Tulsa KingThe hit Paramount+ series from creators Taylor Sheridan and Terence Winter is back for its second season. Sylvester Stallone stars as Dwight Manfredi, a New York City mafia boss who is “rewarded” for serving a 25-year prison sentence by being put to pasture in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Unwilling to retire and feeling burdened by his crime family, Dwight finally decides to form a new empire and create a new crime family to call his own.
One of Manfredi’s most trusted lieutenants is Mitch Keller, the owner of a local bar that becomes the de facto headquarters for Dwight’s budding operation. Mitch is played by Garrett Hedlund, the earthy hunk best known for roles in hit movies like Friday Night Lights, Tron: LegacyAnd Triple Frontier. He brings a sense of authentic, home-grown Americana to the series, with his character, an ex-con and former rodeo star, reinforcing the western aesthetic of Tulsa King.
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Screen Rant interviewed Garrett Hedlund about his work in Tulsa King. The actor shares stories about working with Stallone, and the comfort that comes with being able to bring his real personality to his character. He talks about how his character has evolved since season 1 and teases a bit of what we can expect from him Tulsa King Season 2 and beyond.
Tulsa King’s Garrett Hedlund, a real-life singing cowboy playing a singing cowboy
“It’s nice when something is a little closer to home.”
Screen Rant: I got to talk to you a little bit, actually, a bunch of years ago, for Triple Frontier, so it’s nice to have another chance.
Garrett Hedlund: Fantastic, fantastic. One question, do we or Charlie Hunnam look better in this movie?
man…
Garrett Hedlund: I mean, prettier, better.
More beautiful? I have to give it to you. I mean, he was more of a rugged mountain guy, and you’re an MMA guy just waiting to get that sponsorship deal. Waiting to get sponsored by Red Bull.
Garrett Hedlund: Yeah, yeah. (Laughs) Okay, okay. It was a poll.
I don’t know if there is a more beautiful cast than that movie. All the girls were just like, “Oh my God, they’re all so beautiful.”
Garrett Hedlund: Yes, I agree. No, it was! The whole thing was a lot of fun. We definitely had fun with it, for sure.
Fast forward all these years later, now you have Tulsa KingMy favorite new show. Your guy, Mitch Keller, is a real cowboy. He sings. He grew up on a farm. You are a real cowboy. You sing. You grew up on a farm. Was the role made for you, or how did it come across your desk?
Garrett Hedlund: Oh, man, this is the easiest job I’ve ever had to do! Look, it’s fun. It’s nice when something is a little closer to home. I mean, from the beginning, no, it’s not really that similar to me. He just got out of prison. He was a bull rider. I’d not done any of these, and I think, slowly, some integrations evolved a bit. It’s fun when you can bring a little bit of yourself into something instead of everything always being extremely challenging or having to really be something other than your human self.
Look, my roots are… all this can probably be dismissed and just say, look, my roots are in the country. That’s where I feel most at home, and so it’s nice to do something that’s rooted in the landscape of Oklahoma, something that’s gripping like a little bit of Mafioso mixed with turf war, mixed with some drama, danger, thrills , excitement, and I dropped it at the end of the day with a few tunes, I’m in!
Stuff like in the season finale when you sing the band “I’ve Never Been to Spain,” one of my favorites, wasn’t necessarily baked into the character from the beginning? There’s a scene where a band plays, and someone on set goes, “Well, Garrett sings.”
Garrett Hedlund: It was closer than you’d think! It was probably around episode 4 or 5 that I think either the creators played Sly some tunes, or maybe I’d told Sly, but somehow it came back to him, and he said, “Mitch should play in this.” Initially, I was going to sort of spit it out, but then I said, “Well, why the hell not?” So, suddenly, there I am at the finale singing, never been to Spain, and a little bit of three dog night… but it’s fun. It is interesting. I mean, you can’t spell Oklahoma without music.
Tulsa King’s Garrett Hedlund on working with legends like Stallone and Barry Corbin
“My dad would have flipped his lid if he saw me working with Barry Corbyn.”
You talked about the dynamic a little bit behind the scenes. I know everyone’s professional, you have to get your shots, you have to meet your deadlines so they don’t kill you off or recast you. But do you try to find time at some point to go to Sylvester Stallone and be like, “Remember First blood“Do you get to be fans of each other? And with someone like Barry Corbyn, what a career that guy has had!
Garrett Hedlund: Barry Corbin, absolutely! I mean, geez, my dad would kill the cover if he saw me working with Barry Corbin. With SLI, it’s wonderful. You know, I’ve known him since I was 18 years old. And he was so sweet and supportive of me. Even before I shot my first scenes on Troy. And so it was always the relative, you know. I still idolized him. But the fact that he would, would give his time and be curious or listen and tell stories, because we were in a trainer’s facility, it meant a lot to me.
Oh, you trained together.
Garrett Hedlund: When they came to me on this, you know, I just want to get on set and enjoy it, and sit there with someone like Sly, and be a part of Terence Winter’s writing and Sheridan’s world. It just seemed like it was the dream team. And these guys are f*** outlaws, all of them. They are all great. I respect them all. I like working with people I respect.
If season one was about, like, bringing this ragtag family together, like a mafia 2.0, without the shackles of the tradition of the New York way of doing it, I feel like season two, just seeing the premiere itself, is a Kind of like seeing how these guys actually mix and match. I think we’re going to see a lot of pairings that we haven’t seen before. Can you tell me a little bit about maybe doing scenes with actors you didn’t get to work with in the first season?
Garrett Hedlund: Yes, it was a little different this year. I mean, in a good way. Last season, Mitch and Dwight’s characters had conversations and involvement together that were very singular, very manual. They are in the bar with an end-of-day discussion, or trying to configure how they will go about the next mission and what their obstacles are going to be and how to overcome them.
For this, Mitch is much more involved because he is a much bigger part of the empire. Now that the empire is established, he is a part of it; He is responsible for it. And so now it’s much more of an all-for-one, one-for-all kind of journey for all of them, which I think is enjoyable to watch. They are all in it together. In the first season, they were trying to figure out if they could still trust everyone.
Garrett Hedlund on trading Oklahoma Heat for Georgia Sun
“It really just went from one degree of, from absolutely hot hot to another degree of absolutely hot.”
From what I understand season two, you’re shooting on the other side of the country from season one, right? Season 1, you shot in Oklahoma, and now it’s in Georgia. When you have to pack roots and rebuild everything else, it’s an acclaimed or yours Throne Training kicks in where you’re like, well, you know, I’m not really into a computer. Or is it, like, “Hey, it’s just acting, is it a black box or on location?”
Garrett Hedlund: It was more similar than you would think. It’s really just gone from one degree of, from absolutely ***ing hot to another degree of absolutely ***ing hot. I loved every bit of Oklahoma. I love everything it has to offer as a state. I absolutely love it. Georgia, I have worked on many occasions. It was an easy transition for me. The only thing that was really different was, because Atlanta is a Delta hub, there were just a few more flights.
Mitch wears a lot of flannel. I feel like this is probably a challenge in the heat.
Garrett Hedlund: No, no, no. (laughs) The flannel was not that difficult for me! If you’re looking, you know, yes, I am. I am in long sleeve. They happen to be slightly rolled up, but if you look right there, every other sorry soccer player is wearing a three-piece suit. So I did it easy!
Mitch was more “plot-relevant” than “character-relevant” in season 1. I feel like this will be the season where we learn about him. What’s going to happen to him and whatever characterization he has, is that stuff that you knew in season 1 you would end up building to? Or is it like, “So, what are we doing this time?”
Garrett Hedlund: During season 1, ideas were constantly being passed around. Everything we explore in this season could not have been known back then. We definitely tossed around ideas. We circled around with directions that we would like the characters to take on set, with wandering and daydreaming and this and that.
But also, at the same time, so is the studio, and so is the writer’s room. And so you lend it to the powers that be and hope you’re just wonderfully surprised. What I can say is that I think there’s going to be some wonderful surprises this season, some wonderful new directions, and what I’m excited about is, a lot of it lends itself to some fun humor, which I don’t think we’ve really had. Get to see from Mitch.
More about Tulsa King Season 2
In season 2, Dwight (Stallone) and his crew continue to build and protect their growing empire in Tulsa, but just as they get their bearings, they realize they’re not the only ones who want to stake their claim. With looming threats from the Kansas City mob and a very powerful local businessman, Dwight struggles to keep his family and crew safe while keeping track of all his affairs. Plus, he still has unfinished business back in New York.
Check out our other Tulsa King season 2 interviews here: