Following reports that Sylvester Stallone, who stars in the Paramount+ series Tulsa King, was allegedly overheard belittling the extras while filming, the talent agency that had been hired to provide them with extras left the show.
After a Facebook group populated by background actors, or “Extras,” went viral, Rose Locke Casting, an Atlanta-based casting agency, declared a split with the creators of Tulsa King.
According to a report, the actors grumbled about Stallone’s treatment of them on set when shooting season two of the series.
Some Facebook commentators said that Stallone and the show director used derogatory terms toward the hired extras, such as ‘fat man with a cane’ and ‘tub of lard’ during filming. The individual, allegedly the intended victim of the cane comment, said the insult affected him. Another person claimed that Stallone had clarified that he prefers attractive young women around him.
The casting company said it was severing ties with the program in response to the remarks.
Others, meanwhile, claim that remarks were grossly misconstrued, and Tulsa King’s director and executive producer, Craig Zisk, denied the allegations.
Zisk informed entertainment outlets that the extras on set were not insulted. However, Zisk did mention that Locke had cast older background players for a hip-hop bar scene, even though they should have been in their twenties or thirties. Stallone, he said, never once mentioned wanting attractive women around him, and his wife Jennifer Flavin was there when the shooting began.
According to Zisk, he requested headshots of the actors from Locke, but she refused, claiming she didn’t operate that way. An hour later, she quit.
Tulsa King follows Stallone’s character, Dwight ‘The General’ Manfredi, a capo from the New York mafia who is summarily banished by the family’s boss and sets up business in Tulsa, Oklahoma, just after his 25-year jail release. Dwight assembles a gang of misfits to help him launch a criminal enterprise in an area that seems foreign to him.
