After more than 80 movies and three Oscar nominations under his belt, American actor and film-maker Sylvester Stallone is finally taking on his first lead role in a scripted television series.
And after decades of trying and failing to land a part as a gangster – and being rejected for the job of an extra on mob classic The Godfather (1972) – he now gets to play one on his new show, Tulsa King.
Premiering on Paramount Network (StarHub TV Channel 620 and Singtel TV Channel 418) on Monday at 10pm, the series follows New York mafioso Dwight “The General” Manfredi (Stallone), who has just served a 25-year prison sentence for a mob hit gone wrong.
But he finds himself being banished by his boss to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he is a fish out of water. And so he tries to build a new criminal empire with the help of an unlikely band of misfits.
The character is a “different animal” from what one would normally see in a gangster movie and Tulsa King features a “very different interpretation” of a mobster, Stallone says at a press event in Los Angeles.
The 76-year-old veteran grew up around criminals and troublemakers in south Philadelphia, “so I understand street life well”, he says.
“But this is not a stereotypical gangster show,” he says of the crime drama, which is created by Taylor Sheridan, the writer behind another show set in America’s heartland, the hit neo-western drama Yellowstone (2018 to present).
“My gang is made up of cowboys, Indians and nerds – a group of complete misfits.”
Stallone is one of the most enduring and successful movie stars of his generation still acting today.
He scored Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay Oscar nominations for the boxing drama Rocky (1976), which launched a hit franchise that now spans nine films, including the Creed trilogy (2015 to 2023).
He also picked up a Best Supporting Actor nomination for the first Creed film.
But he admits doing a TV show turned out to be far more work than he imagined.
Compared to film-making, “it’s harder, faster and longer”.
“You 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,” says Stallone, whose TV resume was limited to guest appearances on several dramas and a hosting stint on the boxing reality show The Contender (2005 to 2009).
“But most importantly, you have to keep your energy up,” he adds.
“Put it this way: Ten episodes is the equivalent of doing five Rockys in a row, or five two-hour films in a row with no break in between,” explains Stallone, who also starred in and helped launch the action franchises of Rambo (1982 to 2019) and The Expendables (2010 to 2023).
“So I had great respect for the crew and their diligence and endurance.”
Stallone was also impressed by the calibre of talent working today in TV, which was considered the poor cousin to cinema when he began his career in the 1970s.
“Now, you have so many fine performers and actors and writers specifically aiming for a TV career, and to create these streaming shows that have such depth and give people a chance to branch out.
“So I’m glad I finally got an opportunity to jump on this train,” says Stallone, who in May also launched The Family Stallone, a reality show about his home life with American ex-model wife Jennifer Flavin, 54, and their daughters Sophia, 26; Sistine, 24; and Scarlet, 21.
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And Stallone – who also has a 44-year-old son from a previous marriage – says his Tulsa King co-stars, including Andrea Savage, Martin Starr and Garrett Hedlund, raised the bar on set.
“It’s one thing when you’re acting in the scene. You go, ‘Okay, it’s pretty good.’ Then you see it actually broadcast (and you go), ‘D***, that girl is good. D***, that guy is really good.’ Then you go, ‘This is much better than I anticipated.’
“So this has been one big pleasant surprise,” he says.
Tulsa King premieres on Paramount Network (StarHub TV Channel 620 and Singtel TV Channel 418) on Monday at 10pm, with new episodes every Monday and Tuesday at the same time.