Tulsa King's Sylvester Stallone Was Called Out For Alleged Rude Comments About Background Actors, But The Director Shared Another Story

Taylor Sheridan is one of the most prolific TV producers in the industry, facing one brutal production schedule after another to turn the Yellowstone universe and more into reality, but several cracks have formed in the foundation of his small-screen kingdom. Ahead of Tulsa King Season 2, the Sylvester Stallone drama is the latest to face behind-the-scenes drama, in this case tied to allegedly rude comments from Stallone that influenced a staffer to quite the show. Only the show’s director and executive producer says it’s all B.S. Let’s unpack.

A Tulsa King Casting Director Exited The Series Over Alleged Rude Comments

On Monday, April 8, the Atlanta-based casting agency Rose Locke Casting shared a message on Facebook that pubicized the company distancing itself from Tulsa King for its second season after having worked on the first. The boilerplate post read as:

While nothing in that message necessarily comes across as suspect, posts of a more malicious variety were shared to a private Facebook page dedicated to Atlanta-set background performers. There, accusations were laid out claiming that Stallone and an unnamed director referred to some of the newly cast extras as “tub of lard,” “fat guy with cane,” and “ugly,” with other rude comments supposedly made about people’s weight and disabilities.

Another allegation stated that Sylvester Stallone voiced a potential fix for the issue by requesting the casting directors hire “pretty young girls” to surround him. In response, the casting agency’s boss Rose Locke reportedly sent out a private message to employees (via TV writer Julie Benson’s X post) asking them to come forward with stories if they happened to see or hear anything in that same capacity.

Tulsa King Director And EP Diputes The Claims

Understandably, the posts and comments made by Rose Locke and her company weren’t taken lightly by those who read them, with many background actors commenting with messages of support. However, director and executive producer Craig Zisk stepped in to say that the accusations made against Stallone and others were false, and that the casting director quit over being told she didn’t handle her job correctly.

Zisk told TMZ that Rose Locke wasn’t on the set at the time when the alleged comments were made, and that no such disparaging language was used when discussing the on-set extras. According to his take, the casting company was tasked with sending over actors in the 25-35 age range to populate a scene set in a trendy bar, but instead sent a much older group of performers.

No issue was taken with the actors themselves, Zisk says, and he claims they were “polite” and handled their duties accordingly. But the EP then alleges that when he confronted Rose Locke about it, stating that she was required to submit extras’ headshots to make sure the appropriately fitting actors get cast, Locke reportedly agreed, but then suddenly quit an hour later.

As far as the supposed “pretty girls” request goes, Craig Zisk claims that Sylvester Stallone’s reality TV co-star and wife Jennifer Flavin was nearby during filming, and says the actor never made any such suggestions.

Either way it goes, something unfortunate happened behind the scenes of Tulsa King, and feelings were hurt, which is never great for any kind of creative project. Here’s hoping everything smoothes over into the best-case scenario, before it all turns into chaos as it went in early 2023 with Yellowstone, which saw star Kevin Costner exiting his role as John Dutton ahead of filming the final Season 5 episodes. (Though recent reports say he wants back in.)

Tulsa King’s first season is available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription, so stay tuned for more info on where Season 2 is headed.