Tulsa King, the hit Paramount Plus series, is back for its second season. Sylvester Stallone stars as Dwight Manfredi, a New York City Mafia big shot who gets sent to Tulsa, Oklahoma after enduring a 25-year prison sentence. In no time flat, Dwight forms a rag-tag crime family of his own and carves out a little slice of paradise for him and his friends, all while trying to reconcile his relationship with his estranged daughter.
Jay Will stars as Tyson, the first ally Dwight meets in Tulsa. Initially his driver, Tyson earns Dwight’s trust and quickly becomes his de facto lieutenant and most trusted confidant. One of the secrets to Tulsa King’s success is the chemistry between Sylvester Stallone and Jay Will. They have a delightful dynamic that keeps audiences coming back just as much as wanting to see Dwight take over Tulsa and fend off his old friends from New York.
In anticipation of season 2 of Tulsa King, Screen Rant interviewed Jay Will about his work on the show. He talks about his character’s relationships with his paternal figures, his character’s role in Manfredi’s “non-traditional” crime family, and reflects on his initial audition for the role. He also talks about his first cinematic leading role, in writer/director Chiwetel Ejiofor’s latest feature, Rob Peace.
Jay Will Talks Tyson’s Relationship With His Two Mentor Figures, Played By Sylvester Stallone and Michael Beach
The Tulsa King actor proudly declares, “I think everybody got something to learn from each other.”
Screen Rant: I got to see the first episode of season two. And I was so upset that they didn’t send me the whole season because I’m like, what am I supposed to do now?
Jay Will: They’ll have you waiting.
I’m particularly happy to get to talk to you. Yeah, Stallone is the star. He’s the lead. He’s got his name on the poster. But you have a special role on the show. I compare you to Harvey Dent in Batman, where it’s like, there’s big, larger-than-life stuff happening around you, and it’s all about how it impacts your character. You’re the guy who we don’t want to see get hurt.
Jay Will: It’s good to know that’s how I’m perceived, man. At least until Americas want me hurt, man, you know, the writers are going to hurt me! So shout out to the viewers for a little empathy!
First things first, tell me about like being on the show, working with these titans, like Stallone and Michael Beach, who are your two mentor figures, and you’re caught in between them. Tell me a little bit about the gravitas of these guys and trying to be an actor in their presence.
Jay Will: I can’t make it in company like this if I can’t recognize that essence within myself, you know? I don’t get too deep into the fandom part of it because I really see myself as a collaborator, but with respect because they have a lot to give to me. And I don’t forsake the things that I have, then I can teach them as well. You know? And I think that energy is immersed within the whole project. You know, if there was, like, a toddler that was on the show, or a baby, even, I’m looking at them to see, like, how they come and pull this through. (Laughs)
I think everybody got something to learn from each other. Sly gave it an atmosphere of, “Just make sure you do your work, so you ain’t got to worry about it when it’s time to do the work,” you know? And that was the energy of it. And I appreciated that because every time I came in, I was ready to work. I was ready to explore. I mean, the tension was, of course, a little bit higher because it’s Sly, you know. When he leaves, everybody’s like, “Whew! Okay, now we can take our time.” (Laughs) And I’m like, all right, chill.
But Michael Beach? Man, he has that fatherly essence, man, that fatherly essence of wanting to “make it out.” This idea of wanting to make it out, how can I make it out? You know, but, but still with these codes and laws and statutes, commandments that my father has given me. How does that conflict with my lifestyle and how I’ve been living over here in this different family and my pursuit of what someone would call vanity and what someone else would call success. It’s a very interesting dynamic there, man.
And it was great to see those relationships kind of come together in a way in episode four, that big fight with the baseball bats, you know, I don’t think I’d ever seen a fight quite like that, with that dynamic where it was like, “Oh man, my son is going to go and… I guess I better go help him.”
Jay Will: Like, it’s my son, so… Oh, what do you think I’m about to do? (Laughs)
We have our differences, but if he’s gonna fight, I guess I might as well, you know, show him how we did it back in my day.
Jay Will: Right! I know! It’s like, it reminds me of, you know, you go to the park and your mom goes, make sure you take your little brother with you. And you’re over there at the park, you know, and you try to sneak off to go see some girls or something. And your little brother over there, the girl is, like, “who that is over there?” And you’re like, “Uh, that’s my brother.” Same thing with the dad! It’s like, “I’m trying to go into the war zone, man!” Why is my pop over my shoulder? Like, you know, “Make sure you hit him, hit him with the, with the downswing, not the upswing, son.” But it’s a real cool dynamic there, man. I’m glad I had a lot of different responses from people. Some people were like, I’m glad that the father came, and some were like, dang, I hate that the father got to come. So that was cool just to have a plethora of different opinions.
Those big fights, with that one in particular, but in general, you know, you get into some scrapes in the show. Are those fun to shoot? Or are you like, uh where’s my stunt guy?
Jay Will: I only wanted to do my own stunts, man! I be wanting it until I found out, man, these folks, executives, be like, “No, no, you can’t. You’re our investment!” I immerse myself in this, man. I come with such an athletic approach to it, man. Basketball, football, you know, that was my heart before it was art, you know. So I got into this and we doing fight scenes and I’m sweating in my costumes, all sweating under my pits, man. My makeup is all over my sleeve and clothes from wiping it off. The makeup and hair people were like, “Oh no!” Cause whenever they have to do a take. They got to come in and tap me and make sure I’m looking… But I love it, man.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but there was a scene that had something to do with fire, and Tyson was affected by it. And the force of fire pushes you back. It reminds me of the scene from Godfather when, Michael gets knocked over when the car explodes. This was a very similar instance there, where Tyson got blown back. And I was crazy. I wanted to do it myself, man! But they wasn’t, they wasn’t letting me do it. The producer was like, “No, you can’t, man. You could get hurt.” I’m like, dude, you got bed sheets. You got a queen size bed over there. You got pillow cases. I’m going to be good, man! That’s just my heart and my hunger for the craft and for the experience of it. You know, I enjoy the things more when I can share in the experience.
Tulsa King’s Jay Will on the Dynamic Between Tyson and Sylvester Stallone’s Dwight Manfredi
“There are the non-spoken tensions that live in the subtext of the story. There’s so many dynamics to this.”
Let’s talk about Tyson for a sec. He’s, he’s such a great character. To an extent, he’s a bit of an audience avatar because he’s the youngest guy on the show. Tulsa King in general, it has some DNA, but it’s not like the Sopranos. It’s not like Boardwalk Empire. It’s not like the other Terence Winter shows. It’s very much its own thing. And your character is such a huge part of that. He’s, he’s ambitious, but he’s not a screw up. He’s Black!
Jay Will: For real! And wearing a pinky ring, man.
And he’s cool! He can hold his own against Stallone.
Jay Will: Yeah, dude, man. It’s big shoes, man. I don’t know. I think I’m a, I’m a big reason why a lot of different communities can watch this show and relate to it, you know, from a physical standpoint. Energetically, you know, I can be moved by a foreign film made out in Japan and, you know, not knowing whatever the words they’re saying, because energy is the universal law. Like how love is the universal language. But here it’s so cool because the dynamics of the household, the community, seeing where the father comes from in this next season, seeing where, seeing how the father became the way he is, why he worked so hard, seeing why he wants Tyson to work so hard, you know, and then seeing the dilemma with being Black over here in this mob family, how he will be perceived by the folks in New York, how he will be perceived by other families who don’t expect a man to be rolling with such a high roller. There are the non-spoken tensions that live in the subtext of the story. There’s so many dynamics to this, man. I’m just thankful, man. I’m just thankful to be a vessel for this story.
That’s so interesting. I’m so glad that you mentioned that about the relationship with the father and the son. I got to talk to Terence Winter last week, and we talked a little bit about the relationship between Dwight and his brother, who was like a blue collar MTA guy, but, you know, he dies in the first season. We get to see like a little tiny bit of what he was like, maybe we’ll get to learn more about him this season. And there’s that parallel with you and Beach, one family member goes straight and, you know, they’re happy, but they’re not… They don’t have $600 suits. If that’s a lot, I don’t know how much is a lot for a suit. But then, you know, the other one who lives a dangerous life, but gets to be fancy and wear pinky rings.
Jay Will: It’s the price, man. It’s the price. Again, this duality of life choice, you know, from the same womb, but two different decisions, two different minds and two different soul contracts. So it’s just so cool to see, man. It’s cool to see how Sly makes those decisions that he makes. I’m excited to see Tyson go to New York and see how he’s perceived out there with that family out there, with the codes that they’re used to.
Dwight is not a typical Don. He’s outside, you know, it’s kind of like he’s doing his thing to avoid all the tradition of New York. You know, he might be old school, but he’s not traditional. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be his number two, basically.
Jay Will: That’s literally the best way to put it, man. Tradition sometimes can fade away and it can be superseded by like, just the reality of a situation. Sometimes, some traditions don’t need to last, or some traditions were made because of the situation of that time that when the tradition needed to be a system to move that time forward. There are some traditions that won’t serve the new times that we’re in because of the circumstances we’re in.
To be a man that’s doing a 25-year bid, getting out and seeing a GPS on an iPhone or a place you can buy weed at, that f***s up your whole mind. Like, you know, tradition, what? Like, all right, cool. I got to move forward, man. I got to evolve, you know, so I’m blessed to see how that evolved with Dwight. I didn’t even realize that. You saying that opened up a whole different side of it for me, but, you know, he was forward thinking for sure.
When you signed up for the show, when it was pitched to you or when your agent was like, “Hey, you got to read this,” did you know that Tyson was going to become such a real cultural figure? Or were you kind of just like, Stallone? Terence Winter? Okay, I’m in. Did you realize that there was, like, actual meat on the bones of this character?
Jay Will: Like, for real, I mean, I didn’t see the full, they didn’t send me the script at first. They just sent me the scene. They just sent me the scene and my agent was like, it’s Stallone, so you should audition for this. And I’m like, okay, cool. This is great. All right, cool. Sure, I’ll do it, along with the other 30 million tapes I’m about to send in today. So, you know, I sent that one in and I had my hair dyed some orange color, man. It was rock star, man. I had this caddy hat on, like this Kangol hat on, flipped to the side, you know…
I like to make it so there’s nothing that I’ve done that has made it so you’re determined not to give me this role. The factors are in your hands. I’ve done my job, but maybe my height, maybe my braids, maybe my skin color’s too dark, maybe I’m too skinny, maybe I need more weight, however you see it. But I want to make it so that decision is out of my hands. So I just, you know, I just came as myself. I had like a real joint, I had my Kangol to the side, and I came in perfect with my lines, you know, and I did my scene and it was so smooth, man. I got the call back a month after. I had forgotten about the tape. And they were like, we want you to come to Florida and read with Sly. I’m like, “…What?! Okay.”
I got out there and I met the other guy, and then I realized what the production wanted, who this guy Tyson was. When I saw the other guy that they had auditioning at the callback, Sly, and how he was talking to me at the callback, I started to see and put it together. So my intuition was like, “This is the character.” So by the time we got to filming, the essence had already been got. It’s a dream come true, man. I don’t think too much about it, you know, right now, but I’m more excited about being immersed in it, you know? So I’m thankful for you even acknowledging that. It’s such a big deal, reflecting it back to me.
Jay Will Reminisces About His Leading Role In Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Rob Peace
“I know this guy. This reminds me of me. This reminds me of my cousin. This reminds me of my uncle. This reminds me of my mom. I know this story.”
I feel like you’re definitely having a moment. Everything’s coming up Jay. You’ve got this great show, and you got to be the lead in Chiwetel Ejiofor’s movie, Rob Peace. Shout out to that. I mean, that must have been a different vibe, getting to be number one on the call sheet and all that.
Jay Will: Yeah, dude!
Tell me a little bit about that experience and your ambitions for the next five years, in addition to not getting killed off on Tulsa King.
Jay Will: (Laughs) Look, I watched a movie a couple of days ago. I forget what it’s called. I want to shout them out so bad. Cause I don’t like movies a lot, man. To be real, I don’t watch movies, man. I think they’re just so predictable, man. I like, I got this website that has like these wild movies that really push you as a viewer. And I watch those and my appetite is fed. But when I got Rob Peace and I got the opportunity to even read for that, I just knew the guy. I try to do a good job of aligning myself with myself and with my truth so that things that are similar or related to those things of my truth will attract me, you know? So, me walking in, that integrity of myself came across a film called Rob Peace, based on a true story.
And I got the audition. I was immediately like, yeah, I know this guy. This reminds me of me. This reminds me of my cousin. This reminds me of my uncle. This reminds me of my mom. I know this story. I’ve been waiting to tell this story. I’ve been training for 10 years to tell this story. Now it’s here. So I got the opportunity, man. And I think for me, it’s always been more of a thrill to be a vessel for the story than it is to see the call sheet that says, Jay. Will is one, Chiwetel is two, Mary J. is three, and Camilla number four. Like, that doesn’t woo me as much as like, oh, Jay Will has the opportunity to tell the story of somebody who was real and whose mother is alive and is looking for respect and a memorial for her son. And I take that on way more because of the spiritual currency that can provide for me in the long run. And I’m talking long run.
I got excited about it, man. And once I did the callback, again, came with myself, smoked a regular joint in the audition (Laughs). I don’t know what it is. Every audition I smoked a joint in, I get the role, man. Maybe I need to light up more joints, man!
You should be sponsored!
Jay Will: But I did the scene and sent it, and the next week, they hit me up and it was like, “Yeah, we want you to do a callback with Chiwetel.” And the next day he said, we want to give you the role. And immediately, I was in New York. Immediately I called, I tracked them down like the CIA, I tracked down Rob’s family through Facebook… (Laughs) I tracked down Rob’s family and I found his uncle and I asked if I can come to the crib and just, you know, introduce myself and possibly speak to his mother about getting her blessing to do the role. I felt like those were just the logistical steps to get to the freedom of artistry that I wanted to bring to the role.
I took my ass out to East Orange, knocked on the door, and I sat with the mother and the family and asked gently. I said, my desires for this have nothing to do with me and my own evolution of myself physically. You know, I really want to bring vengeance to your son and his life cinematically as much as I can with my best ability right now. And if you give me this opportunity, if you give me the blessing, I ask for your blessing to take this on. And she said nothing. She didn’t say anything! (Laughs) But as time went on, I got the “yes” through like her, but she never said it.
She said it without saying it.
Jay Will: You know, old school, you know. I want to do more roles like that, you know, roles that mean stuff. You know, I really hope that this, the evolution of Tyson and Tulsa King doesn’t end at Tulsa King. I hope that it has an opportunity to branch out and he gets his chance to start his own dynasty wherever, whether it be the South, the North, the West or the East. I hope in the next five years to be in a situation or in a seat like Sly is now, in the front seat of something new that Terry might be writing or, you know, just to be the front seat quarterback, I enjoy the madness of being a leader.
You will be a great leader because you’re already great. So thank you so much for your time, for the show. It’s been a delight and an honor to get to talk to you and I hope to catch you on the next one, whatever that’s going to be.
Jay Will: Hey, wherever it’s going to be, it’s going to be!
About Tulsa King Season 2
In season 2, Dwight (Stallone) and his crew continue to build up and defend their growing empire in Tulsa, but just as they get their bearings, they realize that 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.