‘Tulsa King’s Garrett Hedlund Talks Going “Mano a Mano” With Sylvester Stallone the Hit Crime Series

Taylor Sheridan’s Tulsa King series is so red-hot that it’s now getting a spin-off led by Samuel L. Jackson. There’s more of the original series to come, rest assured, with Sylvester Stallone leading the charge alongside a number of other celebrated actors from over the years. That includes Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy), who’s been playing a singing cowboy across multiple seasons of Tulsa King. MovieWeb recently caught up with the longtime actor while he was promoting his latest film, Barron’s Cove, and Hedlund also provided insight during our interview into just how his success on Sheridan’s hit series came to be.

“I jumped on Tulsa King because I’d known Sly since I was 18, and I’d been crossing paths a lot with Taylor Sheridan, and the timing just wasn’t working out for us — and so when they came to me with Tulsa, I just thought I’d really f***ing enjoy it, you know, going mano a mano with Sly,” Hedlund told MovieWeb. “And it’s worked out.”

Hedlund continued, discussing his foray onto the small screen in Tulsa King, which has already been renewed for a third season:

“I wasn’t so familiar with TV, of the first season introducing all these characters and branching off and doing, you know, much more. I was familiar with the style: You get in your stories, there in front of you, you know what’s going to happen; you understand what your trajectory is through this journey, and that’s what you have to play with. So there’s a lot of ambiguity, kind of day-to-day on a series. But… I just like following my instinct and intuitions, and doing what I see fit, kind of in the moment.”

“How Far Is Too Far?”

Cut to recent years, and Hedlund’s “instincts and intuitions” also led him to Barron’s Cove, which is out now. The gritty new crime thriller sees him playing lead character Caleb, an embattled father who embarks on a daring mission to bring justice to his broken family. Hedlund, a real-life parent, opened up to MovieWeb about how his real-life journey impacted his latest film performance.

“It was the first script that had come across my way since I was a father, you know, and something that really made me question how far I would go, and how far is too far when you feel you’re right,” said Hedlund. “In this particular story, Caleb’s trying to find the truth and trying to find answers. And then, there’s that unique question of, you know, ‘Where’s the point where the truth becomes much more dangerous than a lie?’ And so that was really intriguing. You know, I’ve been doing this for a bit. I just like to do projects that, for whatever reason, mean something to me. I like to do projects that heal people in a way, make people feel less alone in their environments, give people who had upbringings like myself the capability to be able to escape their reality once in a while and drift away in this landscape of a film and a story that hopefully captivates them. So anything that lends itself to that, I’m all for.”

From Well Go USA, Barron’s Cove is now available in theaters and on VOD.

Barron’s Cove

Release Date

October 6, 2024

Director

Evan Ari Kelman

Writers

Evan Ari Kelman

Producers

Chadd Harbold, Jordan Yale Levine, Shaun S. Sanghani, Jason Michael Berman, Will Raynor, Jordan Beckerman, Cory Thompson