Tulsa King is currently airing its third season on Paramount Plus, and things are starting to heat up for Dwight “The General” Manfredi and his budding Tulsa empire. They’re raking in all sorts of money, but they’re also racking up a sizable list of enemies, from local kingpins to Dwight’s old New York allies, not to mention federal law enforcement. So far, he and his have been able to stay one step ahead of the hounds, but who knows how things will shake up as the season progresses?
TV Squad got the chance to chat with several of the show’s supporting cast members. In this group Zoom chat, I spoke with Mike “Cash Flo” Walden, who plays Dwight’s driver/bodyguard, Bigfoot, Chis Caldovino, who plays Goodie, an old New York gangster just like Dwight, who ultimately turned his back on the big city in order to team up with Dwight’s new Tulsa mafia, and McKenna Harrington, who plays Grace, a weed store employee who seems to have found her true calling as the cool-headed sharpshooter of the team.
Read or watch the interview below, and catch new episodes of Tulsa King every Sunday on Paramount Plus. The seasons are only ten episodes each, so if you haven’t watched the show yet, it’s easy to catch up!
Zak Wojnar, TV Squad: Hello, gang!
Mike “CashFlo” Walden: Hey, Zak, how are you, man?
I’m doing all right. I’m so excited. I mean, I’m loving the season so far. I got to cover last season at a different website, and now I’m at a new place, but I was like, I got to make room for Tulsa King! So I’m here now talking to the actors playing Goodie, Bigfoot, and Grace. So do you think Grace is going to get a cool Mafia nickname this year?
McKenna Harrington: I mean, at this point, she kind of needs one! Although I will say, there’s something… I think there’s something so simplistic and nice and punchy to just, “Grace.” Like, the sharpshooter named Grace, I think is really cool. So I don’t know, but I would be open to it. But I kind of like my name.
Cool. For Bigfoot, I mean, I suppose that it’s somewhat self-explanatory, Mike, why Bigfoot is named Bigfoot. But do you have, in your mind, kind of a specific story of how that came to be?
Mike “Cash Flo” Walden: No, I don’t really have a specific story. I mean, big head, hairy, sounds like Bigfoot to me!
I wouldn’t doubt him.
Mike “Cash Flo” Walden: (Laughs)
Chris, same question for Goodie.
Chris Caldovino: Oh, that’s a Mafia secret. I can’t… No. (Laughs)
Fair enough. So, on these Mafia shows, there’s always a fear, almost an expectation, that you might not last too long, R.I.P. Billy Boy Leotardo. But one of my weird favorite things about Tulsa King is that Dwight and his gang just keep on going up. Every time you think there’s going to be a bump in their path, they just either sidestep it or kick it away. I mean, we saw when you switch sides from New York to his… I was like, oh, this is it. This is it! The other shoe’s about to drop. But nope. He’s their guy now. But that also has me being this, when is the other shoe going to drop? So for you guys, do you have this feeling of, I don’t know, I don’t want to say job security or job insecurity, but this kind of, from episode to episode being like, all right, is this the one? Is this the one where we all get blown away? Or tell me a little bit about that tension.
Chris Caldovino: Well, we don’t know what’s going to happen from episode to episode until we get the script. So I think that puts some reality into our characters’ lives. If you’re in a crime show and you know how you’re going to end, you know, it’s really not… You don’t feel the jeopardy. Because in life, if you were in that, if you had that job in life, you wouldn’t know from day to day if you were coming back, so I think us not knowing what’s going to happen from episode to episode… I mean, we have a basic idea, but you know, we just play it day by day, as you would in life. And that’s, I think, what comes across.
Can you tell me a little bit about having, like you said, kind of taking it from week to week, but also having that sense of identity for your characters as the seasons progress, and how that maybe changes or evolves? Like, did you think in season one or two when you were introduced that, you know, that it was going to be such a long road so far?
Mike “Cash Flo” Walden: I mean, for me, you know, it’s, you know, episode to episode. You know, your job is to take what the wonderful writers write for you and give it some humanity. And, you know, regardless of whatever that is, that is your job, that is your role. So, you know, whatever that may bring, I’m here for it. I’m here for it.
Chris Caldovino: It’s like being on a ride. You just go along and have a good time.
Mike “Cash Flo” Walden: Being on the ride!
Right. Because you don’t know how long it’s going to last, right? Tell me about the transition of shooting, from what I understand, in Tulsa in season one to shifting to Georgia in season two, and I guess onward from there. I guess it’s less of a dry heat. Is there anything more to it than that?
McKenna Harrington: Less tornado warnings! (Laughs)
Did you guys ever have to shut down, like, for the day, because of that?
McKenna Harrington: Season one? Oh, a ton. Yeah.
Oh, wow.
Chris Caldovino: Season two in Atlanta, we had to shut down for rain, and for lightning, a bunch of times!
McKenna Harrington: Yeah. So I guess it didn’t really… (Laughs)
Chris Caldovino: Yeah, I like both places. You know, it was fun shooting in Oklahoma, and Atlanta’s a great city.
Yeah, I mean, to the production’s credit, like, if I wasn’t told, if I didn’t know about it, I don’t think I would have noticed. It looks the same.
Mike “Cash Flo” Walden: You know, give those boys their flowers! They made it happen. -McKenna Harrington: Yeah, absolutely.
Chris Caldovino: Yeah, location scouts, the location manager, set decorators, you know, they’re artists. They really are. It’s amazing the work they do. We couldn’t do what we do without them doing it first.
Well, I guess the star around which this universe centers is Stallone, and I think there’s a Stallone of it all, just the entire show. Do you guys have any particular stories? Had you worked with him before, had you met him before, and are there any stories about him that you would like to and are able to share from the set?
Mike “Cash Flo” Walden: Just, you know, I’m in awe of the guy, and seeing him work. And when I say, ‘seeing him work,’ you know, what most people see is what you see on camera. What most people don’t see is what is off camera, how much he puts into everything that he does, and the hard work, and it’s not just acting. It’s from acting, to editing, to lighting, to watching playback, to everything. He has his hands in everything. I honestly don’t know how he does it, but, you know, the guy is amazing, and it’s pretty fun to watch, you know. That’s what I call ‘squad goals,’ you know. That’s what I call, you know, life goals, you know, to be like somebody like that and be able to do that.
McKenna Harrington: A fun story that I feel like reflects how he just cares about everyone and everything, like every little aspect… Like, if a prop feels wrong, he’ll say something. It’s everything. Season one, episode eight, I was showing off my shooting for the first time, and I had gone shooting with Martin Starr and Andrea Savage, and I’d been watching a ton of videos, and I was all ready. I’d done stuff with the props guy and with Freddie Poole, our stunts guy, and I was so like locked in, ready to shoot, and Sly comes up to me, he’s like, “What are you doing?” I was like, “I’m getting ready to shoot.” He’s like, “No, no, no.” And he like shows me, he changes my position, and then he was like, “That looks so much cooler.” I was like, you are so right! And it really did, because I saw the playback from before he moved me around, and I looked like a girl who was like shooting a gun for the first time, and after he, you know, moved me, then I’m like, oh, it looks like I’ve been doing it for years. So he just, it’s like, he cares about every character like that. It’s amazing.
Related: Tulsa King Renewed For Season 4 With Terence Winter Returning As Head Writer
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