We were all waiting for episodes to see what was going to happen because it was not all set up before we started, which is wild.
People don't realize how much television is literally just laying the track right in front as you're walking it.
SAVAGE: I will say, I've never experienced anything like this either. I come from comedy, and if it's situational comedy, there are not really arcs because they're individual episodic. In my show, I'm Sorry, I would write every episode and we were completely locked script-wise before we started Day One of shooting. So I've never been in this situation and it's kind of nerve-wracking, and you really have to put faith in the process and go, "God, I don't know what anyone else is shooting, my character's kind of by themselves. I don't know where I'm headed. Here we go." You know? You really just have to go, "I know that these people are extremely talented,” and trust in that and just go, "I'm with working with the best people. So if they can't do it, no one can."
Tulsa King is available to stream on Paramount+. Check out Collider's interview with Stallone below:
- Interviews
- TV
- Tulsa King (2022)
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