‘Tulsa King’s Dana Delany Teases Margaret and Dwight’s Complicated Love Story in Season 3

Tulsa King returns for its third season on Paramount+ this fall with Dwight Manfredi (Sylvester Stallone) facing pressure from every direction as his empire expands. New adversaries, complicated romances, and federal heat put Dwight in situations that threaten both his family and the future of his growing mob.

Joining Stallone this season is Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects) as Special Agent Musso, a federal officer determined to manipulate and control Dwight, while Dana Delany (Tombstone) returns as Margaret, whose relationship with Dwight keeps her “mob adjacent” even as she questions the life she’s chosen.

Collider’s Chris McPherson interviewed Pollak and Delany ahead of Season 3’s premiere, where Pollak explained why playing an adversary to Stallone was a dream come true, while Delany teased Margaret’s conflicted love story and admitted she still gets flustered working opposite Stallone.

Special Agent Musso Complicates the Season 3 Dynamics

Kevin Pollack shares why his role in Tulsa King is a “dream come true.”

COLLIDER: Firstly, I’m a huge fan of the show. Kevin, your joining the show is kind of what we would see is the antagonist because you’re federal, I suppose. But what makes your new character a different kind of threat?

KEVIN POLLAK: Well, you don’t have to suppose that he’s federal. It’s built into the title, “Special Agent Musso.” Very federal. It’s an adversarial relationship, so that’s always fun to play. In life, my closest friends, my brother, we love to give each other the gears. You might call it taking the piss. There’s nothing greater, right? There’s nothing more enjoyable. So for me, an opportunity to do that with the amazing and iconic Sylvester Stallone was a bit of a dream come true.

I can imagine.

Dana Delany Teases Margaret and Dwight’s Complicated Love Story

And the unexpected scenes it allows Stallone to portray.

Image via Paramount+

Dana, with Sly, your character and Dwight, for me, it’s actually the series’ most interesting relationship. What’s that dynamic like going into Season 3 after everything that has happened?

DANA DELANY: Well, I think Margaret has to decide, is this the life that she wants? And I think you can imagine what her answer is. And I think that coming from Oklahoma and being a strong woman herself, she likes that he’s a bad boy. She likes that he’s a strong guy that can match her. So there’s a lot of scenes this season that Sly seems to enjoy writing, where we’re kind of in bed having discussions a lot and reading in bed, like an old married couple, which is kind of funny when you think about Sylvester Stallone in bed with glasses reading. It’s just not something you think of.

No, well, nobody would ever imagine the Rocky Balboa going home to read a John Grisham novel or something like that.

POLLAK: It’s tough to go from that to being expendable.

It really, truly is. And Kevin, was it Special Agent Musso or just Agent Musso?

POLLAK: Very special. Very special.

DELANY: Very, very special.

Kevin Pollack on Joining Taylor Sheridan’s Universe

On working with Stallone, he says, “He’s one of the most generous people I’ve ever worked with.”

Image via Paramount+

The extremely Special Agent Musso, if he sees Dwight more as somebody to take down, or is it somebody that he can use, is he a pawn in very Special Agent Musso’s plans? And like you said before, was going toe-to-toe with Stallone one of those things that really made you want to join?

POLLAK: Yes, well, there’s no question that my character loves to manipulate and control, in this case, Dwight. So it’s almost like a heat-seeking missile in terms of agenda, an objective. Then, when it comes to doing it, me personally, my experience with Sly on day one was we’re going to improvise as well as any ideas that I had and brought to him. He’s one of the most generous people I’ve ever worked with. So all of it turned into making it one of the greatest jobs I’ve ever had, experiences, very lovely crew and cast. I mean, the infrastructure of the Taylor Sheridan universe is extraordinary. Everyone’s very generous, but they’re also very grateful to be a part of it. That’s sort of a uniform. And it’s a great environment to thrive.

Dana, for you, how do you think that Margaret, as a character from somebody who’s outside the mob world, how do you think she views Dwight’s pull between his need to protect his family, but also being involved in crime, sort of be “the man”? How do you think she views that kind of conflict?

DELANY: I think she has some questions about it. But she knows that she loves this big lug. And she wants to be part of his world. So she’s kind of on the periphery. She’s mob adjacent. She’s kind of doing things behind the scenes to help him. At some point, I think she’s going to have to look at herself and think, “Who have I become?”

Reconciling Sly the Icon with Sly the Colleague

“I just get tickled by him that I’m working with him…”

Image via Shutterstock

One last thing I’d like to ask both of you is, you’ve both talked about sort of the surreal nature of you’ll know him as Sly, but there’s also the persona of Sylvester Stallone. How do you bring those together when you start a job like this? How do you approach the idea of, “This is a superstar who I’ve known my entire life,” and then suddenly he’s a colleague? What’s that like going from starstruck almost to collegiate-friendly?

DELANY: I still haven’t gotten over it. I tell you, I get on the set and I see him and I get all flustered still. I just get tickled by him that I’m working with him, that he’s so great. He’s so charming. He’s so charismatic. And still, I get home sometimes at night and laugh to myself so hard that this is my life. It’s fantastic.

POLLAK: I mean, given his origin story and how he held out to star in the movie he had written with Rocky is so inspiring. And then to follow that with one of the most iconic careers. It’s very intimidating, but also very exciting to be invited into his universe. Right. And then to find one of the most disarming and charming scene partners was surprising. And it does make you a little less intimidated and more celebratory and giddy. And yeah, I agree. There’s a sense of I can’t believe this is happening. That’s sort of present at all times.

That’s exactly how I feel when I get to do things like this, so I know exactly how you feel.

Tulsa King Season 3 is now streaming on Paramount+.

Release Date

November 13, 2022

Network

Paramount+

Showrunner

Dave Erickson, Terence Winter

Directors

Allen Coulter, Benjamin Semanoff, David Semel, Guy Ferland, Joshua Marston, Kevin Dowling, Lodge Kerrigan, Jim McKay

Writers

Joseph Riccobene, David Flebotte, William Schmidt, Taylor Elmore, Tom Sierchio, Regina Corrado, Stephen Scaia, Terence Winter