‘Tulsa King’ Star Neal McDonough Reveals Power Move Ahead for Cal Thresher

[Warning: The following post contains spoilers for Tulsa King Season 3 Episode 5, “On the Rocks.”]

The latest episode of Tulsa King saw tensions boiling over between Dwight Manfredi (Sylvester Stallone) and Jeremiah Dunmire (Robert Patrick), as the latter called in a political favor to ruin the big “Fifty” bourbon rollout celebration.

The party was proving to be mostly successful before the attorney general and an army of police swarmed the place; even though Dwight was covertly called away on a side mission by Agent Musso (Kevin Pollak) to make a deal with a terrorist, his trusty sister Joanne (Annabella Sciorra) had all of the influencers worth their salt — er, their liquor — on site and got the rusty old refinery cleaned up nicely for the soiree.

Even Cal Thresher (Neal McDonough), the governor hopeful, was dutifully making the rounds to introduce himself to the who’s who of Tulsa, per a suggestion from Margaret (Dana Delany). However, Cal rightly discerned that things were about to go badly once he saw Bill Bevilaqua’s (Frank Grillo) Kansas City goons hanging around and left before full chaos was unleashed.

Cal’s exit strategy was a sound one. But, according to the actor portraying him, Tulsa King fans shouldn’t take it as a sign of weakness. In fact, when TV Insider caught up with Neal McDonough to talk about the episode, he teased that the best is yet to come from Cal Thresher.

Read on to find out what McDonough had to say about Tulsa King‘s latest episode and more below.

When we wrapped up Cal’s Season 2 storyline, were you at all surprised that both Cal and Bill came back for Season 3? What was your reaction to that?

Neal McDonough: Well, after Season 2 had wrapped, Ruve [McDonough, my wife,] and I, we came up with the idea of me becoming governor. And Ruve said, “Tell David [Flebotte, writer].” I was sitting next to David, tell David the idea … “So David, I want to be the governor next year of Oklahoma.” He looked at me, he said, “Interesting.” And then three weeks later, I got the call: “Welcome back to Season 3.” And I read the script: “Cal Thresher runs for governor of Oklahoma.” That was so exciting. So to be surprised that I was back? No, because I think that we carved out such a great relationship between Sly and I, adversarially, possibly friendly, you’re not really sure what it was by the end of the season, but there’s a mutual admiration between the two characters. So I thought it was a natural progression that I was going to come back for another season.

I can’t answer to Frank, but I certainly am glad that he did come back, because I love Frank Grillo, and I love working with him, and he’s just one of my favorite guys that I’ve ever worked with, and to work with him and Sly at the same time. It’s just that’s three dudes playing in the sandbox in fifth grade. It’s just good fun.

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eeeYou mentioned Cal has had a complex relationship with Dwight. That’s especially true when it came to Margaret. He gave up on the business, but do you think he’s given up on her, too?

I don’t think Cal ever wanted Margaret. It wasn’t a romantic thing. It was flirtatious to get information about Dwight Manfredi, especially this season. It’s really ratcheted up because I’m running for governor. So I know that she is so connected in the political scenes, but I also know that she’s so connected to my biggest adversary, so I need the information from her, so I subtly have to kind of suck up to Margaret a little bit for the first half of the season to make sure that everything is kind of a level playing field. And I’m getting the information that I need to keep Dwight Manfredi as far away from me as possible so I can actually succeed in my goal of becoming the governor of Oklahoma. And then as the season progresses by, like, Episode 7 or 8, I think it is, that’s when you start to see the real colors of the power of Cal Thresher and what he is prepared to do, and what he’s going to do, and the rules that he’s setting. And come hell or high water, he’s going to become the governor of Oklahoma. And for Margaret to say, “Let’s go to this party, and there’s mobsters.” I’m like, “What are you possibly thinking? Why would I be here? What kind of dumb move [is this]? I could care less about influencers, and I could certainly care less about Bevilaqua and Manfredi in public. If they want to meet in a private situation, that’s one thing. No cameras. But how can you put me here?” And that’s when the relationship starts to change between Margaret and I, in that it was kind of, I was using her and looking up to her. It seems now it’s, “I don’t need you so much. I’m on my own path, and I’m going to win. If you want to be part of this, I would love to have you part of the situation, be part of this.” But this isn’t a romantic thing. This is business, and business is business, and it made for great drama, especially the second half of the season.

You mentioned that she’s able to convince him to the party, but he leaves before he gets a chance to talk to Dwight. But the way he played it, it’s almost like he was steeling himself to talk to him. Do you have any theories on what he would have said if they had crossed paths before everything went awry?

Well, there’s this odd admiration that we share for each other. He came from nothing. I came from so much. He built his empire. I haven’t really built a ton yet, but now that I’ve dabbled in the world of the mob and marijuana, and I start to flex in the beginning of Season 2, thinking, “I’m this tough guy. I’m the most connected guy in Oklahoma,” which I kind of am, but I flex it in a way that I never really flexed before. And by the end of Season 2, I’m like, “Yeah, that’s not the right way to flex for me. What is the right way to flex? How about I make sure that this state doesn’t see guys like Dwight Manfredi or Bill Bevilaqua to be part of the culture of Oklahoma anymore? I need to push them out. How can I do that? Well, let’s run for governor. Okay, I think I can win this thing because I know everyone. I have so much money that I think I can make this work.” And that’s my goal for Season 3. And I need to know exactly what’s going on with Dwight through Margaret, and use her as well as I possibly can. And I think, by doing so, it gave me the information to succeed.

You’ve teased a little bit about the back half, but we’re starting to see in the show generally, even outside of your arc, that there’s consequences to being in the political arena. We see the attorney general getting pressured to do something terrible by Dunmire. Cal wasn’t prepared for the underbelly of the crime world before, so is he prepared for that element of politics?

That’s a two-sided question there. He understands the underbelly of the crime world because, well, he immersed himself in it for a year. So he knows the machinations of what goes on. He doesn’t necessarily like it, and because of that, he fights against it, and he’s going to make sure that Oklahoma is protected the best that he can. Again, this is all internal stuff for my character. It’s not necessarily on the page. That’s a driving force for who I was this season on the show: “I’m going to make sure that whoever needs to be really taken down will get taken down.” And whatever I have to do to put pressure on certain people when I become governor, I’m going to do it, and that creates its own tension and drama, especially with Dwight Manfredi.

You’re not in this scene, but there’s a comment Dwight makes about Cal that he’s an albino with X-ray eyes. I wondered about your reaction to that. 

You know, I love it because when they’re talking, and this happened in other shows before, when lead character will say something about me, and it just shows their jealousy of the character, of my character, their fear of my character, that they have to take little pot shots which don’t add up to anything. I could care less as Cal Thresher. In fact, I love when people on screen say things about my characters behind my back, because it just gives me more power, and the audience knows that. So when I get into those situations and I know things that have been said about me, you can see that kind of like, I’m the cat with the bird in my mouth, and I know it’s in there, and you can’t say anything that’s going to hurt me. In fact, I know everything you’ve said about me, and I’m going to make it hurt for you. That’s fun for me as a quasi-villain the series. I don’t think Cal Thresher is really a villain so much as he is a guy who cares so much about Oklahoma, but if there’s going to be a fight, I have zero problem jumping in and rolling up my sleeves and getting dirty.

You said in the back half of the season, we’re going to see more of Cal muscling up and showing what he’s capable of. Can you tease a little bit more about that?

Yeah, it’s more the relationship with Margaret. And you finally see that the whole time I’ve kind of been working Margaret for my betterment, and she thinks that she’s in the lead in the power that quickly turns. And by the end of the season, it changes … without giving up too much of the storyline… It makes for Cal to be that much more powerful by the end of the season, and you know what’s going to happen next, and my speech at the end of the season is one of my favorite things I’ve ever done as an actor. It’s really fantastic, and I can’t wait for the audience to see that one…. We can expect that there’s a new Tulsa King in town, and his name is Cal Thresher.

Brian Douglas / Paramount+

Oh, I love that. Will this arc continue on past this season as well? The show was recently renewed for Season 4.  

Yeah, I do. To what extent, I’m not really sure. I love working with Sylvester Stallone. It’s just kind of been one of those remarkably awesome things. He’s a worker bee like me, and he loves to bring it all and leave it all on the set. And that’s the same kind of thought process that I have. So it’s been quite a lot of fun to be on the show with Sylvester Stallone for these few years.

Tulsa King, Sundays, Paramount+