King of Tulsa‘s second season has officially reached the point of no return for Dwight (Sylvester Stallone) sees the crew as risks to his feud with Bevilaqua (Frank Grillo) and Cal (Neal Mcdonough) is truly enlarged. The person suffering the most right now is the one who sees the reflections coming from a mile away: Tyson (Jay Will) my father was in the new car he bought when the car exploded; This explosion was supposed to target Dwight.

Earlier in the season, Dwight’s daughter Tina (Tatiana Zappardino) uprooted his children and moved to Tulsa to be a part of his father’s life. So is he starting to regret this decision?

TV Insider spoke with Tatiana Zappardino about Tina’s mood and swooning stage fans didn’t start seeing.

This season was interesting in that Tina succumbed to Dwight’s lifestyle by moving to Tulsa and bringing her family directly into his orbit for this change. Is he still hesitating inside?

Tatiana Zappardino: So there are definitely scenes taken from the first episode that show more of the internal struggle he goes through as he makes the decision to move to Oklahoma. It was. It definitely is. But at the same time, I think he realized that he had already lost 25 years with his father and (wanted) to put that aside and be content with the time they had together and just say, “I do.” “I will put my anger aside and approach my father.”

So this is obviously a huge leap of faith. There was a moment when he tried to instill his macho behavior in children. Does he trust that he can keep them at arm’s length?

I don’t think he cares if it makes him a little rough. So I definitely think you understand your children well. So I don’t think he would be too scared if he taught them to defend themselves. There’s a sentence there that says, “I think I’ve taught my kids to be pretty strong and able to make their own decisions, so they can make decisions for themselves.” They are around that age. They are not little children. At this age they can sort of think on their own.

How much of a difference does it make if his aunt Joanne (Annabella Sciorra) is in the photo with him now?

She acts as a great buffer between Dwight and Tina because she’s known Dwight his whole life. And he wasn’t there when Tina was growing up, so she’s kind of a stranger to him. But Joanne knows him. So by keeping him in the middle he can kind of communicate between the two of us; The things Tina needs are the things Dwight is trying to tell her.

Because I don’t think they’re necessarily related, but there’s no such thing as necessarily the best communication. There are still secrets he is keeping from her that she may not trust. I don’t think you see him as an adult. He still sees her as that little girl. So Joanne is a good middle ground.

Can you talk about developing these dynamics with these players? I know Sylvester Stallone is a father of a daughter, so he probably has a lot of that in his repertoire. And then Annabella worked together Terence Winter Open the sopranos. So how did you create these dynamics?

The first scene we shot together was the dinner scene at Tina’s uncle’s funeral. And this was the first time with Sly. He made me feel comfortable. “I’m excited to see you here,” he said, and he was very warm, like a father. So I think it makes it easier to have that dynamic without too much pressure on it. He also reminds me of my real dad, which makes the transition so much easier. As for Annabella, she and I actually got along very well on set. Since my family is in New York, she reminds me a lot of my aunts, right? So when he’s there I’m like “yeah, no, that makes sense.” We kept in touch between seasons. He’s very good at being himself.

I think the good thing about these actors who have been around for a long time is that they don’t treat me like I’m nobody just because I haven’t worked as many jobs as them, but they’ve already accepted me. It’s such a family thing, right? It’s like I’m part of their family. So it made the transition on the screen much easier.

Brian Douglas/Paramount+

Coming to Tina and Mitch (Garrett Hedlund) what do you think attracted him to her?

She’s definitely the opposite of her husband, right? So Mitch doesn’t need him. I think she almost felt like she was dependent on her husband… We (filmed) my big speech (during the gun practice scene in Episode 6, edited) about why I was with my husband in the first place. I explained how I chose my first husband because he was the complete opposite of my father and how I tried to escape that life. But now I’m seeing Mitch, he’s very independent. I don’t need to rely on him because I’m independent and part of me is attracted to him maybe because he has some sort of connection with my father. Maybe I have some Oedipus issues. I don’t know. But I think independence is very, very sexy because I felt like I had to take care of my last husband, he was kind of a baby and I had to – he’s still on the nipple.

What was it like for you to share the screen with Garrett Hedlund?

Garrett is a very nice guy. I was really nervous doing scenes with him because we didn’t talk much during the first season. We had zero scenes together. So when they started writing this it was like, “Wow, where does this come from? Left field? I didn’t even talk to him.” But then as soon as I did that, he was so nice, so down to earth, and made me feel so comfortable. We joked a little bit behind the set. It was easy to just like talk and joke around because I don’t remember which scene we did, but we shot a scene with a big group and I think we did a few jokes. I did and he was laughing. So he kept saying to me, ‘Oh, you’re really funny.’ I said, ‘Oh my god, stop. No, go on.’ (laughing.) I think we’ve also developed a bond that makes this a little easier…

Do you think there will be more between them?

I think every show has some kind of romance, right? And since Sly is such a different nature and doesn’t do romantic scenes because of his family situation, which is a very honorable thing to do, I think they’re going to try to find the romance elsewhere. So I could be the show’s romantic fling because we all want romance. It’s such a male-dominated series that it’s like the girls want some romance. We need some love and some kissing out there. We need to get girls to participate in the show too.

There’s always a draw at any Taylor Sheridan show. So this could be you, you could be the Beth and Rip of this show.

Oh I know. My favorite! My favorite is Beth and I don’t know if I can reach Beth’s level. He’s truly incredible. But yes, this is definitely a dream.

So what else can we look forward to for the rest of the season?

Disappointment. I think, especially towards the middle point, where everything reaches its peak and then things get worse. There’s no such thing as gold anymore, right? I think Dwight and his family are fooling themselves into thinking they can live a normal life, but there’s no such thing as normal in the Manfredi family. When dealing with bad people there will always be bad situations, bad things will happen eventually. You cannot escape it and you will see its collapse.

Brian Douglas/Paramount+

Will the presence of Tyson and his father in the car explosion give Tina pause about settling in Tulsa?

So personally I believe Tina is not stupid. I think she knows it could happen anywhere because while she was in New York her husband was attacked and beaten. It can happen anywhere. There’s no safe place once Dwight enters the family. But I definitely think he’s always going to be second guessing because there are kids involved. As a mother myself, I know I would have thought I could handle a zombie apocalypse. I said, ‘Oh my God, how hard would I have survived?’ I have a child now. I think: “Oh my God. I don’t think I can do that because I would love to protect her so badly.” I would definitely be the first to die, right? Your priorities are completely changing, and it’s not just up to you anymore.

Have you started thinking about Season 3? So do you have any hope for this?

Hopefully in Season 3, Tina will come out of her motherhood shell and start standing up for herself a little more. Maybe kicking ass, taking names. I don’t want him to be on the sidelines anymore. I think he needs to show Dwight: “Hey, I’m not a kid anymore. “I can take care of myself and I will show you the ropes.” I hope the same in Season 3. But we have no idea. They are very secretive about it. While we were shooting the movie, they barely even explained the parts to us.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tulsa King, Sundays, Paramount+