Sylvester Stallone: ‘Tulsa King’ Is ‘Harder, Faster and Longer’ Than ‘Rocky’
The Taylor Sheridan drama Tulsa King is not Sylvester Stallone’s first TV show. He hosted the reality series The Contender and guest starred on Las Vegas and This Is Us. But, it’s the first time Stallone played the lead in an ongoing series. And Stallone was surprised how much harder it was than a movie.
Stallone was on a Television Critics Association panel for Tulsa King on Sept. 21. He explained the difference between Tulsa King episodes and his own movies, including the Rocky sequels. New episodes of Tulsa King premiere Sundays on Paramount+.
Sylvester Stallone on ‘Tulsa King’ vs. ‘Rocky’
Stallone has his work cut out for him on Tulsa King. The streaming series world is next level from film.
“It’s harder, faster, and longer,” Stallone said. “That’s what it is. You really have to be quick, you have to be mercurial, you have to work out of sync a lot of times with sequences that don’t follow the natural order of things. But most importantly, you have to keep your energy up, and it’s extremely quick. Put it this way. Ten episodes is the equivalent of doing five Rockys in a row, five two-hour films in a row with no break in between. So I had great respect for the crew in their diligence and endurance.”
‘Tulsa King’ has 1 similarity to Sylvester Stallone’s movies
Executive producer David Glasser added to Stallone’s take on Tulsa King vs. Rocky.
“It’s shot like a film,” Glasser said. “These are like 10 one-hour movies at the end of the day. And I think that’s what sort of separates what everybody’s doing. When we went to MTV Entertainment Studios and said, ‘Look, we want to go ahead and make a mob TV show that has been separated and different than everything else,’ this was that opportunity. And we want to make it look like ten one-hour movies. I think
that’s the opportunity that we were able to do here.”
An actor can do both now
When Stallone made it in movies, there was a big separation between film and TV actors. Over the last 20 years, movie stars migrated to television. So Stallone is just joining the club.
“Now you have so many fine performers and actors and writers specifically aiming for a TV career, to create these streaming shows that have such depth and give people a chance to branch out,” Stallone said. “So I’m glad. I’m glad I just finally got an opportunity to jump on this train, really.”
The cast of Tulsa King also includes film actors like Garrett Hedlund, Martin Starr and Andrea Savage. Stallone is impressed by all of them.
“And these actors, they get better and better,” Stallone said. “It’s one thing when you’re acting in the scene. You go, ‘Okay, it’s pretty good.’ Then you see it actually portrayed. In other words, you see it broadcasted. You know, ‘Damn, that girl is good. Damn, that guy is really good.’ Because sometimes you’re in the middle of it and you don’t realize it. Then you go, ‘This is much better than I anticipated.’ So this has been one big pleasant surprise.”
