Tulsa King‘s second season has officially reached the point of no return for Dwight’s (Sylvester Stallone) crew as the stakes of his feud with Bevilaqua (Frank Grillo) and Cal (Neal Mcdonough) have truly been raised. Right now, the person who’s suffering the most is the one who saw the repercussions coming a mile away: Tyson’s (Jay Will) father was in the new car he bought when it blew up — an explosion that was meant to target Dwight himself.
Earlier in the season, Dwight’s daughter Tina (Tatiana Zappardino) uprooted her children and moved to Tulsa to be a part of her dad’s life. But is she starting to regret that decision?
TV Insider spoke to Tatiana Zappardino about Tina’s state of mind — and the swoony scene fans didn’t get to see.
This season has been interesting in that Tina is giving into Dwight’s lifestyle by moving to Tulsa and having her family directly in his orbit for this change. Is she still hesitating deep down?
Tatiana Zappardino: So there are definitely scenes that were taken out of the first episode that show more of that internal struggle of her making that decision to move to Oklahoma. So she was. She definitely is. But at the same time, I think she’s come to the realization that she’s already lost 25 years with her father and [she wanted] to just put it aside and just make do with what time they have left together and just say, “I’m gonna put my anger aside and move closer to my father.”
So it’s obviously a big leap of faith. There was a moment when he was kind of trying to instill his macho behavior in the children. Does she trust that she’ll be able to keep them at arm’s length from him?
I don’t think she minds if he kind of toughens him up a little bit. I mean, I definitely think she has a good grasp on her children. So I don’t think she’s too afraid if he teaches them to defend themselves. There is a line in there where she’s like, “I think I taught my kids to be pretty strong and make their own decisions so they can kind of decide for themselves.” They’re at that age. They’re not toddlers. They can think for themselves, sort of, at this age.
How much of a difference does it make that her aunt Joanne (Annabella Sciorra) is in the picture now with her?
She’s this great buffer between Dwight and Tina because she’s known Dwight her whole life. And he wasn’t there when Tina was growing up, so she’s kind of strangers with him. But Joanne knows him. So by having her in the middle, she’s able to kind of communicate between both of us — things that Tina needs, things that Dwight is trying to say to her.
Because I don’t think they necessarily — they do have a kinship, but there’s not necessarily like the best communication. There are still secrets that he keeps from her that he might not trust her with. I don’t think he sees her as an adult. He still sees her as that little girl. So Joanne is a good middle ground.
Can you talk about developing these dynamics with those actors? I know Sylvester Stallone is a girl dad, so he probably has a lot of that in his repertoire already. And then Annabella had worked with Terence Winter on The Sopranos…
Well, the first scene we ever shot together was the dinner scene at Tina’s uncle’s funeral. And right away, that was the first time with Sly. He made me feel comfortable. He was like, “I’m excited to have you here,” and he was very warm like a father. So I think he made it easy to have that dynamic without too much pressure on it. And he also reminds me of my real father, which makes the transition that much easier. When it comes to Annabella, me and her actually bonded really well on set. She reminds me of a lot of my aunts because my family is in New York, right? So when, when she’s there, I’m just like, yeah, no, that makes sense. We kept in contact between seasons. She’s very good at just being herself.
I think that what’s good about these actors who have been around for a long time is they didn’t treat me like I was no one just because I haven’t been in as much work as they have, but they already accepted me in which is such a family thing to do, right? Like I’m part of their family. So it made the onscreen transition much easier.
Coming to Tina and Mitch (Garrett Hedlund) what do you think draws her to him?
He’s definitely the opposite of her husband, right? So Mitch doesn’t need her. I think that she almost felt like she was codependent with her husband… [We filmed] my big speech about why I was with my husband in the first place [during the gun practice sequence in Episode 6, which was edited down]. I did talk about how I picked my first husband because he was the exact opposite of my father and I was trying to run away from that life. But now that I’m seeing Mitch, he’s so independent. I don’t need to rely on him because I’m independent, and a part of me is maybe attracted because he is kind of a connection to my father. Maybe I’ve got some Oedipus issues. I don’t know. But I think the independence is very, very sexy because I felt like I had to take care of the last husband, he was kind of a baby and I just had to — he’s still on the teat.
What was it like for you to share the screen with Garrett Hedlund?
Garrett is super nice. I was really nervous about doing scenes with him because we didn’t really talk the first season at all. We had zero scenes together. So, like when they started writing this, it was like, “Whoa, where’s this coming from? Left field? I haven’t even spoken to him.” But then as soon as I did, he was just so nice and he was so down to earth and he made me feel very comfortable. We kind of goofed around behind the set. It was easy to just like talk and joke around because I don’t remember what scene we did, but we did a scene with like a big group and I think I made a few jokes or something and he was laughing. So he kept telling me like, “Oh, you’re really funny.” I’m like, “Oh my God, stop. It’s embarrassing. No, keep going.” [Laughs.] So I think we kind of developed a bond that made it a little bit easier as well…
Do you think there’s more to come between them?
I think that in every show, there’s some kind of romance, right? And because Sly has a very distinct, doesn’t do romantic scenes because of his family situation, which is super honorable, I think they’re going to try to find the romance in other places. So I might be the romantic getaway in the show because, you know, we all want romance. It’s such a male-heavy show that like the girls want some romance. We need some good loving and some kissing in there. Gotta get the girls to get on board with the show too.
Well, in All Taylor Sheridan shows, there’s always that draw. So that could be you guys, you guys could be the Beth and Rip of this show.
Oh I know. My favorite! My favorite, Beth, and I don’t know if I could ever stand up to Beth’s caliber. She’s just incredible. But, yeah, that’s definitely a dream.
So what else can we look forward to for the rest of the season?
Disappointment. I think that, especially towards the halfway point, which is now everything is at its highest mark, and then just stuff goes downhill. Nothing gold stays, right? I think Dwight and his family life, they’re fooling themselves thinking that they can live a normal life, but there’s no such thing as normal in the Manfredi family. There’s always going to be, when you’re dealing with, bad situations with bad people, bad things will happen eventually. You can’t run away from that, and you’re going to see the downfall of that.
About that, with Tyson and his father in the car explosion, is that going to give Tina pause about setting up in Tulsa?
I mean, personally I believe that Tina is not stupid. I think she knows it could happen anywhere because when she was in New York, her husband got mugged and beaten up. It can happen anywhere. There’s no safe place once you are in the Dwight family. But I definitely do think that she’s always going to be second-guessing because there’s kids involved. I know as a mother myself, I used to be able to think that I can handle a zombie apocalypse. I was like, “Oh my God, I would survive so hard.” Now, I have a kid. I’m like, “Oh my God. I don’t think I could do this because I’d want to protect her so much.” I would definitely be the first dead, right? Your priorities completely change and it’s no longer just a you thing.
Have you guys started thinking about Season 3? And do you have any hopes for it?
I really hope in Season 3, Tina comes out of her motherly shell and starts standing up for herself a little bit more. Maybe kicking ass taking names. I don’t want her to be on the sidelines anymore. I think that she is meant to show Dwight, “Hey, I’m not a kid anymore. I can handle my own and I’m going to show you the business.” That’s kind of what I’m hoping for in Season 3. But we have no idea. They are very secretive about it. They barely even told us episodes while we were filming it.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tulsa King, Sundays, Paramount+