Tulsa King fans almost said goodbye to Frank Grillo for good after his character, Bill Bevilaqua, got taken into federal custody midway through season 3.
“It was going to be it for me. It was my swan song,” Grillo, 60, told Us Weekly exclusively. “[My] last episode, I was like, ‘Hey, guys, it’s been great. This has been fun.’ I love Sly. I don’t think it’s any secret how much I love Sylvester Stallone.”
Grillo did his final two appearances “as a favor” to Stallone, who stars as Dwight Manfredi on the Paramount+ show. Episode 5 ends with Grillo’s Bevilaqua being held at gunpoint while at a red light. Bevilaqua briefly returns in episode 6, and it’s revealed that he’s being kept in a holding cell.
“The powers that be were going in a different direction with the show,” Grillo explained. Fans of the show who follow Grillo on Instagram now know that he will be returning for Tulsa King season 4.
So what happened? Stallone called, and Grillo answered.
“Then [I] got a phone call from the big man, from Dwight Manfredi, who’s like, ‘You’re not leaving me. You’re not going anywhere.’ Here I am. I’m back in Atlanta,” Grillo said. “Before he got the words out of his mouth, I went, ‘Yep, if the band’s getting back together, I’m in.’”
Grillo added, “If it’ll make him happy, me being there, then I go. I want that guy to be as happy as he could be.”
As they gear up for season 4, Grillo wants to see Bevilaqua get “a little revenge” — just not too much.
“Revenge, it can get the best of someone. I was on Peacemaker season 2 and [in] Superman, and my character’s whole journey was about revenge. I gotta tell you, by the end of it, it starts to really — even me as an actor — it starts to eat at you,” he said. “I’d like to see a little bit of it, but there’s very little I know or I can say. I know bits and pieces, but it’s going to be a bumpy road for the crew in Tulsa. … But I’m in for the long haul this season.”
Tulsa King also gave Grillo a lifelong friend in Stallone.
“We’re buddies now,” Grillo said of the legendary actor. “We don’t leave messages or text each other, we leave video messages for each other because we’re old, and you never know when it might be the last time we talk to each other.”
Grillo said he still gets “giddy” from his real-life relationship with Stallone.
“There’s two Sylvester Stallones. There’s the one that I grew up with, the one who kind of shaped me as an actor and as a young Italian dude in New York,” he explained. “Then there’s my peer, my buddy, the guy I work with, the guy who we bounce things off of each other and share personal and professional things. A mentor in many ways.”
Grillo continued, “When the phone rings and it comes up ‘Rocky,’ I answer.”
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