Stunt Coordinator Freddie Poole was Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for Season 1 of Tulsa King, and in addition to working closely with Sylvester Stallone on all the show’s action sequences, Freddie wanted to elevate the action in S2. He collaborated closely with all the star-studded villains that joined S2 including Frank Grillo as mobster Bill Bevilaqua, Neal McDonough as Cal Thresher, and Warrior’s Rich Ting as Jackie Ming.
He stopped by to chat with us about working on Tulsa King.
Today we’re going to be talking Tulsa King, particularly season two. You’ve been working with Sylvester Stallone for about 15 years on various projects, as a stunt double amongst other things. Can you talk a little bit about that and what’s he actually like to work with? Is he as intimidating as he seems?
(laughs) I think it depends on who you ask (laughs). No, I’m kidding. I kid. He’s great to work with. He’s intense and there is an expectation when he steps on set that everyone does their job. But I think that’s the thing. If you do your job, then you’re going to be fine and that’s kind of how he is. He is obviously very headstrong. He’s a legend, so he has that that. Not just an action background, but just writing, shooting, directing. I mean, he’s just so knowledgeable every time I’m around him, I feel like I’ve learned something new. We have a great working relationship especially when we’re shooting; we speak and text regularly. And obviously it’s mostly about the show and what we’re doing. But yeah, for me, it’s been nothing but a positive experience.
You wear multiple hats including stunt coordinator, second unit director and of course stunt double as well. Can you talk about that and how do you maintain all of that?
It’s tough. I will say it’s not easy and sometimes I get a little nervous that I’m getting too burned out. But to be honest with you, I love it. There’s an old saying not to sound too cliche. If you love what you do, you never have to work a day in your life. That’s really kind of what it’s been like for me. But, wearing multiple hats for some reason, I feel like I not only enjoy, but thrive under that kind of pressure. It’s been a fun experience. In my career path and trajectory, the more and more I do this, the older I get performing becomes less and less, and I think that’s just sort of nature of the beast as a stunt man, because the body can only take so much. I think the natural path and trajectory is to do more stunt coordinating and second unit directing.
How do you ensure quality action sequences like Tyson’s Navigator exploding or the shootouts?
Yeah. I always feel like it’s quality over quantity and our approach, regardless of how big or small the stunt is, is just to make it as impactful as possible. Obviously, with bigger stunt sequences, there’s going to be more story involved and that’s really what we try to wrap our heads around is like, what is this the storyline within this action sequence? Because if you can figure that out and accomplish that and convey it to the audience, we have certain scenes like in episode nine, the big shootout. It would happen so quick, but all the events leading up to it were, in my opinion, very impactful in the storytelling process.
Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about working with Rich Ting on the tomahawk to the head execution stunt and the logistics to pull that off?
Yeah. Have you seen his Instagram (laughs)?
Actually, no.
So, we had a wonderful makeup and special effects makeup team do a life cast of Rich. And the reason I asked about if you’ve seen his Instagram is he was posting side by side photos and videos of his life cast. So, it was a whole combination of tomahawk life cast of Rich. But then also there was an appliance that our special effects makeup team applied to Rich’s head so that we could have the axe actually stuck in his head, and it was actually kind of funny to see him walking around with an axe in his head for a brief moment. But really to accomplish the intensity of that scene and in that intense moment where you have this dialogue between Dwight and Tyson. Dwight’s telling him this is justified. Such a very intense moment, and Rich is an amazing, not just human being, but actor as well. So, it’s really a great experience to work with him. But that scene was very, very intense. So, just having all those different applications and to just get that one scene done was quite the journey. I think it was a great opportunity for us to get there.
One of my favorite action scenes is the fight scene at the wind farm. I just love whenever it’s just chaos like that. Can you discuss some of the previz you did for that?
Absolutely. Well, I brought in a good friend of mine and excellent stuntman, fight coordinator, stunt coordinator as well. Chris Brewster, he was my fight coordinator for season two. And again, just hitting on touching on certain story points within that chaos was very important and also introducing a new character in cash flow. Mike Walden, who plays Bigfoot. So, Bigfoot, that was one thing that when Mr. Stallone and I were discussing this wind farm fight, he said, “I really want to showcase Bigfoot because he’s a wrestler in real life”. So, I called up Mike and I said, “all right, what’s your signature move or two?” So, we implemented a couple of things that he likes to do. But then we also gave the rest of our cast an opportunity to really get after it. Like, I loved how Tyson really came into his own in that fight where he was he was getting his tail handed to him in the beginning. But then he got a little assist from Dwight and then he turned the tables on one of our Asian guards, one of the stuntmen that we hired. He just really did an outstanding job and he was in it, he’s screaming at the end of his little piece there. But again, a lot went into that. A lot of prep, a lot of planning. We did not just do one, but two previz because we did one on stage one on location, and then we also had a cast rehearsal. So, a lot of planning to go into that and then all the special effects elements as well, because my really good friend, Matt Kutcher Jr. “Smalls” is his nickname. W work hand in hand, side by side and making sure that all the things that we’re doing work within what he’s doing on the special effects side. So as our guys are like smashing things and breaking things, you see sparks and wires and all that kind of stuff. They pull down a generator so that is all important. Those are all important pieces when it comes to the storytelling aspect of that scene.
This season, you also got two of my favorite actors joining you, Neal McDonough and Frank Grillo who both seem like awesome guys. What was like working with them on it?
Well, I have history with Frank. I’ve worked with him on a few other shows like Boss Level. We did Homefront and so we kind of just picked up almost where we left off on those shows. We were just hanging out and just catching up on life and things. But those are two consummate professionals. I mean, they’ve been doing this a long time. They’ve worked on a lot of movies and television shows. And again, to watch this cast and work at their craft is pretty amazing. I really enjoy watching them and again, it doesn’t have to be action. Just watching them on the screen perform even in their acting pieces. Pretty, pretty amazing. And then they’re both just great human beings. Aside from being great actors they’re just really nice people. It makes your life a lot easier and makes going to work more fun when you enjoy who you work with.
Were there any scenes where there was a stunt coordinator which people wouldn’t think there would be a stunt coordinator required? Maybe like a non-action scene…
Yeah. A lot of times when we have simple drive-up pieces, you would think, oh, it’s just someone pulling in 10 feet or five feet to a mark and stopping. And a lot of times when I’m on set, people are like, “why are you here?” Well, because we have that actor driving that car 10 feet and they go, oh, “OK”. But, part of our job is not just to put together and choreograph action and hire stunt guys, but there’s the safety element on set. So, what that means is we’re also responsible for the safety of our cast and our crew. Even though it sounds like an easy, simple 10 foot pull up of someone driving a car, the questions I always have are, where’s our camera gear? Where’s our camera? Where’s our crew in relation to where that car is? And then do we have any other cast or any other bodies inside or outside of the vehicle? Like maybe they’re just standing there waiting for that car to pull up. So, these are all things you have to take into account for just a simple driving piece. Again, when I say driving, just pulling into a parking spot or pulling up on the side of the road, so that’s common. That’s common for a stunt coordinator to be there in that type of scenario.
Can you talk a little bit about the ranch battle and putting that together?
Yeah, when we were trying to figure that piece out, because that whole thing went through a couple of different rewrites to get to where we finally ended up on. I think what I really enjoy about that scene is the eerie, quiet element leading up again, go back to storytelling, all the elements leading up to that moment when those lights come on and then all hell breaks loose and then it’s quick, it’s brutal and it’s violent. But again, it happens in a flash. It’s not this long-drawn-out gun battle like war, but it’s meant to be that element of surprise. And of course, with our character Armand sort of helping to facilitate and set all of that up because he’s leading this crew down the path. And again, it’s dark, it’s smoky, it’s a little eerie with the way it was lit. You could see and hear the horses shuffling in the stalls. All those elements are, in my opinion, great pieces of storytelling just leading up to that final moment. And then those guys are just swiftly taken out. That’s probably the best way to describe it. It took some planning and prep and we had to do several rehearsals just to get all the elements and the timing down for everything and to figure out who goes where when what is happening.
Whenever I interview fight or stunt coordinators, we always discuss the aspect where even an action scene should tell a story. There should be like a beginning, middle and an end and it should be moving the story or the characters on…
One hundred percent, one hundred percent. I always talk about, in my opinion, one of the greatest nine- or ten-minute endings of a film has very little dialogue. One of the greatest pieces in cinematic history is Last of the Mohicans, the last nine minutes. That was such a great storytelling piece and there was hardly any dialogue. And this scene, this shootout scene wasn’t nine minutes long, wasn’t a movie, but in a very similar style because there wasn’t a lot of dialogue in that whole sequence except for the fact when Armand kind of has his moment. Rich’s character tells him, “Hey, get up, what’s wrong with you? Keep going”. That’s pretty much all the dialogue there was in that scene and the rest of it was just all the moments leading up to it, which is, again, great, great storytelling, in my opinion.
Have you started working on season three yet?
We are just finishing up week three. Tomorrow will be the end of week three. So, we’re still in our first block; what I mean by that is we’re shooting two episodes at the same time to block shoot the season. So, we’re in right in the middle of it and we’re close to finishing up episodes one and two.
Is that out this year?
I don’t have a hard date yet. I think it does come out this year.
Yeah, I thought I heard September or something.
Yeah, but I’m not sure. That sounds right.
What else do you have coming up?
Well, the rumor is, is that we’re going to do back-to-back seasons. If that’s the case, then I will be on season four shortly after season three. So, if things go as planned and expected I’m not really taking on anything else until I get that confirmation that that’s what we’re doing just because I want to keep myself open and available.
Oh, yeah, for sure. Thanks so much. I can’t wait to see season three and what’s going to happen next. It’s always a roller coaster.
It’s going to be a big roller coaster this season. Lots of big stuff.
Excellent. Looking forward to it.