Neal McDonough Teases Cal’s “True Colors” In Tulsa King Season 3 While Debunking AI

Tulsa King season 3 is off to the races, and ScreenRant celebrated the hit Taylor Sheridan crime drama by sitting down with star Neal McDonough for an episode of Debunking AI. McDonough plays Cal Thresher, a shrewd businessman who served as one of Dwight Manfredi’s (Sylvester Stallone) primary antagonists in Tulsa King season 2. Soon enough, however, the two have formed something of a strategic alliance as they balance expanding their empires and hiding the skeletons in their closets.

McDonough is a highly prolific actor, rising to fame after his appearance in Steven Spielberg’s beloved 2001 miniseries, Band of Brothers. Since then, he has worked on countless movies and television shows, even winning hearts in the superhero genre as Damien Darkh on CW’s Arrowverse. Tulsa King isn’t even his first time working with Taylor Sheridan, as he previously left his mark on Yellowstone. He has also recently begun producing films with Angel Studios, including last year’s The Last Rodeo.

During his session with ScreenRant for Debunking AI, McDonough gamely previewed Cal’s storyline, teasing that season 4 would show even more of his “true colors” than Tulsa King season 3 has. The actor also revealed which has been his favorite character to play so far in his storied career, and he shared the reason he’s so grateful to act alongside Stallone.

Tulsa King Season 4 Will Show Even More Of Cal Thresher’s True Colors

While Cal Thresher may seem like your average shady businessman at first glance, McDonough declared him to be “one of the most misunderstood characters that I’ve played in a long time.” Naturally, his introduction in season 2 made him a villain thanks to his adversarial relationship with Stallone’s Manfredi. “It was kind of piss and vinegar; a real who’s going to stand toe to toe, who’s going to blink first type of relationship.” But things did not stay that way for long, as season 2 came to a close, the two became business partners instead.

McDonough explained why his character acquiesced to sharing an empire with Manfredi in the following way: “You could see Cal Thresher think, ‘This is a little darker than I really wanted in my life. Let’s go veer off and try something a little different and safer.’” The so-called safer way he chose was, of course, politics. “Cal Thresher running for governor in season 3 of Tulsa King was just such a blast to do, and I’m so looking forward to where we’re going next with Manfredi and Thresher going nose-to-nose again.”

While AI scored well on the basics of Thresher, it was not intelligent enough to decipher the character’s true motivations, assuming his primary goal was still to undermine Dwight. McDonough countered that while Cal was after “complete world domination“, it wasn’t specifically Dwight whom he needed to take down. “AI got that one messed up. Instead of going against Manfredi, there’s a partnership with Cal and Dwight that really starts to come out at the end of season 3.”

The real kicker, though, was the morsel he offered for the future. “By season 4, what the two of us are going to do together to run Oklahoma… It’s a lot of fun playing Cal, and we haven’t even seen the best of Cal yet. He’s going to start showing his true colors in season 3, but really in season 4. So, hold on tight!” As for how long Thresher can last in the dog-eat-dog world of Tulsa King? McDonough isn’t too sure.

At some point, someone’s going to have to go bye-bye, and I’m pretty sure the Vegas odds are Cal Thresher taking a bullet before anybody else. But I’m going to milk this as long as I possibly can because it’s just so much darn fun playing opposite Sylvester Stallone every day.

AI’s Favorite Neal McDonough Character Is Damien Darhk

When asked about his favorite character thus far, McDonough had a couple come to mind, such as Cal and Buck Compton from Band of Brothers. But he settled on Joe Wainwright from The Last Rodeo, which is a film he not only starred in, but also produced and co-wrote. He revealed that Joe “is really kind of me. It was semi-autobiographical, but it’s about going through problems in life and people dying, and what you’re going to do about it to provide and protect your family.”

AI had a much different suggestion: Damien Darhk, the powerful and sarcastic magical supervillain from CW’s Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and Flash. Damien was a fan-favorite character among Arrowverse audiences, and his arc spanned several seasons across the three shows, making it a decent guess. “That is a good one,” McDonough agreed. “Damien was a ball.”

One of the actor’s favorite things about the role was how much it evolved. “Damien in Arrow was very dark, and I had a great time playing him,” he explained. “But when he finally got to Legends of Tomorrow, he became that goofy, bad dad joke guy that was so much fun to play. I really got to infuse my comedy and who I really am in real life.” Comedy is one of McDonough’s strong suits, and humor helped Darhk’s story feel unexpected. “I don’t mind being the brunt of a joke to make people laugh, so to have that infused in Damian Darhk made him such a deliciously fun character to play.”

McDonough shared that a similar progression is taking place in Tulsa King. “When Cal Thresher was a jerk right out of the gate, he was just this uber intense guy that wasn’t really likable. But as I progressed, I kind of infused myself into the character. I like playing the dark, crazy stuff, for sure. It’s fun. But to infuse myself into characters is something that I just love doing.”

“As crazy as he was to begin with,” he continued, “We see the good side of Cal, the understanding and funny side, at times. Let’s see where that goes, but I hope it progresses more in that direction.”

Neal McDonough Thinks Sylvester Stallone Deserves An Emmy For Tulsa King

One cannot simply discuss Tulsa King without talking about the man at the center of it all, Sylvester Stallone, and his costar had no shortage of praises for him. He described the character of Dwight as one of those “tough guys who may be tough on the outside, but inside they’re kind of teddy bears, and I love that kind of character,” before proceeding to explain that “Manfredi is that kind of guy because that’s Sly.”

That’s when the awards discussion came into focus. “Here’s the thing: How has Sly not gotten an Emmy nod for Tulsa King? How is Stallone the guy who was never invited to the mob movie dances? He wasn’t in the Scorsese movies, he wasn’t in the Coppola movies, and he kind of got pushed aside.” In McDonough’s book, “Sylvester Stallone portrays a mobster better than anyone I’ve ever seen because he grew up in New York.”

“He is that guy. He is that tough-as-nails type of guy with his heart on his sleeve,” he continued. “He’s got a heart of gold, and that’s Sly in real life…” And that’s precisely why it feels so right to “see him finally getting to play this character that we’ve all waited for forever.” McDonough suggested a grassroots campaign, passionately defending his position. “He should be getting Emmy after Emmy because there’s no one on television right now as entertaining as Sly playing Dwight Manfredi, or as truthful. Everyone write him in, get it cooking! Sly Stallone should have an Emmy. “

Stallone’s perseverance in getting Rocky is one of the things McDonough admires most about him. “He didn’t let anyone else play Rocky. He had many opportunities to sell the script, and he didn’t. He said, ‘No, I’m playing Rocky.’ And because of that, look where he is now and look what he’s done for all actors, writers, and dreamers at that age.” The actor counts himself as one of those inspired, now that he helps create his own passion projects.

When you’re in your 20s, and you think he got something great and no one’s going to make it for you, always think of Sylvester Stallone sticking to his guns and not taking no for an answer… I owe a ton to Sylvester Stallone because if it weren’t for him, I certainly wouldn’t be sitting in this chair talking about my amazing career right now.

You can check out previous episodes of Debunking AI here:

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