Sylvester Stallone has been accused of creating a “toxic” work environment on the set of his Paramount+ show, Tulsa King, amid allegations that the star made cruel comments about the show’s background actors.
In Tulsa King, the 77-year-old Rocky actor plays mafia boss Dwight ‘The General’ Mandfredi, who has just been released from prison after serving a 25-year sentence. He is exiled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he builds a new criminal empire with a group of unlikely characters.
The second season of the show is currently filming in Atlanta and the claims against Stallone emerge in a now-deleted on Tulsa King this week.”
‘The casting agent quit because she was so upset. My friend feels anxious about working now. @TheSlyStallone What do you have to say sir? Beyond disappointment, I am furious.
Rose Locke, Tulsa King’s casting director, left the series.
Sylvester Stallone has been accused of creating a “toxic” work environment on the set of his Paramount+ show, Tulsa King, amid allegations that the star made cruel comments about background actors on the show.
The post included screenshots of a Facebook post that claimed Stallone was heard telling the show’s director, Craig Zisk, “What the fuck is going on with these damn ugly backgrounds?”, referring to the extras in one scene. .
The post continued: ‘He and the director proceeded to call certain people terrible names and laugh at them. ‘tub of butter’, ‘fat man with a cane’ and made fun of his weight and disability.
The post further alleged that “Sly said, “Bring young, pretty girls to be around me.”
Another background actor claimed on CL Casting’s Facebook page: “I was there, right behind Mr. Stallone. He yelled at the director to come here. A lot of F-bombs dropped.
‘Stallone was very upset with the appearance of the background actors. They said they were horrible, old and fat. The next thing they did was order the people back to the prison and they brought in younger people.’
The Facebook post said Locke resigned from the show and that the background actors “all need to stick together” to “show this production that we don’t support this type of disrespect in GA.”
Another screenshot was of an email supposedly from Locke in which she wrote that she had come to the set after being “informed of certain things.”
“At the end of the day, I quit because it was a clearly toxic environment that neither I nor the background artists felt comfortable in.”
In Tulsa King, the 77-year-old Rocky actor plays mafia boss Dwight ‘The General’ Mandfredi, who has just been released from prison after serving a 25-year sentence. He is exiled to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The post included screenshots of a Facebook post that claimed Stallone was heard telling the show’s director, Craig Zisk, “What the fuck is going on with these damn ugly backgrounds?”, referring to the extras in one scene. ‘
He apologized to the email recipients and added his number to gather information about anything people saw or heard. I will send the information to Human Resources.’
Rose Locke Casting’s Facebook page, which refers visitors to CL Casting’s page, posted a statement on April 7 announcing that she had parted ways with Tulsa King.
The post read: ‘Hey team, we wanted to send you an update on what’s going on here in our casting world. We have decided to part ways with Tulsa King. We will finish next week and the 12th will be our last day. We send good wishes to whoever takes over the show. We thank all of you excellent background artists for your continued support.
‘I love you, you mean it
‘Rose, Bailey, Chicago, Patrick and Robb.
A background actor wrote on Facebook in response: ‘I was there! I was 10 feet away from Stallone and I didn’t hear him say those words, BUT he seemed like he didn’t want to be there.
“He never talked to any extras and he called the director and whispered things to him and there was a big man on a cane as an extra. I LOVE Stallone but I was very disappointed in him. He was only there for an hour and a half so I don’t want to hear him say any more how exhausting it is to shoot a television show.
A background actor wrote on Facebook in response: ‘I was there! I was 10 feet away from Stallone and I didn’t hear him say those words, BUT he seemed like he didn’t want to be there.
Craig Zisk, director and executive producer of the Paramount+ series, denied the claims to TMZ and said that Locke, who was not on set during the day of the alleged encounter, incorrectly cast extras.
Other extras claimed that they did not see any unpleasant behavior, writing: “I observed nothing out of the ordinary, nothing different to any of the other background acting experiences I have been involved in.”
Another wrote: “I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. One of the directors was a bit feisty with his line of ‘let’s shut up OR keep it down so we can work’, I’ve heard it on every set. “It’s not a great deal.”
A third wrote: “Some comments were made that I heard personally…things could have been handled more tactfully but it’s their show.”
Zisk, director and executive producer of the Paramount+ series, denied the claims of TMZ and said that Locke, who was not on set during the day of the alleged encounter, incorrectly chose the extras.
Zisk said the extras were supposed to be in a “young, hip bar” and that the plan was to get actors between 25 and 35 years old. He says the actors cast were considerably older.
Zisk said he ended up using the actors for the scene, adding: They were polite and did their job.
He claims he told Locke he needed to send photos of the extras to make sure they met the show’s premise and says she responded, “I don’t work that way.”
Zisk denies that Stallone said anything about ‘pretty girls’, adding that his wife Jennifer Flavin was on set at the time (pictured together in 2022)
He replied, “That’s how I work and everyone I know works like that in casting extras.” He claims she responded “OK” but quit an hour later.
Zisk denies that Stallone said anything about “pretty girls,” adding that his wife Jennifer Flavin was on set at the time.
DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Sylvester Stallone and Paramount+ for comment.