2x Emmy‑nominated Stunt Coordinator Freddie Poole has worked on Tulsa King Season 3 – one of TV’s most stunt‑driven and action‑heavy seasons of the past year. Freddie has earned Emmy nominations for Seasons 1 and 2; and Season 3 of Tulsa King represents his most ambitious work yet. As the show’s Stunt Coordinator, 2nd Unit Director, and Sylvester Stallone’s double, Freddie has been central to shaping Tulsa King’s action identity. In Season 3, Freddie also collaborated closely with Tulsa King’s “scariest villains yet,” Terminator 2’s Robert Patrick as Jeremiah Dunmire and The Bikeriders’ Beau Knapp as Cole Dunmire.
Freddie stopped by to chat with us about working on Season 3 of Tulsa King.
Hi Freddie, nice to chat with you again.
Hi Eoin, nice to see you.
So, today we are talking about Tulsa King: Season 3. Now, you’re the stunt coordinator, second unit director, and Sylvester Stallone’s double, because you really don’t have enough to do on this show. You’ve been central to shaping Tulsa King’s action identity. How has the action progressed since last season, and really throughout the seasons?
Well, it feels like with each season, it seems like they just want to go bigger, like, how can we top the season before? What can we do to just surpass what we did the season prior? And that seems to be the case as we progress through each season, going from one to two to now three.
Yeah, and you’ve been collaborating with Sylvester Sloan for many years. I think we discussed that before about your relationship in film and television. But how do you work together at this stage, and how has the dynamic changed? Do you have a shorthand now?
Yeah, I have pretty much easy access (laughs). I just walk up to his trailer and knock on the door or just find out when he’s going to be available. But it’s sort of unique in the sense that I like to discuss things with him and just talk things through. But there are sometimes when we’re so busy that, and I found this in season three, this happened more often than not, I would just take it upon myself just to go ahead and choreograph and come up with the action. We may review it later, like with a previz or something like that. But it just sort of depends on how busy the schedule is, and really just availability. But I feel like there’s a level of trust now that we’ve developed over the years that I think everyone not just Stallone himself, but everyone around us feels comfortable with what we’re doing, just simply because, yeah, we know the tone, we know the style. So that, I think, really just helps us just lay the foundation and just makes things easier.
I think this season maybe has some of my favourite action scenes. There are so many great set-pieces, but I particularly like the home invasion fight scene with Garrett Hedlund. Can you talk about creating that close quarters fight you did with him?
Yeah, it was one of those things where as each season evolves, it seems like they sort of hone in on one or two particular characters’ storylines. And with season three, it was Mitch’s storyline with obviously, an old flame from the past appearing again, which sets the tone for some other things with even Robert Patrick and the Montague battle. But with that particular fight, I got with Jim McKay, our director, and just kind of talked through some things visually, the eeriness in the beginning when you don’t really know what’s going on. Mitch is just walking outside and just… it’s just quiet. And then all of a sudden, all hell breaks loose because Cole and a couple of his buddies just jump him. It was great to finally do some real action with Garrett, because he’s just fun to work with and just a great human being all around. Then he likes to throw down. So, he was really open and keen to the choreography and just had a really good time with everything.
He likes to do his own stunts, yeah?
He did the majority of that fight. We did do a full previz and I’ve used the same stunt double for Garrett pretty much for a while now. Had him on a couple of different shifts but brought in our stunt guys to choreograph. I used Chris Brewster again; I used him in season two to come in and fight coordinate for us and shoot our previz. He’s a great stunt coordinator and second unit director in his own right and fight coordinator. So, it was just good to collaborate and get that team together. We actually cast a couple of stunt guys to play Cole’s buddies. So, Josh, Diego and Daniel, we ended up booking those roles. So, it was great to have guys that just were comfortable moving, that knew how to move, that could take the direction and go right into it. What’s great is I think we’re also going to take that fight and potentially submit it for awards as well. So, yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with those guys and all that.
I was just thinking there that there are so many filmmakers now who’ve come from a stunt background. The action scenes we’re getting now are just getting more inventive and crazier and almost better than ever. Do you think action movies are in good hands these days? I think it really helps to come from a stunt background and creating action scenes…
I do. I absolutely do. What people don’t realize is that it’s not even just the action here. We’re a part of so much of what’s going on in the scene, because when it comes to action design, there are other aspects involved, special effects, props, set deck, car chases and then obviously vehicular stunts and action. So, there’s just so many things that we’re in tune to when it comes to action design. It’s not just about the action or just the story, because I’m always big on what’s the story? Because we’re telling a story through movement versus dialogue. But when you really factor in all those elements that I just talked about and goes even beyond that, I mean, name every department, then we’re literally so in tune with what each department is doing as it relates to our action and our action design. I think it just gives us such a basically worldwide view of everything in the sequence. Now when you take someone who has that type of approach and you translate it to filmmaking, I just feel like we just step right in the shoes and I see guys that are doing it and doing it well. Rick Waugh, Scott Waugh, his brother, of course, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch are probably at the forefront. But Sam Hargrave, J.J. Perry, there are a lot of guys that have transitioned from the stunt and second unit directing world into I’ll just say the filmmaker/director chair. It’s something that I’m working towards and still working on. I think it’s smart, in my opinion, as you’re sort of involved in your career trajectory and path, because again, there’s a creative lens that we see things through that others may not.
It’s really about time we got an Oscar for stunts. I know they’re talking about it happening in the next few years, but it shouldn’t have taken this long because they reward visual effects so why not reward stunts?
Absolutely. I agree and again, I’ve mentioned David Leitch and Chris O’Hara is another one those guys have been huge advocates. I think it’s 2027 or 2028. That’s when the first stunt award, I’m not quite sure what if it’s, I think it’s gonna be stunt coordinator or stunt designer is the actual term now. I mentioned Chris O’Hara. He actually came on board at the end of the season with us just because we had, again, I was wearing many hats and production approached me and said, “hey you’ve got so much on your plate; you’re coordinating, you’re doubling and of course, second unit directing”, but there was one sequence where there was so much involved and I couldn’t be in two places at once that, production felt like it would be a good idea to bring in a second unit director. And of course, at first I was a little taken aback, but, given the magnitude, the scope of the work, it was one of those things that said, “okay, well, let’s do that”. They ended up bringing in Chris O’Hara, who I haven’t seen in probably a decade and haven’t worked with probably two decades. So, it was really nice to collaborate with him and work together. Of course, he won the Taurus award for The Fall Guy and he’s an excellent filmmaker and second unit director and stunt designer in his own right. He’s one of those guys that really pushed and was a huge advocate for stunts and the Oscars that we’re going to have coming up very soon.
Has there been any time on any point throughout Tulsa King, where an actor has wanted to do their own stunts but you’re like, no, or there’s something which is just too dangerous?
(laughs) Yeah, usually what I like and going back to even the fight with Mitch and Cole and his buddies with Garrett in 3-02. When it comes to fisticuffs, I love for the actors to perform. The audience wants to see the actors doing the action. So, when it comes to the fight choreography, I will do everything in my power to keep the actor working and fighting. It’s when we get into the bigger stunt gags, crashing through tables and windows or hitting the ground, getting tackled repeatedly, those kinds of things. Because if you’re conditioned to it, like a stunt man, we could do it however many times and however many takes we need. But not everyone’s conditioned to that. So, if you’re doing it over and over and over, I try to limit the actors doing those bigger hits, just simply because we don’t want to risk them getting injured. That’s going to delay our progress and delay production. So, anything I can do to alleviate that. Trust me, there are times when we have these discussions and I have to kind of go back and forth with an actor and explain to them why they don’t need to go through a table. At the end of the day they’re throwing punches, they’re taking punches and taking reactions. Let’s see it. I want to see them do it. I think the audience does too and they appreciate it.
Yeah, I know for sure every time. I particularly loved the final episode. You have the showdown at the Dunmire compound, which is just pure, classic 80s action. I’ve been waiting for a scene like that for a long time, with all the explosions, gunfire and tactical raid choreography. Can you talk about just putting all that together?
Well, again, it goes back to bringing Chris O’Hara in; he and I did of course tech scout with our crew, but he and I went and designed all that action together. And of course with introducing the new character, Lee Washington (Sam Jackson) setting up the spinoff for, which is now called Frisco King. It was one of those things that it took typical television, episodic world, things move very fast, but we knew with that sequence, that wasn’t something that we could just go and do in a day, even a previz in one day. So, it was one of those things where we really had to spend time, multiple days, just mapping everything out because each character had their own journey, right, and we really had to focus on Dwight’s journey. We had to focus on Washington’s journey, Sam Jackson’s character, Tyson and Mitch. So, everyone had their own story and journey to tell within that sequence. So, we had to make sure we really had the time to focus on that. Obviously, we previz; we brought in a huge stunt team, a lot of stunt guys. I always love to collaborate with our special effects coordinator, Matthew Smalls Kutcher from Spectrum Effects. He and I are like brothers. I mean, I love that guy. And every time he has effects to do, I’m always like, “hey Matt, let’s do it in our previz. If you’re going to do a test, let’s throw some stunt guys in there and let’s test some things”. And that’s something that we’ve been doing since season one. So, again, there are a lot of moving parts to accomplish that sequence. That is why production felt like if we brought in a second unit director, to work with me, obviously I still coordinated and doubled Stallone in the sequence. But again, we pretty much worked side by side in designing that whole sequence. And it was a lot of fun too; we shot it over multiple days on main unit and second unit. I was really proud of that one.
Now, there’s a mild spoiler, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Robert Patrick will not be back for season four (laughs). But how is he to work with and just to do the action scenes with because he seems to be just a force of nature in that show?
He is such a force of nature. I absolutely love Robert Patrick, not just because he’s a great actor. And of course he’s played some iconic characters, but just the fact that he is a consummate professional; he likes to have a good time on set. When his personality comes through, and I don’t mean as Dunmire, the character, I mean, just as Robert Patrick, the human, kind of puts everyone at ease. Everyone’s just having a good time. It’s a little bit more laid back. But, when he turns it on, you watch him in that role, and you’re almost just sort of sucked in and mesmerized. He plays it so well. I’ve been fortunate and had the honour of working with Robert in the past on other shows, so it wasn’t the first time for us, which, I like because we could just get in a rhythm, and we work hand in hand and get in our rhythm and he takes in the information. If you give him notes, he just takes it in. And obviously it translates beautifully on the screen. But yeah, I agree. I don’t think he’ll be back for the next season (laughs).
(laughs) No, I think it’s a pretty safe bet. What are you working on next that you’d like to talk about?
Well, right after season three, I went right into a Netflix movie with Oscar winner, Jessica Chastain. It’s called Heartland and I directed all the second unit in that. We had a lot of second unit and we’re flipping cars and doing car chases and fights. But it’s actually about a former country singer, who kind of lives off the grid. She’s a little hardcore and she gets sucked back into the world of country music and having to go back to Nashville because her niece is an up-and-coming rising star and she goes missing. So, she goes back to Nashville to try to find her and figure out her disappearance. But again, there are a lot of twists in it. So, it’s a little bit different. But I think audiences will be surprised at some of the twists and I was fortunate enough to work with Garrett Hedlund again because he was in it. So, we did two projects back to back together, which was a lot of fun.
I’ll watch anything if he’s in it. He’s one of my favorite actors. He’s very charismatic.
Very, very charismatic and it was great to just even just spend some time with him, just in between takes, just hanging out and just talking just about life in general and everything he’s got going on in his world and my world and stuff like that. It’s nice to connect sometimes just on a human level. We’re not necessarily always just talking about the scene or the characters, sometimes you can just have a human conversation.
It helps you understand them better as well from a work point of view too.
It does. It certainly does.
That’s it for me. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me and I’ll speak to you again soon for the next project.
Thank you and I look forward to it.