‘Tulsa King’ Makes up for Sylvester Stallone Getting Cut out of ‘The Godfather’
The new Taylor Sheridan drama Tulsa King stars Sylvester Stallone. Stallone plays Dwight “The General” Manfredi, an ex-con sent to Tulsa, Oklahoma to set up shop for the New York mob. Stallone may be more well-known for playing boxers or Army soldiers, but he has some experience with gangsters. He wanted to be in The Godfather but 50 years later he’s finally getting his chance.
Stallone was part of a Television Critics Association panel for Tulsa King on Sept. 21. He discussed his surprising history in the gangster genre. Tulsa King episodes premiere Sundays on Paramount+.
Sylvester Stallone’s attempted cameo in ‘The Godfather’
Rocky was 1976. Before that, Stallone was a struggling actor. You can see him harass Woody Allen in Bananas or on episodes of Kojack and Police Story. You won’t see him in The Godfather but not for lack of trying.
“It’s always been kind of a fantasy since I was rejected to be one of the 200 extras who basically stood behind a wedding cake in The Godfather scene in 1970,” Stallone said. “I’d been trying to get in gangster films, and it just never happened. So finally, everything comes to those who wait.”
‘Tulsa King’ is a different sort of gangster for Sylvester Stallone
The Godfather would’ve been fun, and solid work for a young actor. Tulsa King gives Stallone a lot more meat, and this time he’s not punching the meat with his fists.
“I wanted to play a different interpretation of a gangster, because most of the times, gangsters are ‘thems’ and ‘those,’” Stallone said. “This is a fella who’s very educated, reads Marcus Aurelius, reads Plato. He’s into Machiavelli, he’s also into the classics, he’s a different animal than you would normally see in a ‘gangster’ film.”
Showrunner Terrence Winter added some of the differences between Dwight and The Godfather’s Corleones.
“This is different in the sense that it’s not really about a Mafia family as much as it is about one particular mafioso, Dwight,” Winter said. “So the conflicts he faces are very different. In a traditional mob show, for example, Dwight might be involved with his New York mob family and they might be fighting other mob families. In Tulsa, Dwight’s kind of on his own. So he’s still expected to earn money, which he sends back to his people in New York, but the people he’s encountering and the challenges he’s encountering are very different from the things he would experience back in New York in a traditional mob setting.”
Sylvester Stallone on real-life gangsters
Asked about his real-life experience with gangsters, Stallone had a funny response.
“Well, half my family are gangsters,” Stallone deadpanned. “At least they’re robbing me. No, I’m only kidding. I grew up around a lot of these mugs, and they’re very interesting. In Philadelphia, you’re always bumping shoulders with them whether you want to or not, especially in South Philly. So I’ve got the tempo, I’ve got the idea, I’ve got the attitude, so I understand the street life very, very well.”
